Memorial Day, 2007

Today is Memorial Day. If you are a U.S. citizen, please take a moment and thank a soldier or veteran that you know.

I would like to thank my two Grandfathers, both of whom fought for this country in the Pacific theater of WWII. Words cannot express the utmost respect and gratitude that I have those two individuals. They put their own young lives on hold to fight for freedom and democracy in a world gripped by the fear of Fascism.

On this day, Memorial Day, I salute and thank my Grandfathers for their service.

Ben Franklin, "Where's Your Country?"

PA House Republican Game and Fisheries Committee Chairman Representative Sam Rohrer (R-Berks) submitted an excellent article to the PAFOA this week. In it, he exposes how officials of the City of Philadelphia are threatening the very principals that Ben Franklin himself set forth.

Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia's native son and one of our nation's Founding Fathers once said:

"Where liberty dwells there is my country," and, furthermore, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety."

Rohrer goes on to call out PA Governor Ed Rendell on his multiple uneducated statements about gun violence and the need for gun control. Mr. Rendell is shown to have his foot in his mouth, as Rohrer counters his unsubstantiated claims with credible, researched facts. Perhaps the most powerful statement Rohrer makes is the following:

Just The Facts: Despite the ongoing increase in private firearm ownership, the United States does not even rank in the Top 10 nations in terms of violent crime. Since 1991, the number of privately owned firearms has increased in the U.S. by no less than 70 million guns and the number of states with right to carry laws have more than doubled from 17 to 38 states, including Pennsylvania. Yet violent crime has decreased by 35 percent—dropping every single year during this time frame to a 30-year low.

Wake up America. Do your research and discover the facts for yourself, rather than flipping on the tube and blindly believing what YOUR politicians like to tell you. Bottom line: be an educated citizen; be an educated voter.

Rudy's Summer Reading List

At a recent press conference, 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul offered a "reading list" to Mr. Giuliani. The books all had to do with U.S. foreign policy in the middle east, and how it has a negative effect on our nation's security. CNN's Situation Room did a short piece about it:

My favorite part of that is at the end when they go through a bunch of people's responses. Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks Rudy (and everyone who applauded for him the night of the debate) is just another ignorant politician trying to tug on people's emotions to gain support.

This all comes down to one thing I constantly preach: education, education, education. The resources and information are out there, but it's up to you to go find and consume it.

Ron Paul responds to Giuliani on CNN

My opinion: Giuliani is a hack and a fraud. He's ignorant and lackluster. If Giuliani is a "Conservative", then I'm a purple monkey.

Now form your own opinion:





If you'd like to learn more about Ron Paul and everything he stands for, please visit his official campaign website and go check out more of Ron Paul on YouTube.

IST 110 Video

And now for something completely different.

This semester I took IST 110 as a general elective. We had a semester group project which was to make a short movie about a technology subject. My group decided to make our video about the Semantic Web. We had a lot of fun making it, and now I've finally gotten around to encoding it to Flash Video so the rest of you can watch it. Enjoy!

I'm having problems embedding the video on here.
Here's the link