Today I will just be the preacher. I will give you the numbers of what they say. They being the experts in the field whoever they are. However, there is a new book out called What Do Women Want that suggests that women are just as horney as men. But are they just as piggish as men are?

According to Daniel Bergner the author of the book, he says that women are not magnanimous. The myth that men are programmed by evolution and have a need to spread their seed and are promiscuous and that women just seek out one good man is a myth. Science is proving that women have the same wants, needs and desires as a man. 

Monogamy is monotonous. There should be a 10 year rule not a lifetime rule. Just like the seven year itch is more like three years now. The difference is that women just don’t act on the change in a partner as men are more quick to do. If they do cheat on their spouse, women don’t usually get divorced, they just take their chances at not being discovered as the cheater in the marriage.

Men like to think that they are the aggressor when it comes to sex but in reality when the woman expresses her advances for sexual activity it will probably happen every time whereas men could be turned down often by a woman simply because she is not in the mood. Studies found that menopausal women can lessen the desire with their long term man. Bring a new man to her and more often than not a new desire in sex can occur.

Studies have also reported about couples sex lives that women have more orgasms with men they thought were handsome and dominant. What if Danny De Vito has a better technique than John Ham? A woman would turn down poor little Danny? LOL I don’t think so. Turn off the lights and let Danny do his thing. She could be thinking it is John and have a great time. Women can have the same visual desire towards erotica. Yet more gay men buy the male nude magazine Playgirl than women.

Studies have reported that when women see a nude male in the flaccid state they will not be as aroused sexually as when she will see that man erect. Sex for women needs to be on the table in a raw way and then they will immediately spark desire for that male.

Studies have reported that a majority of women will not even consider sex with a man under six feet tall. Wow, thank goodness I am taller than six feet. The new poll said that 70% percent of women feel this way. This is despite the fact that the average male is only 5 feet 10 inches tall. This only proves that we shouldn’t diminish the importance of the visual to women. They have to like what they see first before sexual desires kick in.

No woman ever says I want the small fat guy who sits on the couch with a bag of chips and a beer. Yet you will see very attractive women who chose a bald guy to be with. Did she really say I want a guy with no hair on top to run my fingers through? No. I doubt that; yet, he must have some special charisma that captured her attention. Men also say they want a sexy hot woman but the truth of the matter is that they will go with what is there for them. Like the old song, love the one you’re with.

A new trend with on line dating reported in Time Magazine who took a survey about on line dating issues, is that women are going out with men who are younger in age than them. It sounds like women have the same driving forces towards sex as men have. They want younger and looking good too. Social structures affect sexual desire. The only difference is that men will still seek out that second date with a woman.. Women are still not as aggressive to ask a guy out again. She will wait for his call.

Men realize that women are very aggressive in life these days. Women are multitasking at everything all the time. The girls are smart, they give birth, they have full time jobs, they sill run the households and manage the budgets choosing purchases but when it comes to sex please sit back and relax and just make a man feel like he can be in control, be the aggressor in bed at least sexually unless he just gives up there too and let’s you have it your way.

Yes it seems I have been contradicting the reports but I guess there still isn’t one way to anything despite what new studies are preaching about human sexual practices. I say, let’s just practice. A lot. Lol. People in healthy relationships change roles all the time for fun and renewed excitement.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

She proved that women could be funny and keep us entertained for many years just like the men do. Comedy all of a sudden wasn’t just a man’s world. I was one of those geeks that watched her variety comedy show every week. It was a time when people like Carol Burnett existed to just make us laugh and not be so judgmental like all the stupid reality shows everywhere or what is worse, all the you stink go home judging shows. We shared the laughs then. No one got laughed at. It was better times on Television.

Back then she was the queen of comedy and her show ran for eleven years. It was a time when staying home on a Saturday night wasn’t so bad. We would watch her show and then go out. America had a regular date with Carol Burnett. Her show was on in almost every household with a TV. The TV executives turned her down once and said she was too loud for TV. America loved her loud Tarzan call for years. Now at 80 years old she hasn’t lost any of that larger than life charm.

What she has lost is her child who died from lung cancer. It has been more than 30 years her show went off the air. She occupied the largest studio for CBS in those days. Now the Price Is Right has cars for bid on the stage where she employed comics, variety acts, singers and dancers. A truly entertaining show; then. She was especially close to her audience by each night turning up the lights and answering questions from them and occasionally inviting someone up on stage for a kiss.

Out of all the seats in the audience there were three seats in the second row that meant the most to her. That is where her three daughters sat during the rehearsals; Jody, Erin and Carrie. Carrie, her oldest was beautiful with a Marilyn Monroe look about her. She also ended into a world of drug addiction. People Magazine at the time called it Carol Burnett’s nightmare. You don’t give up on your child. At the time Carol admits that at one point they weren’t speaking. A parent has to love their child enough to let them hate them.

Carrie eventually got clean and didn’t hate her Mother. She is the one child that followed in her mother’s footsteps and was a writer and actress and appeared in a movie with Carol, but not for long. In 2001 Carrie learned she had cancer. It is the subject of Carol Burnett’s latest book called Carrie and Me, A Mother-Daughter Love Story. Carol always wanted to be a writer when she was young anyway but never expected to have to write this book.

She takes us through all the emotions when you hear the news that you might outlive your child’s life. Carol writes,” We all went through disbelief, shock, then you get angry, then scared and so they were hoping that they might save one lung but then it went up to her brain.” Carrie died at just 38 years old. Now how can a funny woman ever be funny after that happens in your life?

You never get over it but you learn to cope, she says. You have no other choice. Reading about her childhood makes you wonder how she was ever able to laugh. She grew up in the middle of addiction and loss of life, always having to make the best of it somehow. Her father was always drunk and couldn’t hold a job. Her mother started to drink too in her thirties and then she became an alcoholic as well. Both parents died in their forties so Carol was forced to be raised by her grandmother. First in Texas where she was born and then in Hollywood where she grew up. They shared a one room apartment.

They lived on government assistance and saved some money so they could go to the movies where Carol learned everything she could about entertaining. She never thought she would be a star herself. She enrolled in UCLA to take English writing courses and found herself auditioning and getting parts in school plays and finding people laughing at how she would say her lines. She loved the interaction with the audience and soon everyone loved her too. The audience became her family.

Soon she had the leading role on Broadway in Once Upon A Mattress where she could be as goofy as she wanted to and became a comedic genius. We all need laughter when faced with disaster. We are human. Giant fleshy moist beings full of emotions. Let’s find a way to laugh as she did to balance out the disasters of life. Thanks carol Burnett.

　

　

　

Yesterday was the 50^th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous speech and march on Washington D.C. Many feel it was the most important day in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. Yes, it was very significant but I don’t think it was the most difficult. Martin was a preacher who was always surrounded by his followers who loved him. Especially the religious women who adored him. With that kind of support one can have the courage to say almost anything. I feel that there is one guy who deserves infinitely more recognition than Martin and he never gets the credit. Not even now. His name is Jackie Robinson.

Imagine having to be the only black guy in a white world. Yes, the world of baseball and sports in general is a tough place to be no matter what you look like. It is a place full of drunken loud obnoxious men that ban together to shout insults to the opposing team and it’s individual players. Imagine being the only black guy having to perform surrounded by those kind of people. Jackie did not go everywhere surrounded by black people or even people who adored him. He stood alone and he stood tall and he did it years before Martin was a well known name. Jackie Robinson paved the way for the other black people to step forward and finally be noticed in society.

More than half a century ago the drama that played out in the Major Leagues played a major role not only in America’s pastime, baseball, but in America itself. It is the story of number 42 which is a retired number and of which one day every year the entire team wears the number 42 on their uniform for a game honoring Jackie Robinson. In April of 1947 more than ten years before Martin surfaced, baseball and the country began to change as well.

Jackie Robinson, number 42, made his first game on the mound with the Brooklyn Dodgers. His own team fans booed him. Brooklyn is a tough town. He was the only black man in a all white league. It is not like he wanted to be noticed. He just wanted to play Major League baseball. Well, like a bride all dressed in white at her party, a black man is hard to go unnoticed on the Baseball field. There weren’t even many black fans in the stands in those days either.

As a young pitcher for the Dodgers that day a few other players stood with him for support. Most players would leave a space between them in the lineup. There is a movie out made called 42 that focuses on his struggles in the pre-season just to get near the mound. This guy had real courage in the face of hostility and racism. He was a pioneer, the first black guy to stand alone till he was accepted. It was a time when the schools and the military was segregated. The Civil Rights Bill was a distant dream that didn’t happen for decades later in time.

At one point several teammates even signed a petition to ban him from the game. It failed but the booing and taunts continued just because he approached the mound to do his job. They threw watermelons on the field and black cats and little bales of cotton. Eve Ben Chapman who was the manager of the Philly team would shout as loud as he can, “Hey boy! I need a shoeshine!” “Hey boy how come you are not working as a porter?” It was amazing that Jackie was able to keep his cool and never stoop that low to lash back. Would you be able to take all that crap? Jackie was the greatest.

His wife Rachael Robinson is still alive who attended every one of his games. She remembers the frustration of having to take the verbal attacks and “ feeling that it was very painful to be attacked and not being able to respond. I also cringed every time I saw pitches being deliberately tossed at his head and wondering if he was all right.” She like him was determined to avoid the abuse by ignoring it.

Rachael and Jackie were married for more than 25 years until his death in 1972. Now at 90 years old Rachael is the founder of the Jackie Robinson Foundation which gives college scholarships to deserving students. She was a consultant on the movie that starred Harrison Ford and redid a scene in the movie that was about her first trip down south. She walked right into a white’s only bathroom and left her deposit. Fifty years ago martin should have thanked Jackie in his speech.

I like to pour some out into a bowl and snack on only the largest flakes; then I will add blueberries and milk and before you know it, I have devoured it all. Sure I’m talking about Corn Flakes. So, stop reading now if you want but the way I like to write about successful lives I am also interested in successful products and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes are a great food for America.

It was 153 years ago that William Keith Kellogg was born in Battle Creek Michigan. He was one of 16 children and quit school at the age of 14. He quit to join the family business selling brooms door to door. Already he was proving his ambition to try to make money as soon as possible. He didn’t need no stinking schooling. Kind of reminds me alittle of 3 giants in our generation who all quit college to make money. Guys like Bill Gates, Steve Lobs and Mark Zuckerberg..

By age 20 he had moved onto working at a health sanitarium run by his flamboyant older brother Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. There was a comedic movie made staring Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda and Dana Carvey called The Road To Wellville about the ins and outs of one unusual health facility in the early 20th century, run by the eccentric Dr. Kellogg.

As members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Kellogg’s believed that personal health was a significant part of faith. They were early followers of vegetarianism, nutrition and exercise. One night in 1894, William Keith was in the kitchen working on creating a new type of Granola and by accident he let stand a batch of boiled wheat overnight. When he returned the next morning , the mixture had turned into flakes. He repeated the process with corn and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes were born.

In 1906 the brothers incorporated the Battle Creek Toasted Cornflakes Company. William marketed the product with creative advertising showing attractive women holding up a box of the stuff on the covers of the box. Over the years he expanded the brand to new products like Rice Krispies in 1933. The three snap, crackle and pop stars of that product helped him to become one of the world’s wealthiest men.

He used some of his vast wealth to support childhood education, health and countless civic minded causes. He died in 1951 at age 91. It was one year before another great product was born. Sugar Frosted Flakes was introduced with their famous tiger on the box. Yes, Tony the Tiger always said it was great. The Kellogg’s company in general is a great representation of America.

There is Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Sugar Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran, Raisin Bran Crunch, Pops , Special K and Muslix; all famous cereals. There are plants in 18 countries all around the world and sales totaling more than 14 Billion dollars last year alone. That is an awful lot of fun choices to eat in the morning. Thanks Kellogg.

　

There is a four letter word that we should be saying more often . At least more often than all those other horrible four letter words that seem to be said everywhere. I like the four letter word Mary. She is becoming so popular these days that she has a new Broadway show about her now. It is called The Testament of Mary and the show is based on a short novel by Irish writer Colin Tóibín. The book was published on November 13, 2012 by Scribner's. This story is about Mary late in life.

What do we know about Mary anyway? We have learned her famous prayer and we recite it from time to time but why? Images of Mary have been plentiful for most of history. The prayer is: Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the……” Well you have heard it. She is best known for her pain at the loss of her son Jesus Christ. No parent wants to outlive their children. It is too painful a memory of their innocent lives that we were trusted with molding and trusted to keep them safe and healthy and alive.

Mary is someone in the Bible that is human. We can relate to her. On the Lower East Side of New York City there is a Church called Saint Mary’s where you can see many pictures and statues of Mary depicted throughout the ages. 20% of all Roman Catholic places of worship in America, nearly 4,000 are named Saint Mary’s parish. People admire Mary’s life; the little we even know about it.

We only know the little bit about Mary that was written in the Gospels in The New Testament of the Bible written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. She was called Mary or Miriam or Maryam in the writings. She was from the little town of Nazareth maybe a population at the time of 400 people in the first Century. Mary was Jewish and would have spoken Aramaic.

 

At the age of twelve, girls were considered to be mature. So when she was given to Joseph she would have been a teenager. Professor Dedra Good, a New Testament scholar at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in NYC says that Mary represents in Christian tradition the meeting of God with humanity. We learn from The New Testament that the angel Gabriel visits her and announces that she will bare a child and this child is from God and Mary says, how is this possible because I don ‘t know a man?

That is translated into that she is a virgin. The Gospels tell the Christmas story of how Mary gave birth to Jesus. During his adult life she is seldom mentioned. Only one of the Gospels places Mary at the crucifixion standing along side the apostle John the Baptist. John was told by Jesus while dying on the cross to look after his Mother. So, John takes Mary to a town called Ephesus which is on the far end of Turkey along the Mediterranean Sea. Today pilgrims visit the house where she might have spent her final days.

At the end of the third century we start to see Mary depicted in artwork. At Vanderbilt University there are courses you can take on Christian Art where they explore the Adoration of Mary through art. Early Christian art literally existed underground in the Catacombs on walls and drawn on coffins. Mary is not depicted as important in herself until the beginning of the fifth Century. Then she appears enthroned with angles surrounding her with the baby Jesus sitting on her lap. That is when she becomes important.

By the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Period her paintings often have a halo around her head wearing a blue veil over her hair and a red dress. A blue cloak around her shoulders is the sign of divinity. Rarely is Mary ever shown as anything but young. Although her anguish is nowhere written in the Gospel, by the year 1400 she can be seen fainting and in anguish over his suffering and death.

An Irish actress Fiona Shaw plays Mary late in life on Broadway and is angry, tortured by doubt as she remembers his death. Colon Torbin wrote The Testament of Mary and it is an alternative Mary story and is not the only take on it. In early Jewish texts, Mary was a girl who dated a lot and the virgin birth is untrue. Mary also appears in the Koran for Muslims and is honored above all other women. Who was she really? Who knows. If an image or a thought of her is some kind of role model for you than she has served some kind of good purpose in your life. We need good four letter words like Mary.

　

How is a Lesbian Mayor of New York going to march in the Saint

Patrick’s Day Parade? Gays and Lesbians are banned from that parade. Is New York ready for that controversy if Christine Quinn is elected Mayor ? She seems to be a nice Irish Catholic girl. The only way to know more about her is to read her book correctly called, With Patience and Fortitude.

She has already been Speaker of the New York City Council and is outspoken and available everywhere to express her opinion on any subject anywhere. In her book she reveals that her grandmother came to America on the Titanic as a young girl. She was in third class and instead of praying and sitting, she ran for the lifeboats and survived. Christine’s own mother died from cancer when she was 16 years old.

Quinn remembers that her mother suffered since she was in the second grade and saw her mother’s decline for ten years of her life. Later Christine suffered from alcoholism and bulimia. A year ago Christine married her lesbian lover Kim. She only had feelings for women in college and not before then. Another candidate De Blasio who is running against her has a black wife who used to be a lesbian before she met him and now have interracial kids.

Christine Quinn feels that Anthony Weiner should drop out of the race because, “he has a pattern of reckless behavior and a real challenge with the truth.” The Primary is on September 10^th and now she is leading in the polls which can still change. In New York, if you do not get 40% of the vote then they must campaign for another runoff vote for the top two candidates.

This is an interesting race for even people in Kansas to watch first because of all the scandals and because there is the first woman seriously seeking the mayor job of one of the largest cities in America. What New York does in terms of legislation policy gets modeled all over the country. For example, when New York passed the anti-smoking ban, other states Banned smoking in public places as well.

Christine takes pride in her part in intervening with the possibility of NY laying off 4,100 school teachers. She feels that she was a big part in preventing that from happening. She brought the people from the Teachers Union and the Department of Education in a room. The Teacher’s Union hated all the ideas the Mayor’s office proposed. Christine urged the Union to pursue their own ideas for a solution and finally the Department of Education agreed. They found about $70 Million dollars of concessions that was able to save those jobs.

On the issue of rents going sky high in New York, many mom and pop stores have to pay too much rent to support their businesses and are closing up. She is supporting the new zoning laws that say that banks who can afford the high rent, cannot rent storefronts anymore. They will be on the second floor now . The law is in place for all future banks on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

She also wants to curb the amount of minority men being stopped and frisked in the city. It is creating a divide with the police and the citizens of the city. 95% of those frisked are not found with anything illegal on them and have not committed any crime. She is pleased with the job Commissioner Ray Kelly is doing and wishes to keep him as the Police Commissioner. If elected Mayor, she will change the strict policies and make sure there is not such an intrusion on people’s civil liberties.

So, perhaps we will have two firsts in New York government. Not just the first woman Mayor that is a lesbian but the first person of reason who just might care about all New Yorkers.

　

She is loud and mean and I wouldn’t want her help for anything however she is rich and famous for yelling at people to get into shape. I guess we can call her the biggest winner even though she is famous from her part in The Biggest Loser TV show. Her name is Jillian Michaels that has marketed her image so well that now you see her piercing dark blue eyes everywhere.

Her name and image is plastered all over a line of fitness products like a Kettle bell push up bars or a Cross Bar or protein Whey powdered drink. She has videos called Master Your Metabolism with her face plastered all over the cover of at least a dozen videos. She is now the biggest name in at home exercise products. Now she is a best selling author with her book called Unlimited; How to Build An Exceptional Life. Really? I s she Godlike that she can claim to create exceptional lives? And since it is a bestseller then where are the millions of people leading exceptional lives living? I can’t find them.

Jillian is so famous now that she is called a brand. How did it happen? We all hate how she treats people on The Biggest Looser TV show and we all hate the things she yells and how she looses her temper with people. Most of her fat people are in tears long before they actually loose any weight. But at the end of the show you do see results. Her direct approach is now legionary tough love that borders on abusive. It kind of is missing the love part.

Yet many people do like her. She has released 15 home fitness DVDs selling 8 Million copies. She has written six diet and fitness books with titles like Making The Cut and Winning by Losing. She has secured countless product deals and is about to launch a nationwide speaking tour. Not a bad career for a spotter on gym equipment. Michaels now heads a multi Million dollar empire but says she has no time to actually exercise.

With so many fitness products in the market she should be worried about exhausting her image. She is now essentially competing with herself. There have already been some failures. Her own TV show called Losing It with Jillian was a loser in the ratings and was quickly cancelled. In 2010 Michaels was sued four times for endorsing diet supplements called Carolie Control that contained allegedly dangerous ingredients. The suits were eventually dismissed. Yet overcoming adversity is nothing new to her.

Her upbringing in Santa Monica, California was anything but the picture of fitness or happiness. She was five feet two inches and 175 pounds and viewed herself as “the ultimate looser.” She says about herself, “I had a huge nose, acne breaking out, braces, over weight and no friends. My parents were going through a horrible divorce.” It sounds like she really needed therapy.

Ironically Jillian turned her life around not by anything she is selling or saying. She took martial arts that got her into the gym. Stuff like Karate. Then she became a personal trainer. At the age of 28 she opened up a sports medicine clinic in LA. Two years later she landed her role on The Biggest Looser. How insulting it that to all the physical education experts who spent years in colleges and universities studying all the aspects of fitness and sports and they get no recognition in their lives for their well schooled professions. Jillian does not have any Olympic medals or Competition titles to her credentials yet she is now considered an expert in her field.

She is able to have a very comfortable life on the California coast sharing it with her partner Heidi and their two adopted kids . She tries to keep her lesbian life and the identities of her children very private. Jillian just wants to be one of the famous women in our lives that have staying power; women like Jane Fonda or Opera. In her personal life she feels that she is in a really good place but in her professional life she is never satisfied. Maybe that is why she is always yelling at someone.

Here are some fun facts I guess we all should know about America for some reason.

　

WHAT STATES ARE FAMOUS FOR

 
ALABAMA ............Was the first state to have 9-1-1, started 1968.

ALASKA ...............One out of every 64 people has a pilot's license.

ARIZONA..............Is the only state in the continental U.S. that does not follow Daylight Savings Time.

ARKANSAS.......... Has the only active diamond mine in the U.S.

CALIFORNIA;............Its economy is so large that if it were a country, it would rank seventh in the entire world.

COLORADO............In 1976 it became the only state to turn down the Olympics.

CONNECTICUT............The Frisbee was invented here at Yale University

DELAWARE...........Has more scientists and engineers than any other state.

FLORIDA............At 874.3 square miles, Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S.

GEORGIA............It was here, in 1886, that pharmacist John Pemberton made the first vat of Coca Cola...
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HAWAII............Hawaiians live, on average, five years longer than residents of any other state.

IDAHO...........TV was invented in Rigby, Idaho, in 1922.

ILLINOIS...........Has a Governor in jail, one pending jail, and is the most corrupt state in the union!

INDIANA............Home to Santa Claus, Indiana, which gets a half million letters for Santa every year.

IOWA................Winnebago R.V.s get their name from Winnebago County. Also, it is the only state name that begins with 2 vowels.

KANSAS............Liberal, Kansas has an exact replica of the house in "The Wizard of Oz".

KENTUCKY............Has more than $6 billion in gold underneath Fort Knox.

LOUISIANA............Has parishes instead of counties because they were originally Spanish church units.

MAINE............It is so large that it covers as many square miles as the other five New England states combined.

MARYLAND............The Ouija board was created in Baltimore in 1892....... Bet you didn't know that!

MASSACHUSETTS.......The Fig Newton is named after Newton, Massachusetts.

MICHIGAN............Fremont, home to Gerber, is the baby food capital of the world.

MINNESOTA.......Bloomington's Mall of America is so big, that if you spent 10 minutes in each store, you'd be there almost four days.

MISSISSIPPI.....President Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear here... that's how the teddy bear got its name.

MISSOURI............Is the birthplace of the ice cream cone.

MONTANA ........A sapphire from Montana is in the Crown Jewels of England .

NEBRASKA............More triplets are born here than in any other state.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.........Birthplace of Tupperware, invented in 1938 by Earl Tupper.

NEW JERSEY............Has the most shopping malls in one area in the world.

NEW MEXICO............Smokey the Bear was rescued from a 1950 forest fire here.

NEW YORK............Is home to the nation's oldest cattle ranch, started in 1747 in Montauk...........Surprised?

NORTH CAROLINA........Home of the first Crispy Creme doughnut.

NORTH DAKOTA........... Rigby, North Dakota, is the exact geographic center of North America .

OHIO............The hot dog was invented here in 1900.

OKLAHOMA............The grounds of the state capital are covered by operating oil wells.

OREGON............Has the most ghost towns in the country.

PENNSYLVANIA............The smiley : ) was first used in 1980 by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University .

RHODE ISLAND............The nation's oldest bar, the White Horse Tavern, opened here in 1673.

SOUTH CAROLINA.........Sumter County is home to the world's largest ginkgo farm.

SOUTH DAKOTA...........Is the only state that's never had an earthquake.

TENNESSEE...........Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest running live radio show in the world.

TEXAS.......Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. The hamburger was invented in Arlington in 1906.

UTAH...........The first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant opened here in 1952.

VERMONT..........Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald's.

VIRGINIA..........Home of the world's largest office building, The Pentagon.

WASHINGTON............Seattle has twice as many college graduates as any other state.

WASHINGTON D.C.........Is the first planned capital in the world

WEST VIRGINIA............Had the world's first brick paved street, Summers Street, laid in Charleston in 1870.

WISCONSIN............The ice cream sundae was invented here in 1881 to get around Blue Laws prohibiting ice cream from being sold on Sunday. Also the American Water Spaniel was created there and is the state dog.

WYOMING.........Was the first state to allow women to vote.

I hope you enjoyed this. Just proving no matter how old you are, you can always learn something new and I guess that now that I find this stuff interesting it make me an official nerd. If you read through it all, then you must be a nerd too. So what! Get over it!

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius gave advice to his son, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Yeah, just try to keep your money. Don’t lend it to anyone and don’t borrow any money. Few of us can say that we actually can live our lives by those simple practices. Most of our economy is fueled by lent and borrowed funds. There is one American family that seems to lend out a lot of money on a regular basis. But they do it with strict rules.

In Omaha, Nebraska there is America’s only family Credit Union. It is also called Susan’s House. She is the family member who manages the Our Family Social Credit Union from her tiny home office. Any family member who has a current loan with her has a file in her file cabinets and she even keeps track of who bought what with the money borrowed. Not a bad idea since my family is always hitting me up for money.

The whole idea was started in 1950 by the descendants of Manley Williams and their spouses. The credit union now has 482 members and assets of $444.606. Our Family Social is classified as a state chartered natural person credit union. It has no full time employees and one part time employee. I need to get organized and run my favors like a real business too.

You always hear the phrase, “never loan money to friends and family” but that is the only people this family lends money to. In fact their extended family has been kept close by money. I have a close friend who gives employment to all her friends and family and even loans them money. She has to garnish their wages to get anything back sometimes and then she goes on vacation with all of them anyway.

How this family does it is that they require a five dollar deposit plus a 25 cent handling fee, and you become a member of the Family Social Credit Union if you are also a direct descendant of Manley and Lucy Williams or married to one. Today they have 511 members in 22 states and assets of about a half Million dollars. It is a small operation that has made a huge difference in the lives of family members over the years. They take care of their own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They lend money when it is needed for things like a new car or a new baby or college costs. Remember that Credit Unions are very different from banks. Banks have shareholders and they have to make a profit. Credit Unions are NOT for profit organizations. That doesn’t mean that they do not make a profit. It means that their profits are returned to their members.

Peggy Powell runs America’s Credit Union Museum on the site of the nation’s first credit union founded in 1908 in Manchester, New Hampshire to help French Canadian mill workers who couldn’t get bank loans. Well, here we are century’s later and there are plenty96 of American workers who still don’t qualify for bank loans. Now there are many Credit Unions all over the country helping Americans save and prosper.

The idea of a family credit union is not that very different from other unions. It is a group of people combining their resources to look out for one another. In the Family Social Union, Susan and the other managing members all have other full time jobs but they are there to get the calls about someone who has just lost their job or about whatever reason they need to borrow money. They do turn some people down but most get the loan and are required to make payments regularity. There are no late fees or interest rate hikes but you better pay something back regularly or you will get a call from Susan.

She will remind you how she was there for you when you needed assistance, now you must make that effort to pay back. They keep in touch. They have family reunions every 2 years and scholarships are given out and even a family newsletter called Relatively Speaking is written. The family will know pretty soon if you are a dead beat and no one wants to look poorly to their family. .

Apparently money is the glue that keeps this family together and knowing each other and caring about each other and helping each other to thrive and prosper. They are family.

Let’s try to figure out this Idiot Spitzer opps I mean Elliot Spitzer character oops again Politician out yet one more time. Remember he is the one who passed stricter prostitution laws while he was a great customer to many different prostitutes throughout the years. Should we always accept these type of contradictions from all our politicians while they just apologize for their indigressions but have the nerve to run again just expecting the public to go along with whatever they want to do?

He was New York’s former Governor and put the Madam of the prostitution place he used all the time in Rikers Island Prison for four months. He manages always to never get any fines or jail time for his crimes of being a John. He signed stronger anti-prostitution laws into effect during his tenure as governor. Now they are both running for the job as City Comtroller of NYC. Do these people really care about the finances of the city or are they just there to annoy everyone?

Her name is Kristin Davis and ran for Governor in 2010 probably just to annoy him. He when asked why he disgraced his wife and many children says he is in a form of redemption now. What is he crying about anyway? He had to resign from a Governor job that paid him $175,000 per year and went on to two TV shows one from CNN that paid him Millions for his political commentary. Yes the humiliation of what he did stung his family and their name however he did not go through the humiliation of being in Rikers Island Prison in solitary confinement, being subjected to strip searches by 15 different correctional officers wanting cavity searches as Kristin Davis was subjected to.

He should only be talking about pain after he has done his time for his crime. She has taken and passed lie detector tests and answered many questions as to her involvement in his life as a Madam. Elliot has never revealed any facts about how he really feels about prostitution. He can not condemn something that he has supported in his personal life for years. Have him answer questions like how long has he been using sexual services, as having the job as Attorney General actively calling for sex with strangers. How could he ruin their lives while paying them for sexual favors?

He should be committed just for leaving us with David Patterson who tried his best to fill in the job. Remember he was severely sight impaired and had to struggle with his instant fame and the problems of having to suddenly deal with rude reporters in his face constantly. Elliot should have known he would be caught eventually and that he would be leaving a difficult job to a poor guy who didn’t really want it anyway.

No one even mentions that Elliot Spitzer illegally funded his two campaigns for Attorney General that the New York Times revealed. Elliot Spitzer was under investigation for a scandal called Trooper Gate and he was under investigation for spying on another candidate Senator Joe Bruno. Elliot has a whole litany of criminal acts that he has committed in his past in public office that he has somehow escaped from prosecution. This cat has nine lives.

So we have the sex addict and his prostitution Madam running for office and the other candidate Scott Stringer who is clean in all thin no one knows about or really cares about. He is in the Democratic Primary with Spitzer. Everyone else are all criminals. The last Comptroller of the city, Hevesy is in jail. Our current Comptroller, John Liu’s entire staff has been inedited so they are all corrupt. These guys actually makes the Madame look good. At least she has always admitted who and what she was.  

Sounds like Spitzer is just following the Weiner, his dick and Anthony’s lead. At least Weiner does something that a lot of people do these days that is sexting on their media devices which is a bad call and indigression on his part. What Spitzer did by his own passed laws is commit a crime and multiple crimes and he has not been punished. He regards women as a hobby who sought the sexual services of many women.

We all know that prostitution is the oldest profession on earth. So, what is the big deal that he went to hookers? Well, the big deal is that he prosecuted them vigorously and he created a law that made it a FELONY crime for a man to use a prostitute for sexual favors. The hypocrisy is that he should have been true to his feelings and acts and fought to legalize prostitution and not make it a felony.  

So you are in a pickle and could really use more cash each week. What can you do?

  You finally want to be your own boss too? How do I boss myself around? Well there have been ways to answer all your questions if you are willing to be creative and as usual, work hard. Why is it that some of the laziest people earn the most money? Too many questions?

Four years ago Shamus Jones started a company called Brooklyn Brine and now sells pickles in 35 stores. Yeah, when in a pickle this guy decided to sell pickles, and besides his choice, who doesn’t like to eat a pickle? He is a typical guy who hated his day job and didn’t like having to be so polite to his boss for a living. So. He took a lot of cucumbers and made them into a company called Brooklyn Brine.

He admits that it is the hardest job that he has ever had but it is the most rewarding job too. He did it by getting a free commercial kitchen from ten at night to four in the morning. The 32 year old pickle pioneer worked all night to punch out his pickles. He cured cucumbers and spread the dill. He had the nerve to just go into it without a business plan, without operating capitol without even a trust fund. He just went into the barrel and made a product.

So what’s the big deal? I can walk into any supermarket and buy all the pickles I want and besides that, how many pickles can you eat anyway? Well, he was smart enough to make his pickle unique and different. He makes varieties that you just can’t get anywhere else like Whiskey Sour Pickles, Spicy Maple Bourbon or just Damn Spicy pickles. So, local orders shot up and in 2010 came a call from a big company called Williams-Sonoma a source for gourmet foods and professional-quality cookware.

The first order from them was for 22 thousand jars where he had only a month to make it by hand. Somehow he did fill that order and in only three years later Jones says Brooklyn Brine is topping a Million dollars in gross annual sales. After that order he feels nothing is impossible anymore. The fact of the matter is that you can mass produce pickles. You don’t need a lot of equipment to make them.

You just need big barrels of vinegar or brine and then food to put into it. If you can market the stuff there is the ability to make a profit. Adam Steinberg is a historian at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. New York's Tenement Museum focuses on America's urban immigrant history. The Tenement Museum provides walking tours and is a popular attraction. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum ,located at 97 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan New York City, is a National Historic Site.

In the 1870’s pickles were considered a very exotic snack. At the turn of the 20^th Century, pickle pushcarts packed the neighborhood and the stench of pickles and garlic stunned people who visited that neighborhood. Now you can see rats and the stench of urine on the streets. But then the smells of pickles were enough to attract food giant H.J. Heinz who figured that if New Yorker’s liked pickles then the nation would like them too.

Heinz was mass producing and mass marketing food and got into the pickle jarring. Americans now are eating more than One Billion pounds of pickles every year. Do the math and that turns out to be about 4 pounds of pickles per person. At the small shop called The Pickle Guys located at 49 Essex Street in NYC they boast that they get delivered about 2 thousand pounds of cucumbers every Tuesday and they sell. In fact Allen Kaufman there says that sales are rising steadily.

Even the traditionalists are now making pickled pineapple, pickled mango even pickled okra to add to pickled mushrooms and onions. Both Jones and Kaufman agree that there is still room for competition because everyone loves a pickle on their food or on the side. Go grab your pickle and enjoy. LOL

It’s your Birthday! We gonna party like it’s your Birthday! Yeah! He gave us that new cool birthday song. He should have been dead considering his past being shot 9 times in front of his house. But now we all wish we had his life filled with new successes and he is not done yet. He is even feeding the children in depressed countries. He is Curtis James Jackson III, better known by his stage name 50 Cent. He is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre.

I like this guy because he knows the value of a dollar. He respects money and spends it wisely on investments unlike other famous men mostly sports heroes who embarrass themselves by quickly becoming penniless by spending all their money on bling, women, fast cars and big homes with big parties. Sure all that is fun but not an investment in anything but bad behavior that you end up regretting once sober in the bright lights of the morning.

Well this guy just happens to be a Millionaire businessman who is right at home rappin’ in the club but these days he is also just as comfortable on QVC. Recently he sold $300,000 of headphones in less than 10 minutes there. He has been on both sides of the street already. He has been super poor and now super rich. He was a former drug dealer who got arrested for his crime and also sold over 32 Million albums. He made his most money by investing in water. I refer to him a lot as he because I can’t bring myself to calling someone a coin.

Curtis saw the energy water wave coming so in 2004 he invested in a company called Vitaminwater that later Coca-Cola bought and a few years after that, his money flowed like water. It is estimated that he made $60 Million dollars off that deal alone. All this is remarkable when you consider this guy’s past.

Never knowing his father and his single Mom being a drug dealer, Curtis had a rough childhood. Mom died when he was 8 years old and the grandparents who raised him were poor people. So, at age 12, Curtis was selling drugs. He saw music as his way out from that life and by 2000 he had a record deal and a new rapper name. He wasn’t able to escape being shot 9 times in front of his grandmother’s garden.

Since then he has had numerous business opportunities from clothing to books and on to movies. Writing, producing and acting alongside actors like Robert De Nero has now also included him into the movie insiders business. Now he is into boxing not as a fighter but as a promoter. By singing 5 fighters he hopes to bring a younger audience to the sport.

 

Never leaving his music behind he is working on his first album in three years. This time he is having more fun with the music because he is creating it all. The sounds , the lyrics and the total production. At 37 years old this guy with the thug image is thinking about his legacy wanting to do much more with his Millions.

Last year he made a trip to East Africa with a organization called the World Food Programme and saw for himself the large amounts of starving children there and it made a significant impact on him. He decided to donate a meal for every bottle of his SK Energy Drink he sells here in America.
 

Ok highly caffeinated energy drinks is not what we need to be drinking here but it is a trend and it is selling. At least we have a black American male doing great things for African children and making his money grow. So far he has provided 4 Million meals in Africa. This is one thug I’d like to support. Besides I like that birthday song of his.

We still have something that tells us that it is good for us and it is even in one of those old things called a magazine. It is the good old Good Housekeeping seal of approval on products from the articles in the good old Good Housekeeping Magazine. The seal has become quite influential in telling consumers that the product really is good and does what it says it is supposed to do. 

 

There is so much junk being sold everywhere, we need to know what is the good stuff we should be spending our hard earned money on. When something is defective or broken we tend to just throw the thing out because you can’t even find a repair shop to fix anything these days. The Seal of Approval is great for business if you can even get it for your product. Once you get the seal your sales will go through the roof.

Peter Thomas Roth sold beauty products on QVC with average results. Two months ago his sales increased rapidly. He suddenly sold 2 Million dollars of product and had a waiting list of sales orders to fill. What changed was nothing about his product or sales pitch. What changed was that his products received the Good housekeeping Seal. The little sticker that was now going on every box really meant something.

Roth has no doubt that earning the seal made all the difference in revenue. It is no longer the old magazine your mother or grandmother just had lying around the house. Good Housekeeping means big business now. The seal is old , from 1909 to the present. The magazine was founded in 1885. Even then, they would write as a description of the publication, “Conducted in the Interests of the Higher Life of the Household.” It wasn’t just about etiquette or trends. Back in 1905, they were pushing for the Pure Food and Drug Act in government.

The magazine always warned us of possible dangers being sold to us over the counter. Articles like, Why Your Food Isn’t Safe, The Truth About Medication Errors In Hospitals, or The Dangers of No-diet Reducing Drugs are the types of topics they always promoted. The magazine stopped taking cigarette ads in 1952 which was 12 years before the surgeon general’s report came out that linked smoking to cancer. They called out products like unsafe Halloween Costumes that could go up in flames within seconds.

The magazine’s world famous research labs are the result of it’s history of activism. No product is advertised between it’s covers that hasn’t been tested thoroughly. If a product with the seal turns out to be defective, Good House Keeping, not the manufacturer will replace it or refund your money. No advertiser other than this Magazine does that!

Good House Keeping will evaluate anything that is used for household use from blenders to bathing suits. They concentrate on the durability of a product or it’s effectiveness. Good House Keeping also tests food for tastiness, nutritional facts and overall good for you effectiveness. It estimates that 21 Million people read each issue. With other magazines folding and just being out of print, this magazine has thrived by understanding what generations of house managing people care about. Notice I avoid the word housewives. All types of people are running households now not just women and not just wives.

In 2009 when the seal turned 100 years old, it introduced it’s new green seal. Benjamin Moore Paints applied for its new environmentally friendly paint product called Natura Paints. When the paint qualified for the seal, the company was reassured of its success in the marketplace. If anything Good house Keeping has marketed over 125 years TRUST. If only everything out there was so much for the people as this simple magazine is.

He is the finest athlete that no one knows. Most professional athletes are so into themselves that you can’t help know their names. They have baseball cards, high paying contracts, endorsements, print and TV ads and who can forget all their injuries and palacious homes with the crazy sex life. Then they retire from their sport and become a talking head commentator for years. There is no way to get away from the pampered overpaid permanently injured pro these days. They are all men and they are commentating on everything sports 24/7 somewhere. For once we have a sportsperson who has simply did his thing all his life and did it the best.

His name is Kelly Slater and you hardly read it being mentioned in the sports pages. Yet, millions regard him as a living legend. Slater is the greatest surfer of all time and has been proving that for the past two decades. He is the typical surfer dude that we all wish we were. He has the care free lifestyle of a surfer where the waves and the weather dictate his whereabouts not a job or family or monetary obligations. He had a troubled childhood and where there is trouble, you seek refuge. He sought and found refuge in the ocean.

Kelly is so good on the waves that he is regarded as a God of the sea. Mere mortals can not do and survive what he can do enveloped by the highest waves of the ocean and survive. He has a cult like fan base that do follow him wherever he goes. He is also the most dominant athlete in any sport ever. Kelly has won surfing’s World Championship eleven times. First at the age of 20 and most recently at the age of 39. Most athletes retire after 5 or 10 years of playing not 20 years of playing and he has no intention of retiring.

 

Slater is the youngest to win it all and both the oldest to win it all. The only person that is not in awe of his name in the surfing world is Kelly himself, being the humble non assuming person he is. His skill has made him rich and his looks has let him be boyfriend to famous sexy women like Pam Anderson and Gisele Bundchen. He tried becoming famous years ago when he accepted a role on the TV show Baywatch. He felt embarrassed by it all and quit the show after just 8 episodes against the advice of his manager and family.

For Slater it has always been about being a surfer and not being a star on TV or even at his own sport at times. It explains at times why he has been known to skip competitions at the last moment. He will simply not show up if the waves are better on some other beach. I admire that. Skip the capitalism for the love of the sport. Who has the guts to do that in their life? No one. Most of us are led by our boring obligations. Only a true surfer is only led by the waves.

“Surfing is not a sport. It is a passion and a love.” Slater says. He studies tides and global weather patterns to find the perfect swell or waves. He doesn’t have a permanent address or home field or set schedule. Wow ! Can we live his life for just one day? I am envious of his carefree life yet he is rich, loved by beautiful women and just famous enough not to be hounded by paparazzi or fans so much. He feels most at home in the barrel of a wave surrounded by water above and below him keeping an eye on reaching the opening at the end of the tunnel of wave for survival.

A true profession, even when on land, he is likely preparing for his next ride by personally shaving his own surfboards making them just the right thickness and crafting the right curve in it. He is quick to say that there are so many different design elements to a good board. Escaping from his troubled childhood gave him plenty of time to devote to surfing.

Growing up in Coco Beach , Florida he was the middle of three brothers whose father was an alcoholic and whose mother worked several jobs just to put food on the table. So, from the time Kelly was 5 years old, he would be at the ocean from dawn to dusk. The ocean was his security blanket. Where his parents weren’t there for him the ocean rhythm was always there like a comforting heartbeat.

Let's talk about Poor Paula who through some kind of media pressure decided to make two apologies for admitting saying nigger. We all know she is some kind of Southern Belle that in slavery times would have probably had a plantation and employed blacks as slaves. It was the trend then. However, she in these times had a slavery themed catered event where all the waiters were black men. Should she have known that it is in bad taste to glorify bad things in history? Yeah. Imagine if some German people decided to have a party and burn some Jewish people in a fire for the fun of it . Wow! Let’s stop this kind of imagining.

I grew up where I would say to myself and other people that “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never harm me.” Then I would walk away from those cruel people that would randomly call me a Dork, Jerk, Idiot, Ass Hole, Cracker, Ginny even my wife was called Mouse because she was short and Meanie cause she fought back with words. Should just a bunch of words really get to us? After all we weren’t hit with a rock or something. Well words can hurt and can be hurtful in that they are usually thrown into a conversation randomly just to try to flaw us when we really aren’t anything like that.

Paula is really guilty of pushing lard and lots of butter and flour on us and always diving her dirty diamond rings into any batter to mix some fattening unhealthy deep fried crap to eat on us. Why can’t that woman use a spoon? Or make something healthy for once? Everything she made had pounds of butter, flour and sugar and was a diabetic sure thing to get all Americans no matter race sick. She should have been fired from all her TV jobs years ago not just for her racism but for cruel indifference to human biology.

She was getting America sick and was promoting behavior that could get others sick and was cashing in on potential cures. I agree with John Fugelsang from Current TV who says, “Paula Deen was like the heroin dealer who gets you so addicted she finally decides to do the right thing and also sell you methadone while still selling smack to all ya’all that haven’t kicked yet.” Her restaurants are packed with people since she was fired. John says, “I don’t fear imitating what the guys do on Jack Ass do, that’s just natural selection. Right? I fear imitating what Paula Deen does.”

“Elliot Ness couldn’t get Al Capone for his violent crimes, they got him on tax evasion” They didn’t get OJ Simpson for murder they got him in jail for a civil suit, over money. “Paula Deen is the Al Capone of deep fried bacon and mashed potatoes fried in egg batter while free basing butter. They didn’t get her for the real damage of hating the human race on a lesser charge but they got her on trash talking one of the human races races. The problem with Paula Deen is not what comes out of her mouth, it is what she keeps trying to stuff into your’s.” If it is fattening or sugary or just not good for your heart, she will cook it up.

The Food Network fired her. She is more sorry that she got in trouble, that she lost all the TV money not sorry that she used racist terminology. Is she a bad person? No, just misinformed after all there are songs by Jay Z and other black artists that say “My nigger” repeatedly in their rap and dance music, we tend to sing along even if we are not black and we can slip into greeting our black friend with that interesting way too long hand shake and shoulder tapping and saying , “How’s my nigger doin?” NOOOOO still not acceptable. So, why can a African American use a term that is part of our pop culture now but a White Southerner can’t say the N word? Germans don’t call each other Krauts and Polish people don’t go around calling each other Pollocks.

The most interesting thing about Paula is that in her deposition when being sued said Of Course when asked if she ever used the N word. She basically admitted that she probably used it often in her home and said it matter of fact  in normal conversation. Not in anger or in a way to deliberately hurt someone and that is her biggest crime.

Like trying to kill us all with her dirty fingers mixing up food and horrible unhealthy recipes, she didn’t think she was even doing anything wrong in her poor choice of words to describe a group of Americans who have paid their dues and survived terrible persecution in this country. Respect history and learn from it, don’t glorify it’s horrible past.

They told me when growing up that sharing is caring so we shared our toys, our books and even our lunch. It was a good way to make friends and a way of keeping them because we shared stuff. Now a large population of people are sharing stuff because they can’t afford to buy stuff they want. The Bush era put many people’s finances into a downward spiral that they still haven’t recovered from.
 

People were told they could buy homes they really couldn’t afford so now they are in foreclosure. People used to have so many credit cards in their pocket it looked like a magic act when they would peal out 10 or so cards they used often. Now without paying them all off people don’t have any good credit and walk around with a debit card with limited funds in it. No one still can afford to purchase stuff but they still want stuff.
 

Now share and share alike is much more meaning than just a way to get along with your friends and family. It is now good advice on how to do business with perfect strangers. With the help of the Internet, people are offering their stuff for rental fees to just about anyone for just about anything you might want to try out for awhile. It works for everyone. You get to drive that expensive car for awhile you may never be able to afford to own and the guy who owns the fancy car gets a rental fee rather than just have it sit there in the garage. Everyone wins.

 

You might want to do something crazy for fun. There is a guy who owns a tree house with a great view of the San Francisco Bay area. He rents it out on a web site called Airbnb that is a web site that makes it possible for anyone to rent a room for any night even if that room is in a romantic tree house. Airbnb handles the bookings and the payments so the tree house can go for about $200 a night. The owner makes money from his very oak tree property and you get to do something different for a night. It is all part of the new sharing economy.

 

With the Internet acting as a matchmaker, people can now rent out almost anything to anyone. There are car sharing services like Getaround that is an online car sharing or peer-to-peer car sharing service that allows drivers to rent cars from private car owners, and owners to rent out their cars for a fee. Or the site that boasts that you can make Hundreds Per Month On The Relay Rides Car Sharing Marketplace. Let’s say you want to pretend to own a hundred thousand electric Tesla car, well the owner will share it for about $25 an hour.
 

If you need some unconditional love and affection, you can share a pet for awhile from a site called citydogshare.org. It is a free dog-sitting co-op which organizes localized facebook groups so that people can connect and help each other with their dog Zaarly where you can share your services like finding a good chef for a special dinner. Go to the Tie Society and share a bow tie that you really don’t want to own but would try out occasionally. Sharing sites offer everything from parking spaces in large cities to electronics. 
 

Individuals are increasing to do business with each other instead of with large companies. With more than 300,000 items listed Airbnb rivals many hotel chains. Forbes Magazine recently estimated that $3.5 Billion Dollars will flow through the sharing economy this year. By bringing people together, sharing our resources more efficiently we have a better economy and are able to live better. Lending Club is in the business of letting people share their money giving both lenders and borrowers a better deal than what they would get at a bank.

Shareable is an online non profit web based magazine that features new places to share. The editor estimates he saved $17,000 last year by using sharing people for cars, travel, child care and more. Older people who have properties are renting out spaces and are able to keep their homes and make a profit in the sharing economy. It reminds you of how people in small towns in the past opened up boarding houses so everyone could make ends meet. What is old is new again I guess.

 We need to know about the people in the world or even just in America that had done something to significantly change our lives. Right now there are lots of people that get in trouble with the law and can not afford to pay for an attorney to represent them in court. So, many times the proper procedures are not followed and the proper papers are not filed on time. Should it be so complicated? No, but it can be. It has been 50 years since someone dared to write a handwritten letter to the Supreme Court and to simply ask for some changes to the court experience and the letter was read and a response was given.

 

There was a Supreme Court ruling on the issue of States having to have to provide Lawyers for all poor people in serious criminal cases like a felony trial. The hand written letter by a guy in jail to the Supreme Court reversed a law that was there since 1942. It was a significant decision because it opened the door for many people incarcerated. It was a unanimous opinion that permitted many now jailed people to ask for new trials.

The specific case was Gideon vs, Wainwright 372 U.S. 335 from 1963. Clarence Earl Gideon was an unlikely hero. He was a man with an eighth-grade education who ran away from home when he was in middle school. He spent much of his early adult life as a drifter, spending time in and out of prisons for nonviolent crimes.

Gideon was charged with breaking and entering with the intent to commit a misdemeanor, which is a felony under Florida law. He was accused this time of stealing liquor and petty cash from a pool hall in Panama City, Florida in June of 1961. At trial, Gideon appeared in court without an attorney. In open court, he asked the judge to appoint counsel for him because he could not afford an attorney. The trial judge denied Gideon’s request because Florida law only permitted appointment of counsel for poor defendants charged with capital offenses like a murder trial.

At trial, Gideon represented himself – he made an opening statement to the jury, cross-examined the prosecution’s witnesses, presented witnesses in his own defense, declined to testify himself, and made arguments emphasizing his innocence. Despite his efforts, the jury found Gideon guilty and he was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Gideon sought relief from his conviction by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Florida Supreme Court. In his petition, Gideon challenged his conviction and sentence on the ground that the trial judge’s refusal to appoint counsel violated Gideon’s constitutional rights. The Florida Supreme Court denied Gideon’s petition.

Gideon next filed a handwritten petition in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1962. The Court agreed to hear the case to resolve the question of whether the right to counsel guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution applies to defendants in state court. The amazing thing is that the Supreme Court agreed with the drifter and even appointed him a powerful influential Attorney to represent him.

The high court granted Gideon’s request and appointed the well known Washington Attorney and future Supreme Court Judge Justice Abe Fortas to handle Gideon’s appeal. The conviction was reversed. And so it happened that half a century ago the court ruled unanimously in Gideon’s favor. It was news that he heard in his prison cell in Florida. Soon he was released a free man. He set for all citizens an interpretation of the Constitution that helps all citizens in America the right to have an Attorney and that now the courts offer for free representation to help all citizens to a fair trial.

He died in 1972 at the age of 61 not before visiting the Supreme Court that has forever made his name synonymous with a Constitutional Right. Know your rights and know the names of the people that helped all of us have rights in this country.

　

If you want more religion in your life but are too lazy to read the Bible, just go to the History Channel and find the Bible stories played out in full drama and action photography for the miracle parts of the stories. Roma Downey is an Irish actress and producer from Northern Ireland. She played kind-hearted angel Monica on the American TV series Touched by an Angel. Downey received two Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her role on the show. In the Bible episodes, she plays the role of Mary. She is also the wife of the famous reality TV mega-producer Mark Burnett who produced this show.

I guess the ultimate reality show would be to bring the stories of the Bible to video. It is a History Channel miniseries but is hardly mini since it describes stories from both the old Testament and New Testament. I think it is a great new way to get your children and grandchildren hooked onto learning about religion in a way they understand most, the movies. I hate when I go to church and see young families that bring their young kids and to keep them quiet and engaged they are literally playing in the church pews with games and dolls and anything else but religious stuff. I at least bought a comic book version of the Bible stories and my kids read that during the boring blah blah of the expressionless priest doing what he had to do for a sermon.

From the books of Genesis to Revelation, each page is expressed in full action and drama. There is Noah and his Arc, David fighting Goliath and the life and death of Jesus Christ. The show has gotten good ratings. The first night it aired it beat out everything else on TV in the ratings. The only thing that ever came as close in excitement was the 1956 movie called The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea in the miracle of special effects in Technicolor and that movie was made 50 years ago.

 

The couple’s teenage kids made sure that the special effects were to our great standards available today. Now the Bible has $ 22 million dollars to make it look good on video. Mark Burnett is the most successful producer on TV. Not only did he produce 26 seasons of the reality show Survivor but he also produces The Celebrity Apprentice, Shark Tank and The Voice, all very popular shows on TV. The couple has so much money that they did not need to produce The Bible but they thought they had to because even if you do not believe in this religion, the stories are fascinating and everyone should know them.

The couple is conservative and live with their teen children in Malibu, California surrounded by their 3 giant Irish Wolfhound dogs. Both were raised in religious households. Downey is a true Irish Catholic raised by the Sisters of Mercy who were tough nuns that hardly showed any mercy. Burnett found it difficult to find the right guy to play Jesus. They needed to find someone who possessed the ability to have humility and the physical presence to even look like all those pictures of Jesus we all are used to seeing. They found all that in a Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They shot the scenes over a five month period in Morocco on the edge of the Sahara Desert and brought in more than 40 biblical scholars and theologians to help in the research. After all, there are many people all over the world that have read and re-read this book over and over again. They know the stories well. They have also promoted the TV series in front of the congregations of some very famous and successful preachers like Evangelical Pastor Joel Osteen.

Mark Burnett has another TV hit with this one but with all the money he is making from this show, the most gratifying thing he has is the knowledge that he has produced something of value to the world, the stories of The Bible real and vivid on TV.