Three Movies of Relationships in American History

Quigley Down Under is a movie starring Tom Sellick, you know Magnum PI. It is a coincidence if you believe in coincidences that I am sitting watching three videos that are related in tales of morality and history. "Hidalgo", "The Bucket List", and "Quigley Down Under". All three movies were very good and entertaining. They also brought some realities more into view, all known but revisited. I hope this doesn't sound more of a movie a critique than that of a realization of this life on this planet called earth. This is perhaps more of a sad commentary on us as a people. The "Bucket List was the first of the movies I watched. It is a movie which stars Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. The movies has two main characters, a well very read "Black" auto mechanic who watches “Jeopardy” every day. Freeman works at a cab company. and a "Jack" is a self made billionaire who buys, rehabs and sells hospitals for a profit. Both men are sick with cancer with less than year to live and funny enough but share a room in the hospital owned by Nicholson. Jack is a man who brings hospitals back into profitability and one of the thing he implements is two patients to a room "no exceptions". Great concept for bringing profitability, except when the owner of the hospital needs to be hospitalized and shares the room with a lower middle class black auto mechanic. But he cannot change this rule now. He has lived by this rule and pounded it and defended at public gatherings, and court rooms. Nicholson drinks coffee. The coffee he drinks happens to be the most expensive coffee in the world " Kopi Luwak " which runs on the average about $300 per pound. It is a great movie of two men who become friends during the realest time in a humans life the period of time when you realize your mortality. The time when you learn of your impending death, and the approximate time you have left on earth is under 1 year. This brings them to some comradery , which brings them to a friendship which takes them around the world. The “Bucket List” is a list of things they would want to do before they die. Like “kiss the most beautiful girl in the world, laugh till you cry, and see something majestic”. Freeman laugh till he cries when he tell Nicholson that Kopi Luwak that came out the ass of a Civet. Kopi Luwak, comes from coffee berries which have passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet. The animal’s digestive system works as sort of a defacto depulping mechanism, yielding partially-digested beans coated with various internal essences and enzymes. The beans are harvested, cleaned, lightly roasted and sold. Nicholson gets a chance to “kiss the most beautiful girl in the world” when he is united with his estranged daughter who has a daughter and he kisses his granddaughter for the first time. Nicholson and Freeman die and are cremated and are in crypts on the top of the Himalayan Mountains the most majestic place in the world. To me the moral of the story, when all the trapping of this life and things are stripped away from humans we can live together in love and friendship. It is a movie for a mature audience and a great movie for Americans.

The second movie was the movie "Quigley Down Under".

Dear Mr. President,

Dear Mr. President,

In the middle 1970's President Nixon, I believe initiated the CETA (Community Education Traing Act). During that time I was about 17 years old, if my memory serves me correctly. That program had training classes that paid approxitmately $130.00 per week. In todays money I guess that would be almost 400.00 per week. Even though President Nixon got alot of flack for some unscrupulous things he did that was definately one thing to me that made him one of the best Presidents this country has had. He, when it came to serving the common man was the peoples president in my opinion based upon my limited knowledge.

Would it be possible that instead of increasing the number of weeks a person is entitled to uenmployment that something like a paid training program be intiated in lue of increased unemployment. This would be mentally healthier, creating higher self essteem and confidence, and also teches a useful skill, or upgrades a skill. Teaching a entry level job like something in the technological field, like microcomputer training, clerical training, or even training in the hospitality industry which a career can be built upon. This would pay approximately $400.00 per week more or less depending on the cost of living for a particulatr community, this paid trainng would satisfy the transportation, food and shelter needs of a particular family. This will not train people for high paying careers right off. Some people might even think that this is below there pay grade according to past w-2's. Those people if willing to work a little harder, college maybe the thing for them or this can be used by those as a stop gap until they are ready to go to college. Some of the Govenors I think even who did not want to increase the length of unemloyment pay would agree to job training.

Thank You so much,

The Garden

This morning as I got out the car and was walking to the front door of the schooI thinking about how I love coming to this job. But I am always thankful to the Lord for what he has given me. In this case a job during a time when so many are without. As I walked to the door I thought about how beautiful the grass is in the front of the school. I thought about the many beautiful places in the world, the things that give pleasure to so many people. I thought that traveling seeing the beauties of the world. They beauty are such a wonderful things. I thought about the cars that gives some people pleasure. I also thought of the clay people use to make pottery that give others pleasure. The athletes and the sports people watch and play that gives them pleasure. There are so many thing things in this life that " The Lord" has given mankind to be pleased with adn thankful for.

I also thought about how man can be mean and ugly to the others. I was reminded of the movie "The Green Mile ". Tom Hanks played a guard on death row in Missssippi prison and the giant of a man "John Coffey" played by actor Michael Duncan Clarke who played a wandering miracle healer and seer who had been found guilty of murder and rape, mistakenly. A day or two before he was to be electrocuted Tom Hanks character asked John Coffey if there was anything he could do for him. He offered to let him escape. The prison guard played by Tom Hanks at judgment did not want to have to answer to "The Lord" for killing one of his most miraculous creatures. The giant said no he just wanted to die because all day long, all he saw was the hate and pain of one man to another.

Rodney King said "Why can't we just get along". I add "and just enjoy this beautiful planet that G_d had given us for our pleasure." Continue to be blessed and to let the warmth of the sun, the beauty of the sky and the things you love, for me golf continually give you pleasure. And I 'll do the same. (nabundance.blogspot.com)

Psalm 115:16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man.

Why High School is Important to Me:

Getting education is an important thing in life. Education is something that as the older folks said can't be taken away from you. To have education in the working world shows that you are not a quitter and that you have accomplished somethng that took hard work and discipline. I mean you can not have an education and still live a normal life, but it's going to be harder because it will be a little harder to find a job. Do you think hat the manager of any store would hire a person without a diploma over a person with one? I don't think so. I think because they want a person who has some education to represent their store properly in speech and action. They want someone who knows how to read, write, count and be responsible, a leader and everything else that comes along with being educated. They don't want someone who is going to quit on them, like they did high school.
I come to school everyday just so that I can learn new things and become more educated. I come here so that when it's time form me to graduate I can do something with my life and become a successful person. I wouldn't say I am the angel of the school. I do get in trouble sometimes, but I am not a bad person. I make pretty good grades and I rarely fail a class. I always work hard to make sure everything I do is completed. I plan on going to the Army after I graduate because I feel that it will help me be a better person, and help me achieve. It will get me into college and possibly continue my football career. It will help me grow and it will give me the chance to help others in need and serve my country.
I think a lot of people in the world don't realize how important it is to have an education. I see students everyday that just sit in class and do nothing. The act like they don't want to learn, they don't care, and sooner or later they end up dropping out of school. That's the worse decision a person cna make in their life. I am going to use my little sister as an example. My sister is 17 and she got kicked out of school in the eighth grade. She can't go back to school ever in Tift county again, therefore she's just sitting home doing nothing. She probably won't go to school till I graduate and my mom finds a new place to live. I 'll also be the first in my family to graduate because my mom and oldest sister quit and my little brother and sister got kicked out and can't go back.
That's why finishing school is so important to me and it's reallybig acheivement that I am proud of.
In conclusion, I think it's a great idea for everyone to finish school so they can be successful in life. Not many people have the right to say the graduated, do you want to be one of them?
Written by Tommy Johnson, 12th grade, senior Tift County High School.

I Had A "Hell A Va Dream"

Early this morning around 5 am I guess I had an a nightmare, also at the same time a very insightful dream. My guess would be, a word from "the Lord". I was sent to hell for eternity. I was sent to a forest or jungle where I would be hunted by a man with a bow and arrow until I was hit by the arrow until killed in pain over and over for eternity. After experiencing that I said "Hell naw that is not the way I want to spend eternity." Some how I was able to communicate with my mother who was a God fearing woman all of her adult life that I can remember. She said when you get before the Lord petition him for something else and you will be blessed. So I did and I was sent down a hall way to a chamber that was glass enclosed where I saw a small hill with two naked women and a naked man chained up in different area's. The women were standing trying to run but the chains would not let them move much distance. The man was chained to the ground by all four limbs. Then suddenly out of the ground came a burst or flame engulfing each of the people like "instantaneous combustion". They were on fire for about 30 seconds and flame went out and this happened another time before I thought to myself this is worse than being chased to death by a bow and arrow wielding hunter trying to chase me down and kill me and dying in pain. At least I would get some rest and not be in pain for some while unless I got tired of running or was found hiding and then still I might not get shot. So I went back to the jungle and started running. Somewhere along the line I ran into another victim (person sentenced to hell) running in the jungle who was also being hunted. We started running with the hunter about 50 yards behind us. We turned and went into some high thick grassy vegetation. I laid down and told the other person to lay down quietly where he was until the hunter passed by hidden by the tall grass. The hunter did and ran right passed us. Soon after we knew he was far off are track of us, we stared running again. Somehow I found myself in downtown Atlanta near the Underground Mall. Again we were being hunted but this time by a person with a handgun. So again I hid still behind a building until the person passed by and just as he passed by I jumped him from behind and grabbed him around the neck and took the gun. He struggled, and somehow got away and I took aim and shot him dead. I stood there for a moment looking at his lifeless body in the street. Then I woke up.

What does this dream mean? Several thoughts went through my head, the first was that hell was a condition of your circumstance here on earth. No, that couldn't be it I thought. Then I thought don't take any advice from anyone about the condition that "The Lord" has put you in. It might seem bad it could definitely be worse. As far as I can tell now, when things are not going the way you want deal with them. Sometimes you must just lay still and endure the situation for a moment, it will pass by and give you a chance to perhaps overcome it. Or maybe I chose life and not death and was given another chance to live.

Get Off the Octuplet Mom's Back

Why do they call babies "precious", are they? I am definately not upset cause she has more babies than me. More power to the "Octuplet Mom", because she is going to need it and some sleep. If she is rich in what counts I definately don't want to mine that gold for 22 years. Wait mining for babies mean sex and alot of it. If I didn't have to pay taxes in exhange to raise 14 children I would probably volunteer to pay taxes. She can have those headaches. I would rather live in the cave of Afganistan and fight with the Taliban.

Plastic surgery to enhance my looks, maybe. Lasik surgery to improve my vision, maybe. A rhinoplasty to improve a sinus problem, maybe. Am I upset because she prettier than me. No, she looks much better than she did before. They say the highest praise is imitation. High praise to Angelic Jolie from he Octuplet Mom. Angelic Jolie is pretty but I don't think as pretty as Marilyn Monroe or Vanessa Williams. I believe the Octuplet Mom got the plastic surgery just for beauty enhancement and as a result she does favor Ms. Jolie. Would you pay for the plastic surgery to be the best looking that you can? a lot of people do. There is a show on Television call "Nip Tuck" The topics of that show is sex and beauty. Could she be victim of a different sorts, as a resut of all the talk across this nation of beauty, Cosmopolitan Magazine and the image it portray.s Plastic surgery has done miracles for some. She does have more motherly tendancies than me that's is for sure. I am sure that she loves kids with a passion. In no way would I sign on for her job? I just hope she has strength enough to actually get it done. Can you imagine 18 long years of raising 14 kids.? It reminds me of the show Wde World Of Sports "The feeling of victory and the agony of defeat" she is a winner and in the end will prove it by her endurance. You know what the scripture "The race is not given to the swift but to those who endure". You know people like her are going to be rich in some way or another because of their willingness to get it done, what ever that may be. The Holy Khoran and Holy Bible say says that riches come in two forms children and money. Why do people say such mean things about her? I remember in junior high school and how cruel seventh grader's were who picked on me because I was poor. I had only one nice pair of jeans that I wore over every day, which gave me an inferiority complex. Perhaps you were one of the those one of those who got caled names, or bulied, or perhaps you were the bully. Anger is one thing, but to outwardly judge is wrong. I was told that "People who judge don't count and people who count don't judge." Do you pay taxes, and you live in a free country of America bound only by the law. You do pay taxes and portion of thoses taxes do go to the unfortunate. Libertarians pay for govenmnetal services they want, or don't pay and are not given the services. Republican pay and say "Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps". Democrats say " We are here to provide services for all who live in this country rich or poor". Abraham Lincoln was a republican. The republicans of that time were a caring for the social welfare for people. They bore in mind their concerns for needs of all of the country's citizens free and enslaved. Now the philosphies have switched and the republicans are a party to provide services for Corporate America and the top 3% nation those makeing 250,000 a year or more. But look where that has gotten America, damn near in the poor house. We used to be the No.1 economic superpower on this planet, now to being tied for number three. China being number one and saving our ass financially from ruin. Can you believe that a former communist country saving a 100% democratic republic. Gone from being the richest nation, to being being a debter nation.

Live and let live.

I Can't Do It Alone

I have found the answer to my threat of failure it is "Relationships". Building strong relationships is key in this life. Whether they are personal, intimate, family or buisness relationships is the key to building your future. I have found that I have been in grave error to think that I could do it by myself and I didn't need the help of anyone. We are not an island and we need companionship from a friend or opposite sex, but we need alliances. If I keep this in mind I believe that my future business arrangements will be longer lasting, more secure and profitable business. In the relationship with the opposite sex be kind, gentle and remember that this is a walk in the park and not a 100 yard dash .Take your time and enjoy the scenery, smell the roses and watch the kids play. Build up the people who you work with , the alliance you make build them up, forgive them of their mistakes and wrongs. Here is a story that I got in an email today. I hope it fits..

One day, when I was a freshman in high school,I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, 'Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd.' I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on. As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him... He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye. As I handed him his glasses, I said, 'Those guys are jerks.' They really should get lives. ' He looked at me and said, 'Hey thanks!' There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends He said yes. We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, 'Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday! ' He just laughed and handed me half the books. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.. When we were seniors we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor and I was going for business on a football scholarship.. Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him. Boy, sometimes I was jealous! Today was one of those days. I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, 'Hey, big guy, you'll be great!' He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. ' Thanks,' he said. As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began 'Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends.... I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story.' I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. 'Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable..' I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's depth. Never underestimate the power of your actions.. With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse. God puts us all in each others lives to impact one another in some way. Look for God in others. You now have two choices, you can : 1) Pass this on to your friends or 2) Delete it and act like it didn't touch your heart. As you can see, I took choice number 1. 'Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.' There is no beginning or end.. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. It's National Friendship Week. Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND.

Swiftness in Business vs Endurance

Napoleon Hill ,
Chapter 1. Introduction .
I have read several chapters in the book and have been very impressed and thankful for the guidance given. The first chapter made me reflect on past achievement and failures. I have had many opportunities to succeed greatly in life but do to my bad judgment and decisions I am busted again. G_d I hate the thought of failing again. I have been blessed to meet some people on my journey through life that have been key to past success however short lived. One was man named Irv who mentored me in real estate investing ion Miami. With no money just the desire I purchased two homes. I was well on my way to five and I am sure a much greater success ahead. I came across a home that I would have bought and sold the same hour with a forty thousand dollar profit but because I didn't want to pay someone fifteen thousand I lost that deal . Later by someone else I was sued for failure to fulfill a contract because of my failure to replace ten windows promptly. The reason for not acting promptly is I was trying to say money by looking for the better deal than just going out and purchasing. I accept the fault . These two failures ended my success as a real estate investor. Later perhaps a couple of years down the road I owned a small trucking company and got angry one day and fired my driver and went bankruptcy and lost my homestead. I now don't even remember today what was angry about. But I can remember but I do remember earning sixty dollars an hour gross pay, twenty four hours a day every day whether I worked or not. Boy I hate my failures as a decision maker. The last venture I had lasted only 8 months before sabotaged it. I was a party planner of sorts with an average income of fifty- seven hundreds dollars a week. Again to my regret I was not able to control my anger and again fired my employees. I hope I have learned that there is a marriage between employer and employee and that compromises have to be made in that relationship, that is if you are in it for the long ride.I have the desire and will to succeed I just don’t know how to endure. Dr. Hill says that age is of no factor in success. So despite my age there is time left for my creating enduring success. You know like the bible says "The race is not to the swift but to those who endure." I am swift but not enduring and I recognize that I have a major problem. I have been married several times . Will I ever learn? Perhaps the answer is I start the business and let someone else run it. Perhaps there is an correction that I can use for my perfection in business. Please if you have the answer or have experienced this phenomenon and have found a solution please leave a comment.

Dear Mr. President

Hello Mr. President,

Thank you for your embodiment of the "Amercan Dream". You have made an impact on the world with you graciousness and intelligience. I am forever greatful for the inspiration you give. I have an questiion about your transportation, infrastructure and fuel policy for the United States. Sir, I believe that you stimulus package was the right idea. History has shown us that from the great deperssion and the building of the United States Interstate Highway system and other civil service projects of that time and after world war II that the effrts creat meanigful work. Please continue to build and provide jobs. The oil man Pickens during the election had a enregy plan that would cost 150 billion dollars over a ten year period. During the election I believe I heard you the candidate mentioned something of budgeting 15 billion dollars per year for 10 years to energy. Was I correct and if so are you still going to do that? Oil corporations have and are playing financial games with the Amercan people. With record profits exceeding each of the previous years in the billions each year. a concerted effort really needs to be donefor the economic welfare of the population. The bible says the poor will always be with us, and if you give to the poor you loan to God. God is self sufficent and needs no contributions.The depletion of the worlds fossil fuels to below the half way mark will causecatastrophic thought pattern of alarm and that alone will drive up cost to nine to twelve dollars per gallon of gas by in 20 years or less. You know that this is the time for a strong and President used the good examples givent to him by past examples. President Nixon and the CETA program, Reagan's commuication skills, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.

Sincerely.

Gas what a Rip - Off...

The cool thing about writing the President is that you will get a reply White House letterhead from the President of these United States of America.
So call your Congress person, Senator and the President to correct this situation... Keep our transportation fuel cost down.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm senator
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml congress
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ President

Feb 18, 2009
– Crude oil prices have fallen to new lows for this year. So you'd think gas prices would sink right along with them.
Not so.
On Thursday, for example, crude oil closed just under $34 a barrel, its lowest point for 2009. But the national average price of a gallon of gas rose to $1.95 on the same day, its peak for the year. On Friday gas went a penny higher.
To drivers once again grimacing as they tank up, it sounds like a conspiracy. But it has more to do with an energy market turned upside-down that has left gas cut off from its usual economic moorings.
The price of gas is indeed tied to oil. It's just a matter of which oil.
The benchmark for crude oil prices is West Texas Intermediate, drilled exactly where you would imagine. That's the price, set at the New York Mercantile Exchange, that you see quoted on business channels and in the morning paper.
Right now, in an unusual market trend, West Texas crude is selling for much less than inferior grades of crude from other places around the world. A severe economic downturn has left U.S. storage facilities brimming with it, sending prices for the premium crude to five-year lows.
But it is the overseas crude that goes into most of the gas made in the United States. So prices at the pump will probably keep going up no matter what happens to the benchmark price of crude oil.
"We're going definitely over $2, and I bet we'll hit $2.50 before spring," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "This is going to be an unusual year."
On the last day of 2008, gas went for $1.62 on average, according to the auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express, a company that tracks transportation data.
The recession in America has dramatically cut demand for crude oil, and inventories are piling up. So prices for West Texas crude have fallen well below what oil costs from places like the North Sea, Saudi Arabia and South America.
That foreign oil sells in some cases for $10 more per barrel — and that doesn't even include shipping.
Brent North Sea crude, which feeds some East Coast refineries — and therefore winds up at many gas pumps around America — now costs about $7 more per barrel than the West Texas crude. Deutsche Bank analysts say the trend should continue.
Historically, West Texas International crude has cost more. So nobody bothered building the necessary pipelines to carry it beyond the nearby refineries in the Midwest, parts of Texas and a handful of other places.
Now that the premium oil is suddenly very inexpensive, refiners elsewhere can't get their hands on it.
"It's so cheap," said Lynn Westphall, the senior VP of external affairs at San Antonio-based Tesoro, which owns a half dozen refineries on the West Coast and Hawaii. "But you can't just build a pipeline to everywhere. We know we can't get it."
Tesoro's refineries in North Dakota and Utah use locally drilled oil and Canadian oil, which also has been running about $10 more per barrel than West Texas crude.
So why not build more pipelines? Because investing billions of dollars over several years makes no sense when the prices could just flip a year from now to where they were before.
"How long is WTI going to be cheaper than Venezuelan oil? Than Canadian?" asked Charles T. Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. "You just don't build a pipeline like that."
At the same time, refiners have seen the same headlines as everyone else about job losses and consumer spending. They've slashed production just to avoid taking losses on gasoline no one will buy. Result: Higher gas prices.
"Why should a refiner produce more gasoline when the stuff we produce is not being used?" Drevna said.
Of course, complex explanations of the diverging price paths of West Texas crude and gas are unlikely to placate frustrated drivers. Memories of last summer's $4-plus gas have not receded.
"Drivers are being ripped off even more now than before," said Stuart Pollok, who was filling up recently at a Chevron station in downtown Los Angeles. He pointed out Exxon Mobil Corp. reeled in billions in profits last year when oil prices neared $150.
Others see the conspiracy reaching higher.
"It got really low during the elections and now it's going back up," said Christel Sayegh, a 23-year-old graphic designer in Los Angeles. "They do that every election, though, right?"
___
AP Energy Writer John Porretto reported this story from Houston. Associated Press Writers Jennifer Malloy and Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

The cool thing about writing the President is that you will get a reply White House letterhead from the President of these United States of America.
So call your Congress person, Senator and the President to correct this situation... Keep our transportation fuel cost down.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm senator
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml congress
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ President