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	<title>Barb's Blog</title>
	<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:23:41 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<language>en</language>
	
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		<title>One Page Health Care Plan</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ann Coulter thinks she has a good plan for the health care and it will only take one page instead of 2000.
Her ideas:

Congress will amend the McCarran-Ferguson Act to  allow interstate competition in health insurance.
We can&#8217;t have  a free market in health insurance until Congress eliminates the  antitrust exemption protecting health insurance companies from  competition. If Democrats really wanted to punish insurance companies,  which they manifestly do not, they&#8217;d make insurers compete.
Provide that the exclusive regulator of insurance companies will be the  state where the company&#8217;s home office is. Every insurance company in  the country would incorporate in the state with the fewest government  mandates, just as most corporations are based in Delaware today.
That&#8217;s the only way to bypass idiotic state mandates, requiring all  insurance plans offered in the state to cover, for example, the Zone  Diet, sex-change operations, and ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/17/one-page-health-care-plan/</link>
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		<title>Health Care Bill A Job Killer?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There seems to be a few conclusions out there on the Health Care Bill related to jobs:
Nancy Pelosi declared that the bill would create four million jobs over  the next ten years, with 400,000 new jobs created almost immediately. Pelosi relied on a study written by the left-wing advocacy group Center  for American Progress for those figures, although the Bureau of Labor  Statistics already predicts growth in the health-care industry of 3.2 million jobs without ObamaCare.
Now, Americans for Tax Reform and the Beacon Hill Institute have  conducted their own study using CAP’s methodology and determined that  ObamaCare will destroy jobs, not create them.
Hot Air has an exclusive first look at the BHI executive summary:
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has urged passage of the massive health reform plan moving through Congress as a way to create up to 400,000 jobs.  Speaker ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/17/health-care-bill-a-job-killer/</link>
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		<title>Barack Obama threatens to withdraw support from wavering Democrats</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I question things, especially our leaders, and here is one I had to ask myself.
Obama promised bipartisanship on the campaign trail. I didn&#8217;t believe it then and it doesn&#8217;t look very good so far for keeping his promise.
But how believable can he be, when he threatens his own party when they don&#8217;t agree with him on everything?
From the Telegraph:
Barack Obama threatens to withdraw support from wavering Democrats
Barack Obama has said he will not campaign for any Democratic  congressmen who fails to support health care reform.
The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November  elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill.
A  one-night presidential appearance can bring in hundreds of thousands of  dollars in funds which would otherwise take months to accumulate  through cold-calling by campaign volunteers.
Mr Obama&#8217;s threat came as the year-long debate over his signature  domestic policy entered its ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/16/barack-obama-threatens-to-withdraw-support-from-wavering-democrats/</link>
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		<title>Beatitudes of Marriage</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Blessed are the husband and wife who continue to be affectionate, considerate,  and loving after the wedding bells have ceased ringing.
Blessed are the  husband and wife who are as polite and courteous to one another as they are to  their friends.
Blessed are they who love their mates more than any other  person in the world, and who joyfully fulfill their marriage vow of a lifetime  of fidelity and mutual helpfulness to one another.
Blessed are they who  attain parenthood, for children are a heritage of the Lord.
Blessed are  they who remember to thank God for their food before they partake of it, and who  set apart some time each day for the reading of the Bible and for  prayer.
Blessed are those mates who never speak loudly to one another,  and who make their home a place &#8220;where seldom is heard a ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/16/beatitudes-of-marriage/</link>
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		<title>Bailouts Predicted by the New York Times in 1999</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Jimmy Carter signed the Community  Reinvestment Act in 1977. This required financial institutions to  make loans to lower-income individuals in the communities they served.  Non-compliance with this Act would prevent a bank or savings and loan  from being able to expand within the states it was currently in and  beyond.
It&#8217;s interesting to note when the current  housing and financial crisis, the above statement is often ignored. Even the New York Times in 1999 predicted a possible bailout, here is an excerpt from that paper:

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates  among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is  easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from  banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a  pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets &#8212; including the New  York metropolitan region &#8212; ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/15/bailouts-predicted-by-the-new-york-times-in-1999/</link>
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		<title>Baltimore Colts Memorabilia Found</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My dad must have been one of those that never threw anything away, but he didn&#8217;t leave it out in the open either. Many years since he passed away, we are still finding treasures that he kept, almost hidden away!
This past weekend, Enric and I were in the shed and found these ashtrays and mug that looked like the front page of the Baltimore Sun
December 30, 1968 with the headline:  Colts Rout Browns, 34-0, For NFL Title
December 28, 1959 with the headline: Colts Rally in Final Period to Beat Giants, 31-16, and Keep Pro Grid Title
December29,1939 with the headline: Colts Win Pro Football Championship, Beating Giants in Overtime, 23 To 17




]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/15/baltimore-colts-memorabilia-found/</link>
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		<title>Bengy and the Zipper</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My sister sent me this.
It starts out slow, but gets very funny.
Imagine a man and wife in an argument as they are getting ready and are late for a formal affair.
She asks him to pull up her long zipper in her dress.
He does, and breaks it. The rest is hilarious.

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/15/bengy-and-the-zipper/</link>
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		<title>Embers For Ashes Recher Theater</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last night Embers for Ashes played Recher Theater. This was my third time seeing them at this venue. All the shows there have been very good, but last night they connected with the crowd, and with each other, and it made for a great show.
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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/15/embers-for-ashes-recher-theater/</link>
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		<title>Flax Seed Oil</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Tonight at the party, Chrissy mentioned the health benefits of Flax Seed Oil, which led me to look up some information on it.
I don&#8217;t know if all the claims are true. Here are a few of the things that was said:
Flax Seed Oil contains omega-6 and omega-9 essential fatty acids, B vitamins, potassium, lecithin, magnesium, fiber, protein, and zinc and also provides approximately 50% more omega-3 oils than what you could get from taking fish oil, minus that horrible &#8220;fishy&#8221; after taste. Sounded good to me already!
Should you add flax seed oil to your diet?
Some nutritionists, researchers, and scientists believe that it could be the most important health-promoting supplement next to a multi-vitamin. Nearly every system in the body can benefit from flax seed oil&#8217;s natural properties, including the cardiovascular system, immune system, circulatory system, reproductive system, nervous system, as well as joints.
Just look at this list of facts and ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/13/flax-seed-oil/</link>
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		<title>Cameron&#8217;s Third Birthday</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today we went to Cameron&#8217;s birthday party! It was also a treat for Silas!

Laura (one of his babysitters) holds him in the kitchen.

Silas gets chased by a girl with a gun!

Cameron opens presents.

The cake!




A kiss for mommy.

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/13/camerons-third-birthday/</link>
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		<title>Where Is It Written That Congress Can Regulate Health Care?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Judge Andrew Napolitano gives a speech from the heart about freedom and from where our rights come. The Judge explains the hard core truth about the Constitution and why we must fight to regain and retain our freedoms.
He says: Medicare, broken. Social Security, broken. Medicaid, broken. Amtrak,  broken. Post office, broken. Who in their right mind &#8211;  with that track  record &#8211; would give health care to the same people that have broken  everything they have tried to manage?

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/13/where-is-it-written-that-congress-can-regulate-health-care/</link>
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		<title>Drawing Heaven</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A young self-taught painter with a lot of talent. A video from CNN, and it&#8217;s amazing!

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/13/drawing-heaven/</link>
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		<title>Bravo</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Silas got a little recorder today&#8230; yay, Bravo!

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/12/bravo/</link>
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		<title>Democrats Reveal Facts About Health Care</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism.”
—Vladimir Lenin
For the first time, Democrats admit what Americans already know  about their health care bill: it would raise premiums, it&#8217;s a windfall  for drug companies and insurance companies, votes were secured through  backroom deals, it cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare,  and it raises taxes. 


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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/12/democrats-reveal-facts-about-health-care/</link>
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		<title>World&#8217;s Richest Man &#8211; Not a Santa Claus</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Mexico&#8217;s Carlos Slim, named the world&#8217;s richest man on Wednesday, first showed a talent for business as a 10-year-old kid when he filled his pockets with pesos selling drinks and snacks to his family.
As a youngster he also kept accounting  ledgers of what he earned and spent and bought a government savings bond from which he learned valuable lessons about compound interest.
More than half a century later Slim, 70,  has amassed a fortune of $53.5 billion, beating Microsoft founder Bill Gates to top the list of the world&#8217;s richest people, according to a new ranking published by Forbes magazine.
I thought it was interesting what was said about his frugal lifestyle.
Slim learned his first business lessons from  his father, Julian Slim Haddad, a Lebanese immigrant who came to Mexico in the early 1900s, opened the &#8220;Star of the Orient&#8221; general store and bought properties cheap during the Mexican ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/11/worlds-richest-man-not-a-santa-claus/</link>
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		<title>Obama Health Care: Soprano Tactics?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I am only one of many, a majority of people, who recognize that the health care system in the USA needs help, but are totally against the one Obama has ready for us.
For those who still favor the idea, perhaps they should ask themselves, is it a good bill? If so, then why did it take so many sweetheart deals to get it pushed through this far, and that STILL might not be enough? Why can&#8217;t this bill stand on its own merit??? From the New York Post:
President Obama&#8217;s attempts to ram health- care reform through an  increasingly reluctant Congress are starting to resemble a really  eventful episode of &#8220;The Sopranos.&#8221;
Whether or not you believe  former Rep. Eric Massa&#8217;s bizarre accusations of locker-room  confrontations and conspiracies to drive him from office, there is no  doubt that the Obama administration and its congressional allies are  ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/11/obama-health-care-soprano-tactics/</link>
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		<title>Pride&#8230;Secretly Fears All Competition and Dreads All Rivals</title>
		<description><![CDATA[An article from Chuck Norris:
Obama&#8217;s Oscar by Chuck Norris
I am no pinnacle of humility, and I&#8217;ve learned my fair share of hard lessons from the camps of conceit. But I&#8217;m not sure the former Chicago politician occupying the White House ever has been schooled with a primer on the perils of pride.
It&#8217;s one thing (though still distasteful) to be boastful in a sports or fighting ring; it&#8217;s quite another in the Oval Office. We were promised change, but it seems to me this White House&#8217;s smug swagger and strut rival the great taunts and bluster of Muhammad Ali in his heyday. In fact, if I were handing out awards, President Barack Obama would win hands down the Oscar for overconfidence and arrogance.
Here are a few examples of his Oscar-worthy political performances:
Who can forget the State of the Union address back in January, when the president utterly disregarded and disrespected our ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/11/pride-secretly-fears-all-competition-and-dreads-all-rivals/</link>
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		<title>Kinder Park Farm</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I often speak of Kinder Park, but I often forget one of the things that is so precious about it&#8230;FARM.
Kinder also has a farm on its land, and it makes it really special.
Before that though, we took Silas to the playground.
We first had a bit of  a walk to get there, Laura took her bike.


Silas hardly knew where to start at the playground. A try walking on the ropes?

Laura forgot she is way too old for this&#8230;

Next the slides&#8230;


Then a try on the balance beam&#8230;

A ride on a giant turtle&#8230;

Then to see some goats!



Some rusty farm equipment took his interest.

And so did a chicken.

As well as an expecting pig, due March 24th.

Laura made friends with the chicken, too.

The lambs were sweet.



So were the sheep!

I had the best time with Silas at Kinder Park Farm!
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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/10/kinder-park-farm/</link>
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		<title>Crocus Signals Spring</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We were so pleased to see one tiny flower in bloom today as we walked out the front door.
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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/10/crocus-signals-spring/</link>
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		<title>Grandma Buried Alive</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Keep in mind as you read this, that China makes up the people that own most of our economy these days.
From Fox News
Grandma in China Fighting Property Developers Reportedly Buried Alive

Wang Cuyun from Hubei Province was struggling  with workers trying to tear down her house and was allegedly beaten by a  worker wielding a wooden stick.
She was dumped in a drainage ditch that ringed her property  and a bulldozer covered her with earth, burying her alive.
Witnesses said three policemen were present to supervise the  eviction but did nothing to intervene or protect her.
Her son joined other relatives trying to rescue her. It took  more than half an hour to pull her free from the ditch, by which time  she was dead.
Wang&#8217;s son moved her body to the side of a main road and was  joined by thousands of local residents protesting at her ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/10/grandma-buried-alive/</link>
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		<title>Silas Gets a Taste of Spring</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ok, so it&#8217;s not yet spring, but the weather has indeed been springlike.
He started on the trampoline&#8230;

He then became very fascinated with the lock on the barn door.

Frolicking in the sun.

Then Silas rather likes the bar that we used to use as a device to lock the steering wheel of our car&#8230;

But to Silas, it&#8217;s not a security device for a car, it&#8217;s a trumpet!

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/09/silas-gets-a-taste-of-spring/</link>
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		<title>Pelosi Wants to Pass it So You Can Know What&#8217;s In It.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you ever had a doubt that our representatives read the bills they sign into law, spending trillions of dollars, or if they really care about transparency about what is IN the bills they sign, let Pelosi answer this for you.
In answer to the Health Care Bill, she says, &#8220;We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.&#8221;

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/09/pelosi-wants-to-pass-it-so-you-can-know-whats-in-it/</link>
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		<title>Back to the B&amp;A Trail</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today the good weather took Laura and I to the B&#38;A Trail. It seems like forever that we had been there.

The trail has about an 8-foot wide paved surface and is in good  condition. The total length is 13 miles between Annapolis and Glen Burnie, MD. Once  you  reach the northern terminus, a short connector path will take you over  to the recently completed BWI Trail.
The southern half of the trail cuts through some nice suburban  neighborhoods. As you head farther north, the terrain becomes much more urban. The path goes right past Marley Station Mall before taking you into downtown Glen Burnie. At this point, the B&#38;A right-of-way is taken over by  Baltimore Light Rail.  However, you can continue biking another 12 miles by using  the new BWI Trail network.

We only went on a portion of the trail.
It&#8217;s rather flat and ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/09/back-to-the-ba-trail/</link>
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		<title>Health Care Gets Ugly</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s getting ugly this health care thing&#8230;
To push his health care bill through, Obama has been trying to vilify the Insurance companies.
ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports: President Obama and Democrats launched a campaign to  vilify insurance companies in the final stretch of their health reform  effort.Republicans, meanwhile, pointed out  that those very same insurance companies would get huge checks from the  government if health reform is enacted.
“(Health Insurers) will keep on doing  this for as long as they can get away with it. This is no secret,” the  president said. “They&#8217;re telling their investors this – ‘We are in the  money.  We are going to keep on making big profits even though a lot of  folks are going to be put under hardship,’” the President told  supporters at a stop in Pennsylvania today.
Neither mentioned that the Senate  health reform bill, ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/08/health-care-gets-ugly/</link>
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		<title>Back to Kinder Park</title>
		<description><![CDATA[With the nice change of weather in the upper 50&#8217;s, Laura and I decided to go to Kinder Park.
The fact that it is technically still winter was still there, with snow from our last blizzards still in scattered places around the park&#8230;


Because of the winter, not much was &#8220;alive&#8221; at Kinder today.
Some berries&#8230;

&#8230;some ducks too.

Of course, the ever present silos were still there.

Laura got to try out her new bike!

And before we left, we saw a robin signaling the hope for spring!

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/08/back-to-kinder-park/</link>
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		<title>There&#8217;s A Communist Living in the White House</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I didn&#8217;t know what to make of this. Victoria Jackson from Saturday Night Live strumming a ukulele and singing, &#8220;There&#8217;s a communist living in the White House.&#8221;

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/08/theres-a-communist-living-in-the-white-house/</link>
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		<title>One Way to Get Fit</title>
		<description><![CDATA[US Naval Academy Performance Kings Firecrackers

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/07/one-way-to-get-fit/</link>
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		<title>Choices</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Lately, I&#8217;ve been thinking a lot about choices. We make them each day, and we&#8217;re accountable for them&#8230; today this was a story read in church:
Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate.  He is always in a good  mood
and always has something positive to say.
When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, &#8220;If I  were any
better, I would be twins!&#8221;
He was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the  employee
how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to  Michael
and asked him, &#8220;I don&#8217;t get it!  You can&#8217;t be a positive person all of  the
time.  How do you do it?&#8221;
Michael replied, &#8220;Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have  two
choices today.
You ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/07/choices/</link>
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		<title>Entice Travel to the U.S.  Charge $10?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Apparently travel to the U.S. is down. So to help this we will charge visitors $10?
I don&#8217;t get it.
According to Breitbart:
The US  Travel Association industry group estimates that a 10-year drop in  US tourism &#8212; much of it after the September 11, 2001 attacks &#8212; has  cost some 440,000 jobs and a half-trillion dollars in related spending. 
Yahoo posts:
President Barack Obama has signed a bill creating a program to  promote the U.S. as a premier tourism destination for international  travelers.The U.S. Travel Association calls it a major step in  addressing the drop-off in such visits to the U.S. during the past  decade. The association says the U.S. welcomed 2.4 million fewer  overseas visitors last year than in 2000. And that, the group says, has  cost it an estimated $509 billion in total spending and $32 billion in direct tax receipts.
Government and ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/05/entice-travel-to-the-u-s-charge-10/</link>
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		<title>Desktop Independent</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
As I ponder whether or not to get a new desktop (the one I have, an HP,  is over 8 years old and acting it&#8217;s age, and I already have a laptop), I stumble upon this article:
“Desktops  dead in three years”


A charming young buck by the name of John Herlihy of Google Europe  believes, like most people in the Western World that desktop PCs will be  dead in the next few years. However, he believes they’ll become  irrelevant by the year 2013, which may put a damper on some PC makers’  sales forecasts.
“In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant. In  Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs,” Herlihy  told a baffled audience, echoing comments by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at  the recent GSM Association Mobile World Congress 2010 that everything  the company will do going forward ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/05/desktop-independent/</link>
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		<title>Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine. There is no video because this was an LP sent out by the American Medical Association.
It&#8217;s almost prophetic&#8230;

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/04/ronald-reagan-speaks-out-against-socialized-medicine/</link>
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		<title>John Stossel says Get Government Out of Energy Game</title>
		<description><![CDATA[John Stossel says free markets, not politicians, should lead way on energy research.

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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/04/john-stossel-says-get-government-out-of-energy-game/</link>
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		<title>Chasing a Moth</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Daily, our cat Jasper reminds us that even though he is growing up and getting to be full sized, there is a lot of kitten left in him&#8230;
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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/03/chasing-a-moth/</link>
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		<title>Bogus Green Jobs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[‘Anti-Lobbyist’ Obama Administration Recruited Left-Wing Lobbyists  to Sell Bogus ‘Green Jobs’
From Pajamas Media:
After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions  regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a  Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of  Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack  the studies.
Via the FOIA request, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has  learned that the Department of Energy — specifically the office headed  by Al Gore’s company’s former CEO, Cathy Zoi — turned to George Soros’  Center for American Progress and other wind industry lobbyists to help  push Obama’s wind energy proposals.
The FOIA request was not entirely complied with, and CEI just filed  an appeal over documents still being withheld. In addition to  withholding many internal communications, the administration is  withholding communications with these lobbyists and other ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/03/bogus-green-jobs/</link>
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		<title>Nuclear Option</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From Fox News: House Panel Paves Way for &#8216;Nuclear Option&#8217; in Health Care Reform Bill
A key House committee on Thursday quietly altered its health care  legislation in a way that could allow the Senate to mow over Republican  opposition to Democratic reforms by exploiting a budgetary loophole.
The Ways and Means Committee adjusted its health care overhaul  package so that the Senate, down the road, could avoid a filibuster and  pass health care reform with a smaller number of votes than normally  required.
The long-discussed process, nicknamed the &#8220;nuclear option,&#8221; is known  as reconciliation. It&#8217;s coming into potential play after the Senate  Finance Committee on Tuesday became the last of five committees to  approve health care reform legislation, sending the overhaul proposals a  big step closer to the president&#8217;s desk. Before it gets there, though,  the bill has to pass from the ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/03/nuclear-option/</link>
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		<title>A Visit from Anthony</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Zach and Danielle brought Anthony to visit us!








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		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/03/02/a-visit-from-anthony/</link>
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		<title>Gold Medals, Beer, Champagne, Cigars, Condoms</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Somehow, the following doesn&#8217;t meet my image of an Olympic Athlete: Drinking beer, champagne, and smoking cigars celebrating a win in plain view. I don&#8217;t know what was the message here&#8230;



Canada&#8217;s top Olympic official sees no reason to put a damper on the  women&#8217;s hockey team&#8217;s beer-swigging, cigar-smoking celebration of its  gold-medal victory over the U.S. team.
In Whistler and Vancouver, Olympic sentiment largely  supported the players who went back onto the ice for an impromptu party  well after the fans had left Canada Hockey Place on Thursday.
While the players spent much of Friday apologizing for their  exuberance, several top Olympic officials praised the Canadians&#8217; third  straight gold-medal run, even while encouraging them to be a bit more  discreet next time.
&#8220;As far as we&#8217;re concerned, the matter is closed,&#8221; said Michael  Chambers, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee. &#8220;It was nothing  more ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/27/gold-medals-beer-champagne-cigars-condoms/</link>
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		<title>Fun Factory</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I had to make a run to CVS, and Miranda decided she did too. Silas started to get excited that he was going bye byes in Nana&#8217;s car, and his enthusiasm just made me want to get our very active toddler something that would keep him busy.
While getting the things I needed, I found the Play Doh Fun Factory.
This kept Silas busy from the time we got home, until bedtime!



]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/27/fun-factory/</link>
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		<title>Majority Says Government a Threat to Citizens&#8217; Rights</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From CNN
A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to  rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.
The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question:
only 37 percent  of Democrats,
63 percent of Independents and nearly
7 in 10 Republicans  say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.
It seems Republicans and Independents think fairly alike on this issue.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/27/majority-says-government-a-threat-to-citizens-rights/</link>
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		<title>Health Care Summit &#8211; Seek Immediate Medical Help</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I didn&#8217;t watch or have time for the health care summit on the television. I don&#8217;t need politicians spin on a Health Care Bill that I already know I don&#8217;t want. I am not alone in that, most people in this country don&#8217;t want it either. So why are they trying to push it on the American people?
If you read the bill, you will find little about health care, and more about control of our lives. Why spend billions that we don&#8217;t have, call it about health care, and have it control our every move? Well, a good question to ask its supporters. I surely do not know.
Knowing this, I just opted to wait and see what the news agencies would have to say on the summit today.
I learned from the Washington times that the democrats spoke 233 minutes and the Republicans got only 114 minutes to speak their ideas. ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/26/health-care-summit-seek-immediate-medical-help/</link>
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		<title>Silas Idol</title>
		<description><![CDATA[So as our usual, Laura and I are tuned into American Idol. Last night, Silas decided to steal the show. So Laura, ever quick with her cell phone&#8217;s video capabilities, recorded Silas. Now Silas has been watching a lot of The Three Tenors of late, and might explain some of his drama while singing.
Either way, he stole the show as far as we were concerned.
Enjoy, Silas Idol!

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/25/silas-idol/</link>
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		<title>Silas Loves</title>
		<description><![CDATA[With a little help from Laura, Silas names some of the people he loves&#8230;

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/25/silas-loves/</link>
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		<title>As Despotic as They Need to Be</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Politically, there has been a lot to blog about, but I have resisted. I think it&#8217;s that overload often talked about. We are saturated with this stuff to the point that we turn it off after awhile, and some think, yes, that&#8217;s the idea &#8211; saturate them and they will turn it off.
One thing is for sure, Obama and the Democrat controlled congress is losing it&#8217;s appeal to the everyday American.

Even so they are trying everything to push this kind of legislation through.
They forget that the American people do not want a trillion dollar 2000 page health care bill.
A bill that if you read it closely seems to have little to do with health, and a lot to do with controlling our every move!
They forget that the American people don&#8217;t want a Cap and Trade bill, knowing that similar bills have crippled nations like Spain.
To enact cap-and-trade by  executive ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/25/as-despotic-as-they-need-to-be/</link>
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		<title>Wall Street Bailouts Benefits K Street Lobbyists</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Perhaps I am in the wrong business?
From The Hill
Despite his push to rein in special interests, President Barack Obama  sparked a boom on K Street with major new proposals on healthcare,  climate change and financial policies.
Healthcare clients spent the most overall on lobbying at $544  million, which was roughly $60 million more than in 2008. But there were  more lobbyists (3,405) on healthcare issues than on either energy  (2,311) or financial legislation (2,654).
Lobbyists earned an  average of $160,000 for healthcare-related work.
Energy  clients paid $409 million for an average of $177,000 per lobbyist.  Lobbyists for energy clients beat out financial lobbyists for top  billing.
Energy has long been a significant source of lobbying  spending. But as a generator of revenue for K Street, the sector really  took off after 2007 when the Democrats, now in control of Congress,  began pushing ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/23/wall-street-bailouts-benefits-k-street-lobbyists/</link>
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		<title>Obama Administration Denies Public Access to Fannie and Freddie Documents</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you had a 400 billion dollar bill, and you were partially responsible to pay for it, wouldn&#8217;t you like to know WHY and HOW this bill came to be?
Fannie and Freddie Mac alone will likely comprise 400 billion of the trillions that went out in the bailouts. The American people are paying the bill and told very little. Don&#8217;t you think we have a right to know? What about the transparency this administration promised?
Unfortunately the Obama administration disagrees. Just last month the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the agency  responsible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, responded to our FOIA  lawsuit by telling us that all of the documents we seek are not  “FOIA-able”!
“…Any records created by or held in the custody of the Enterprises  reflecting their political campaign contributions or policies,  stipulations and requirements concerning campaign contributions  necessarily are private corporate documents. ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/22/obama-administration-denies-public-access-to-fannie-and-freddie-documents/</link>
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		<title>Cabin Fever</title>
		<description><![CDATA[After days and days of  so many feet of snow outside, and little melting, you have to just get out anyway.
Saturday was one of those days, and we decided to take Silas to the park.
There had been a few warmish days, however it was a tad disheartening to see the park benches nearly still covered in snow.
Silas wanted to go on the slide, but there was a mini lake under it!
Silas braves the slide anyway!


Silas had a great day, and so did the rest of us watching him enjoy the park in the snow.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/21/cabin-fever/</link>
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		<title>Web cam Fun with Silas</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Silas sat on my lap today we and had loads of fun in front of the web cam.
It was definitely giggles and good times!
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/20/web-cam-fun-with-silas/</link>
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		<title>Alarming Homelessness Under Obama</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Remember the lady who was going to be so thankful to Obama, because she wasn&#8217;t going to have to ever worry about paying her mortgage?

Maybe in a backwards way, she was right.
I mean if they foreclose on your house, there is no mortgage anymore to pay for and there is ALARMING homelessness under Obama&#8230;.
On Yahoo News: Suburban homeless: Rising tide of women, families.
Homelessness in rural and suburban America is straining shelters this winter as the economy founders and joblessness hovers near double digits — a &#8220;perfect storm of foreclosures, unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing,&#8221; in one official&#8217;s eyes.&#8221;We are seeing many families that never before sought government help,&#8221; said Greg Blass, commissioner of Social Services in Suffolk County on eastern Long Island.
&#8220;We see a spiral in food stamps, heating assistance applications; Medicaid is skyrocketing,&#8221; Blass added. &#8220;It is truly reaching a stage of being alarming.&#8221;
The federal government is ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/17/alarming-homelessness-under-obama/</link>
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		<title>Blink</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Currently Reading: Blink
&#8220;You are a very cynical man; has anyone ever told you that? I&#8217;ve spent half a day with you, and honestly I don&#8217;t know what you believe in.&#8221;
&#8220;I believe in lots of things. God for instance.&#8221;
&#8220;God? But you despise religion?&#8221;
&#8220;I believe in God because only an idiot could look at the intricate balance of nature and believe it was not designed.  Believe it or not, some people still believe a watch can form itself out of sand given enough time. They call it evolution. And you wonder why I&#8217;m cynical. From where I&#8217;m standing, I&#8217;d have to be a fool not to be cynical.&#8221;

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/16/blink/</link>
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		<title>Authentic Love</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
This Valentines Day, this very proud mama got to hear her son preach tonight.
Being Valentines Day, Enric chose Authentic Love as his topic for teaching.
Enric teaches how our culture gives a view of love that is different from the Bible.
He also gives a very personal and heartwarming testimony of many touching ways that authentic love has been shown to him and his family. We needed tissues at the end!
Listen to &#8220;Authentic Love&#8221; » HERE
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/14/authentic-love/</link>
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		<title>Baltimore Auto Show 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A few times in the past I have given to Miquel as his Valentine&#8217;s present,  a visit to the car show in Baltimore&#8217;s Convention Center. In the years past, it has been overwhelmingly amazing and it was almost too much show to see in one visit.
This year, I was excited to have more Valentines to take, and we set out yesterday to the Maryland Auto Show. There were some noticeable changes at the start. Not having gone the past two years, I guess some changes were to be expected. One thing different was that free parking at Camden Yards with a free shuttle bus to the Convention Center was no longer available.
We drove in, parked on Eutaw Street, and walked in the high snow and icy sidewalks with a whipping wind and made our way to the Convention Center.
Here are the images of our day. (More images on my gallery ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/14/baltimore-auto-show-2010/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Valentines</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Happy Valentines Day &#8211; &#8220;And this commandment have we from him. That he who loveth God love his brother also.&#8221; 1 John 4:21



]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/14/valentines/</link>
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		<title>Snow Makes Great Roads</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Silas has learned once the shoveling is done, snow makes great roads for his big truck.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/12/snow-makes-great-roads/</link>
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		<title>Bailout Greece?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Greece in is financial trouble and The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, dashed hopes of a swift bailout of debt-laden Greece yesterday.
The euro continued to fall today amid disappointment that the European Union has not come up with a solid rescue plan for Greece. Figures showing that Germany&#8217;s economic recovery unexpectedly stalled in the final quarter of last year added to the euro&#8217;s woes.
A small headline barely a notice for most Americans maybe, but perhaps we should be closer attention. Pat Buchanan has a very interesting take on the subject, I think we should pay close attention:

They are called the PIGS &#8212; Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. What they have in common is that all are facing deficits and debts that could bring on national defaults and break up the European Union.
What brought the PIGS to the edge of the abyss?
All are neo-socialist states that provide welfare for poor people, generous unemployment, ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/12/bailout-greece/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>What Are The Seven Deadly Sins of a narcissist? &#8211; Dr. Sam Vaknin</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/12/what-are-the-seven-deadly-sins-of-a-narcissist-dr-sam-vaknin/</link>
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		<title>Great Danger to be Feared</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;I place the economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the great danger to be feared. To preserve your independence, we must not let our leaders load us with perpetual debt. We mus t make our choice between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude.&#8221; 
~ Thomas Jefferson


How true. I am always surprised on the foresight of our forefathers. Yet in all our access to knowledge and what we can learn from the past, we seem to resist all the common sense they wrote down for us.



]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/11/great-danger-to-be-feared/</link>
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		<title>Biden Credits Obama with Iraq War Success</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We all know that Joe Biden can say the most interesting of things. But recently on the Larry King Show he truly surprised me.
&#8220;I am very optimistic about &#8212; about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You&#8217;re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You&#8217;re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.&#8221;
How on earth he can credit Obama with that?
This is the SAME Obama who doomed Iraq to failure, who when he even bothered to show up to vote, he wouldn&#8217;t vote for the 20,000 troop surge?
How short does he think American memories are? Good or bad, the success (or blame) falls directly on the Bush Administration.
Biden, (usually not without words) did not elaborate on what all the administration&#8217;s other &#8220;great achievements&#8221; were so far.
Here ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/11/biden-credits-obama-with-iraq-war-success/</link>
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		<title>Obama Flip Flops on Big Bonuses</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama shows again his doublemindedness.
Remember when big bonuses were a bad thing? In March 2009, President Obama called the AIG bonuses an &#8220;outrage.&#8221;
Flashback: Obama Says Bonuses Are Violation Of &#8220;Our Fundamental Values&#8221;

NOW: Obama Doesn&#8217;t &#8220;Begrudge&#8221; Millions in Bonuses for &#8216;Savvy&#8217; Bankers
Of course not! Not when the bankers are his &#8220;friends&#8221; and big campaign contributors.
President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase &#38; Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.
The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”
“I know both those guys; ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/10/obama-flip-flops-on-big-bonues/</link>
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		<title>Snowiest Winter</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The climate report from the National Weather Service was just posted and the word out of BWI-Marshall airport is that 4″ of snow fell on February 9th, pushing the winter total snowfall to 64.4″, which makes the winter of 2009-’10 the snowiest winter on record for Baltimore.  The old record of 62.5″ didn’t last very long; it was set in the winter of 1995-’96.  Official snow records go back to 1883 (other weather records date back to 1871, but for some reason snowfall records begin in 1883), and only three times prior to this winter was there more than 50″ of snow in a single winter season, most recently in 2002-’03 when 58.1″ fell.  This year’s record breaking snowfall is significant in that the record was broken with more than half of February and all of March still looming for potential snowstorms.

I&#8217;ve been rather sick and unable to enjoy the ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/10/snowiest-winter/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Scenes in Baltimore, Blizzard of 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Another video HERE
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/09/scenes-in-baltimore-blizzard-of-2010/</link>
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		<title>Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Wall Street Journal is reporting that Obama underwrites offshore drilling, and while you might not be hearing this story in the mainstream media, even WSJ is trying to look positive on this story.
Digging deeper, as Glenn Beck did, here is what you find out:
&#8220;Today, even though President Obama is against off shore drilling for our  country, he signed an executive order to loan 2 Billion of our taxpayers dollars  to a Brazilian Oil Exploration Company (Petrobras, which is the 8th largest company in the  entire world) to drill for oil off the coast of Brazil!  The oil that comes from  this operation is for the sole purpose and use of China and NOT THE  U.S.A.
Now here&#8217;s the real clincher&#8230;the Chinese government is under  contract to purchase all the oil that this oil field will produce, which is  hundreds of millions of barrels of oil&#8221;.
We ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/09/obama-underwrites-offshore-drilling/</link>
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		<title>She Seeks Representation</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Kathy sent me this letter from a 53 year old woman written to our government. It was read by Glenn Beck on the air, and she nailed how many of us feel very well.
Have a read, her personal We The People&#8230;
&#8220;I am a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before  the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer  felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues  important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views  or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer  feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or  works to pursue the issues important to me.   Instead, we are burdened with  Congressional Dukes and Duchesses who think they know better than the citizens  they ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/08/she-seeks-representation/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Audi Green Police Super Bowl Ad</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last night I posted my favorite Super Bowl Ad (from Google) but today after some thought, I wish to share the most frightful Super Bowl Ad. It was from Audi and it&#8217;s Green Car. Frightful, because even though they might have been trying to be funny, it just hit too close to the truth, what could be our future:

And this in the face of all the Climate Change, and Global Warming fraud out there!
If video above doesn&#8217;t work, try this LINK
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/08/audi-green-police-super-bowl-ad/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Google Super Bowl Ad</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ok, I am a romantic. This is my favorite ad during the Super Bowl tonight.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/07/google-super-bowl-ad/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Silas Relaxes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[With the cleaning of the cars done&#8230;



Cleaning off the cars &#8220;Blizzard 2010&#8243;


And the snow and the cold not going anywhere&#8230;



Record 32 inches in Pasadena


Silas shows us all how to relax indoors, while he and Miquel check out
Laura&#8217;s new book, &#8220;Dear John&#8221;
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/07/silas-relaxes/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Polluters, Ant Watchers, Slumlords, Oh My!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From Fox News
Federal agencies are spending stimulus money at the rate of $196 million an hour. And they will do so every hour for the next eight months until a September 30, 2010, deadline.
&#8220;When you put that kind of money out the door that fast, there&#8217;s a possibility of $55 billion dollars of waste, fraud and abuse connected with it,&#8221; Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Thursday before a Senate Finance Committee hearing examining the lack of oversight in the $878 billion dollar economic stimulus bill passed a year ago.
The dollars and the amounts are starting not to mean anything anymore I think&#8230;Anyway, have a look and see if these are the kind of &#8220;jobs&#8221; America needs. Most, from my point of view, are questionable and that is putting it mildly. Fraud and Abuse just begins to cover it.

$233,000 to the University of California at San Diego to study why Africans ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/07/polluters-ant-watchers-slumlords-oh-my/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Letter to his Grandson</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Letter to his Grandson
Fred I Kent
Mr Kent’s grandson, then a schoolboy, was disturbed by the current fashion of disparaging the profit system. He had asked his grandfather to explain just how there can be a profit which is not taken from the work of someone else.
April 1942
Mr dear grandson:
I will answer your question as simply as I can. Profit is the result of enterprise which builds for others as well as for the enterpriser. Let us consider the operation of this fact in a primitive community, say of one hundred persons who are non-intelligent beyond the point of obtaining the mere necessities of living by working hard all day long.
Our primitive community, dwelling at the foot of a mountain, must have water. There is no water except at a spring near the top of the mountain: therefore, every day all the hundred persons climb to the top of the mountain. ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/06/letter-to-his-grandson/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Blizzard 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well in the midst of blizzard conditions here in Maryland, we are looking to break records for snow.
Some images so far:
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/06/blizzard-2010/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Lech Walesa&#8217;s Warning for America</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In a video-taped interview by a group known as foundingbloggers.com, Walesa indicated that the U.S. was heading toward socialism because of two factors:
&#8220;The issue with the banks; and the government wastes all the money; they build a bureaucracy; just for itself.&#8221; 
He nailed it. &#8220;The government wastes all the money, they build a bureaucracy&#8230;..JUST FOR ITSELF.
That just says it all, doesn&#8217;t it?
He went on to reassure:
&#8220;But we will not let you devolve to communism here.
The U.S. is a superpower.  Nobody doubts that.  Today they lead the world-militarily.  They also lead economically, but they are weak. 
They don&#8217;t lead morally and politically any more.  The world has no leadership.  The U.S. was the last resort and hope for all the nations.  Today we have lost the hope.


All this said was at a fundraiser on Friday, January 29, to endorse Adam Andrzejewski who is one of six Republicans seeking the nomination of ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/05/lech-walesas-warning-for-america/</link>
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		<title>Stimulus for Fraud</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Michael E. Mann is an American climatologist, and author of more than 80 peer-reviewed journal publications. He has attained public prominence as lead author of a number of articles on paleoclimate and as one of the originators of a graph of temperature trends dubbed the &#8220;hockey stick graph&#8221; for the shape of the graph. The graph received both praise and criticism after its publication in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
Mann was implicated in the global warming email and document conspiracy in 2009 and work has been challenged in the past AND is receiving a half million dollars in Stimulus cash.
“It’s outrageous that economic stimulus money is being used to support research conducted by Michael Mann at the very time he’s under investigation by Penn State and is one of the key figures in the international Climategate scandal. Penn State should immediately return these funds to the U.S. ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/04/stimulus-for-fraud/</link>
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		<title>A Poem for Margie</title>
		<description><![CDATA[COME WITH  ME
 The Lord saw you  getting tired
 And a cure was not  to be,
 So He put his arms  aroud you
 And whispered,  &#8220;Come with me.&#8221;
 With tearful eyes,  we watched you suffer
 And saw you fade  away,
 Although  we loved you dearly,
 We could not make  you stay.
 A golden heart  stopped beating,
A beautiful smile  at rest,
God broke our  hearts to prove
He only takes the  best.
It&#8217;s lonesome here  without you
We miss you so each  day,
Our lives aren&#8217;t  the same
Since you went  away.
When days are sad  and lonely,
And everything goes  wrong,
We seem to hear you  whisper,
&#8220;Cheer  up and carry on.&#8221;
Each time we see  your picture,
You  seem to smile and say,
&#8220;Don&#8217;t cry, I&#8217;m in  God&#8217;s keeping,
We&#8217;ll  meet again someday.&#8221;
by Rhonda  Braswell
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/04/a-poem-for-margie/</link>
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		<title>Potentially Paralyzing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I often visit the Weather.com site.
Being sick sort of has me out of the loop. So imagine when I went to Drudge today, and clicked on a weather related link and saw our area on the map labeled Potentially Paralyzing!

This can&#8217;t be good. The next time we have so many acorns in fall, I will believe the wives tale that they are a sign of a HARSH winter!
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/03/potentially-paralyzing/</link>
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		<title>Zilch</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When Petra lived with us, she taught me the most fun dice game. We would have so much fun, it&#8217;s hard to believe that 6 dice and a paper keeping score could be so entertaining. Today online, through Good Experience, I found a very close relative to the dice game Petra taught me, and it&#8217;s called Zilch.
In Petra&#8217;s version, one&#8217;s are 100 points, fives are 50. If you get three of a kind, say, 3 sixes, that will be 600. Three ones are 1000. Straights are 1500 and since you used all six die, you roll again. The first one to 10,000 points wins. Also in Petra&#8217;s version, you had to have at least 350 points before deciding not to roll again, fearing to lose your turn.


Play Zilch HERE
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/03/zilch/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Allowance for Climate Policy</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ah that sneaky Obama&#8230;
From Informed Citizens
The big news in last year’s budget release was the revelation that the Obama administration planned to use cap-and-trade to raise $646 billion dollars over ten years to finance its big spending programs. At the time I wrote here in the Fox Forum that estimate was a lowball of what actually constituted the biggest tax increase in U.S. history, something White House economist Jason Furman later admitted when he revealed the real revenue would likely be triple the official estimate. So the first thing I checked in this year’s budget was how much revenue was expected from the cap-and-trade energy tax, to which the president reiterated his commitment in his State of the Union address last week. The surprising answer is the budget actually has, literally, a blank line for the cap-and-trade tax. A black box. A slush fund. A secret budget-within-the-budget. Talk about a ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/03/allowance-for-climate-policy/</link>
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		<title>Fortune Cookie</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I am sick today and pretty much staying in bed.
When I get so sick, I love to have some Won Ton Soup. Miranda and Laura brought me some, and also a fortune cookie.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/02/fortune-cookie/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Canada Health Care</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve heard stories of Canadians crossing the border to the U.S. to get health care. Now in the midst of Obama trying to change our system completely, we have a story of Premier Danny Williams coming to the U.S. for heart surgery.
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.
National Post Story HERE
Mr. Williams, 59, has said nothing of his health in the media. The premier&#8217;s press secretary confirmed the report Monday evening.
Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.
A decision to leave Canada for the surgery, especially if it is available here, raises questions about the Premier&#8217;s confidence in Newfoundland&#8217;s health care system.



]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/02/canada-health-care/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Backdoor Taxes to Hit Middle Class</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama promised no taxes on middle and lower class, but there is one way the common folk like you and me could feel that promise broken is if Obama allows the Bush administration&#8217;s Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 to expire.

Some little reported news on Reueters:
In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year &#8212; effectively a tax hike by stealth.
While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.
The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration&#8217;s Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/02/backdoor-taxes-to-hit-middle-class/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Dem. Senators Spent Weekend with Bank, Energy, Tobacco Lobbyists</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From Politico
Twelve Democratic Senators spent last weekend in Miami Beach raising money from top lobbyists for oil, drug, and other corporate interests that they often decry, according to a guest list for the event obtained by POLITICO.
The guest list for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee&#8217;s &#8220;winter retreat&#8221; at the Ritz Carlton South Beach Resort doesn&#8217;t include the price tag for attendance, but the maximum contribution to the committee, typical for such events, is $30,000. There, to participate in &#8220;informal conversations&#8221; and other meetings Saturday, were senators including DSCC Chairman Robert Menendez; Michigan&#8217;s Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow; Bob Casey of Pennsylvania; Claire McCaskill of Missouri; freshmen Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Begich of Alaska; and even left-leaning Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
This seems so much in contrast to President Obama&#8217;s promises in his campaign AND as president&#8230;
The retreat&#8217;s guest list is a marked contrast to Menendez&#8217;s recent rhetoric, which ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/02/01/dem-senators-spent-weekend-with-bank-energy-tobacco-lobbyists/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Retro</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Retro is fun. I like looking back to easier times; good times spent with family and remembering songs and the way things looked back then&#8230;.
What a pleasant experience it has been to work for a new client, Paul &#38; Kathy Hittle of Severn Gas Pumps. Going to their house and workstation was like time travel. They restore old gas pumps, even as old as the 1900&#8217;s, all the way up to the 1960&#8217;s. They also have a collection of old signs, air meters, collectible clocks, and so much more.
I can&#8217;t begin to describe the immenseness of their inventory, but I can tell you the finished product is amazing. They truly live up to their slogan, &#8220;Restoring America&#8217;s Past&#8221;
For more, please visit Severn Gas Pumps HERE Besides an amazing inventory, they are two of  nicest people you will ever meet!
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/31/retro/</link>
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		<title>The Cost of Illegal Immigration</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Lisa sent this to me. Mind you, I am all for legal immigration, but this surely makes you think.
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state  governments.
Verify  at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2.    $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on  food  assistance programs such as food stamps,  WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify  at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5  Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
Verify  at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12  Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and  secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of  English!
Verify  at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17  Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the  American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor  babies.
Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6.   $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal  aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7.   30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify  at: ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/31/the-cost-of-illegal-immigration/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Snow Day</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today a few inches of promised snow will have turned into 8 by tonight. So today turned into an &#8220;update the look of my blog day.&#8221;  While I passed the time doing that, (and in between falling and driving in the snow), I took photos of a few of the birds coming to the feeder in the cold.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/30/snow-day/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>State of The Union</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last night&#8217;s speech&#8230; the words disconnect and delusional came to mind at the time.
Today, even ABC felt that Obama didn&#8217;t get his facts straight. (Does he ever?)
Point number one. &#8220;Foreign companies to spend without limit in our elections.&#8221;
The president has assailed the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision on campaign financing, and tonight said, &#8220;The Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests &#8212; including foreign companies &#8212; to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don&#8217;t think American elections should be bankrolled by America&#8217;s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities.&#8221;
According to Atlas Shrugs:
This from the first president in history to flout election campaign laws and receive millions from foreign countries (including Gaza), blockbusting stories that broke at Atlas all during the campaign.
When You watch this video Watch the girl in the second row of the Justices all the way to the right &#8230;..Facial ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/28/state-of-the-union/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Do YOU Know What is in the Health Care Bill?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In the video are a few key points of the bill that might surprise (and upset) you.

Copy of the Health Care Bill HERE (PDF Format)
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/27/do-you-know-what-is-in-the-health-care-bill/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Silas, Cardinal, and the Puzzle</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Almost everyday, I lift Silas  up to my window and we watch the cardinal as he perches on the fence by the house. He gets very excited and shouts, &#8220;Red bird, red bird!&#8221;
So, he was very delighted to see for my mom&#8217;s winter project, a jigsaw puzzle of a cardinal.


]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/27/silas-cardinal-and-the-puzzle/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Boys and Chairs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I love it when children take everyday objects and let their imaginations transform them into something else.
In the boys case today chairs were a train or a bus or something fun. They sure made it fun.


]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/27/boys-and-chairs/</link>
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		<title>Climategate</title>
		<description><![CDATA[According to PrisonPlanet&#8230;
Global warming is heading to the same dustbin of history as Y2K, SARS and swine flu – another manufactured scare peddled primarily to make vast profits for corrupt elitists at the expense of the general public. The entire fraud is collapsing under the weight of its own lies as new revelations  of IPCC deception and bias emerge on an almost daily basis&#8230;
The first major blow came when the IPCC had to admit that their 2007 forecast that the Himalayan Glaciers would disappear by 2035 was completely wrong. The absurd claim was first made by a little-known Indian scientist in an interview for an online magazine, invoked by the World Wildlife Fund, and then copied into the 2007 IPCC report with no investigation as to its accuracy.
It then emerged that the scientist who first made the claim, Syed Hasnain, is now employed by The Energy Research Institute – ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/27/climategate-2/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Obama&#8217;s Big Chill</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The announcement that President Obama will freeze non-military discretionary spending for three years has the liberal caucus in a tizzy.
And why not? No less than four times during the presidential debates did President Obama actively campaign against an across the board spending freeze.

Is Obama borrowing from McCain now?
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/26/obamas-big-chill/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Dollars and Denmark</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This year, when you&#8217;re filing your tax forms, and perhaps  writing that check to your government, you might want to consider (besides all the other foolish expenses) the cost of our officials recent trip to Copenhagen.
From CBS NEWS
Congress Went to Denmark, You Got the Bill  (TRIPS TO COPENHAGEN COST OVER $1,000,000...)

For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That&#8217;s $2,200 a day &#8211; more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment.
CBS News asked members of Congress and staff about whether they&#8217;re mindful that it&#8217;s public tax dollars they&#8217;re spending. Many said they had never even seen the bills or the expense reports.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is a key climate change player. He went to Copenhagen last year. Last week, we asked him about the $2,200-a-day bill for room and food.
&#8220;I can&#8217;t believe that,&#8221; Rep. Waxman said. &#8220;I can&#8217;t ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/25/dollars-and-denmark/</link>
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		<title>Government Run?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This came to my email today&#8230;
To President Obama and  all 535 voting members of the  Legislature,
The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke. 
Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke. 
Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke. 
War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to &#8220;the poor&#8221; and they only want more. 
Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke. 
Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke. 
The ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/25/government-run/</link>
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		<title>Cry Translator</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Hungry
Annoyed
Tired
Stressed
Bored
A list of things that can make a baby cry.
Iphone now claims it can translate those cries for you.
A team led by Dr Antonio Portugal Ramírez, a Spanish pediatrician, devised a program to analyse the sound through the phone&#8217;s mic, and display the translation.
The £17.99 app, called the Cry Translator, was launched first in the US.
The makers claim 96 per cent accuracy. But parenting experts believe it could make people rely on technology, not instinct and experience.
Story HERE


]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/21/cry-translator/</link>
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		<title>7 Ways to Survive the Jobless Recovery</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In spite of the government telling us the recession is over, I am hearing of layoffs, pay cuts, and people not able to find jobs yet.
I was very interested in the headline I recently found, 7 Ways to Survive the Jobless Recovery.
Here are some snippets:
1. Don&#8216;t wait for lost jobs to return. Chances are they won&#8217;t. In prior recessions, many job losses were temporary, and laid-off workers were often called back. But this time there&#8217;s a lot more going on than just a recession.
2. Don&#8216;t count on big companies. They&#8217;ve gone to a lot of trouble to cut costs and weed out workers, which is the main reason corporate profits have held up reasonably well (and the stock market has enjoyed a historic rally). For the most part, big companies that have gotten lean want to stay that way.
3. Become entrepreneurial. Some laid-off workers have no choice but to start ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/19/7-ways-to-survive-the-jobless-recovery/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>How to Live Happily on 75 Percent Less</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The &#8220;change&#8221; in the economy has touched nearly all of us and recently I read an article how some are coping with it.
It tells the story of a lady who was laid off from her job, and took another one with a serious cut in income, and prestige.
Nine months after getting laid off, Catherine Goerz once again became part of the rush-hour commute—in a way she&#8217;d never anticipated.
To pick up extra cash, Goerz took a temporary job handing out fliers touting the benefits of public transportation in the San Francisco subway system. Occasionally she&#8217;d bump into people she knew from her former job as a creative producer for a Bay Area communications company. &#8220;They&#8217;re in their corporate clothes,&#8221; she recalls, &#8220;and I&#8217;m in this silly T-shirt and hat. &#8216;Cathy, is that you?&#8217; they&#8217;d ask. &#8216;What are you doing here?&#8217; Ugh.&#8221;
Interestingly enough, she says that her quality of life hasn&#8217;t changed ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/18/how-to-live-happily-on-75-percent-less/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Security</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Usually Silas is a tiny fireball, charging through the house, hardly still a moment.
It&#8217;s sweet every once in awhile to see him calm, doing what calms him the most; clutching his blanket (he must have the torn edge), his pillow of many colors, and his nuk.


He&#8217;s a sweetie pie.
  
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/18/security/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Silas and New Glasses</title>
		<description><![CDATA[After noticing Silas has a sensitivity to sun, I splurged and got him a pair of sunglasses!



]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/12/silas-and-new-glasses/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>The Invisible Woman</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Hope to every taken-for-granted woman in today&#8217;s world.


]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/12/the-invisible-woman/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Transparent</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama promised at least 8 times to the American people that he will have health care negotiations in public on C-Span.
He has not followed up on that promise.
In fact the only thing that is transparent here is that he never intended to keep that promise;  Back room secret negotiations locking Republicans out, signing bills that congress can&#8217;t even read, and millions and million dollars spent to give dissenting politicians to their states in trade for their vote for this so called health care bill are the ONLY things that are transparent. At least for those who are aware of the truth.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/11/transparent/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>THR3E</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Indeed,&#8221; Dr. Francis Said. &#8220;Can a man step beyond evil&#8217;s reach? I think not. Not in this lifetime.&#8221;
&#8220;Then all men are condemned to a lifetime of evil,&#8221; Kevin said.
&#8220;I lifetime struggle with evil, not a life of evil,&#8221; Dr. Francis clarified.
Currently reading, Ted Dekker&#8217;s &#8220;Three&#8221;





Three
Dekker delivers another page-turner with this psychological Christian thriller about Kevin Parson, a 28-year-old seminary student who suddenly becomes the target of an evil nemesis . . . [A]n almost perfect blend of suspense, mystery, and horror. &#8212; Publishers Weekly.













]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/11/thr3e/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Detroit in Ruins</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A picture of what happens when democrats are in charge.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/10/detroit-in-ruins/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Embers 4 Ashes at Rams Head</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It doesn&#8217;t seem that long ago we went to Rams Head to see Todd Rundgren. Imagine how it felt to see my own son and his band playing there!
Last night was such a time.
The band right before they were about to play.

It was nice to have good lighting on the drummer for a change.

Simeon

Ryan

Ben

Doug

Miquel

Group Shot

It&#8217;s nice when all your friends show up to support you&#8230;

Even Cameron made it!

I took nearly 1000 photos last night.
I have weeded out 200, so I have 800 to choose from to upload to my gallery.
So, more photos to follow soon.
UPDATE: Three pages of photos HERE
  
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/09/embers-4-ashes-at-rams-head/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Marriage Penalty</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From the Wall Street Journal
Some married couples would pay thousands of dollars more for the same health insurance coverage as unmarried people living together, under the health insurance overhaul plan pending in Congress.The built-in &#8220;marriage penalty&#8221; in both House and Senate healthcare bills has received scant attention. But for scores of low-income and middle-income couples, it could mean a hike of $2,000 or more in annual insurance premiums the moment they say &#8220;I do.&#8221;
For an unmarried couple with income of $25,000 each, combined premiums would be capped at $3,076 per year, under the House bill. If the couple gets married, with a combined income of $50,000, their annual premium cap jumps to $5,160 &#8212; a &#8220;penalty&#8221; of $2,084.
Does this seem fair to you?
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/08/marriage-penalty/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Homemade Playdough</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Miranda made some play-dough for Silas and he enjoyed it so much!






Want the recipe? Add coloring to the following:
Cooked Playdough (flour and salt)
3 cups flour
1.5 cups salt
6 tsp cream of tarter
3 tbsp oil
3 cups water

Dissolve salt in the water.
Pour all ingredients into a large pot.
 Stir constantly over medium heat until a ball forms by pulling away       from the sides.
 Knead the dough mixture until the texture matches playdough (1-2       minutes).

Store in plastic container.  Should       last for at least 3 months.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/06/homemade-playdough/</link>
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		<title>Faith is Required</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but I find myself each year, getting off course from all my normal duties. I spend the day after New Years in a heap of fatigue and collapse. I have hardly rested at  all when I start to do things to catch up with what I should have been doing the past month or so. One of those duties is finishing up the sermon&#8217;s page at my church. I am happy to say I finally got that project done for year 2009. They are here » Recent Sermons at Anchor

In December, we had a speaker, Rich Tozour, that we faithfully went to hear each night for the better part of a week.  I took notes, as I usually do. Here are some of his wisdoms I&#8217;d like to share:
The song &#8220;One Day&#8221; is the gospel in summary.
People need to understand the severity of ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/06/faith-is-required/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Digital Art with Apophysis</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the Christmas break I got some time to play with the digital art program Apophysis.
My favorite creation is below, the rest you can find HERE

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/04/digital-art-with-apophysis/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Freckles</title>
		<description><![CDATA[So sweet a story&#8230;
An elderly woman and her little grandson, whose face was sprinkled with bright  freckles, spent the day at the zoo. Lots of children were waiting in line to get  their cheeks painted by a local artist who was decorating them with tiger  paws.
&#8220;You&#8217;ve got so many freckles, there&#8217;s no place to paint!&#8221; a girl in the  line said to the little fella.
Embarrassed, the little boy dropped his head.  His grandmother knelt down next to him. &#8220;I love your freckles. When I was a  little girl I always wanted freckles, she said, while tracing her finger across  the child&#8217;s cheek. &#8220;Freckles are beautiful!&#8221;
The boy looked up,  &#8220;Really?&#8221;
&#8220;Of course,&#8221; said the grandmother. &#8220;Why, just name me one thing  that&#8217;s prettier than freckles.&#8221;
The little boy thought for a moment, peered  intensely into his grandma&#8217;s face, and softly whispered, &#8220;Wrinkles.&#8221;
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/02/freckles/</link>
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		<title>Happy 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Happy New Year!
For my first new thing this year, I started a new Photography Portfolio!  » Please see it HERE
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2010/01/01/happy-2010/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Shirts! (and soap and hats too!)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Each Christmas a package arrives from Australia. John, every year, seems to select the nicest gifts.
For the two boys, he sent adorable t-shirts from The Perth Zoo where he is a docent.
It seemed right to give Cameron the tiger t-shirt, as when John and I took him to the zoo last April, he kept asking to see the tigers. Also, each Wednesday he climbs on my lap asking to see tigers on YouTube.
For Silas, John selected an amazing graphic tee, that he wouldn&#8217;t mind if they made for adults he said, with a good many Australian animals on it: wedgetail eagle, dingo, koala, and kangaroo just to name a few.

Even the backs of the shirts carry on with the lovely design.

Then they started growling like tigers.




Cameron also shows off his soap (with dinosaurs inside!) from Petra.

Later the two add Miquel&#8217;s hats to their tee shirt ensemble.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/31/shirts-and-soap-and-hats-too/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Sign of the Times</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;You politicians have stayed professionals only because the voters have remained amateurs.&#8221;
Quote from the Spencer Tracy Movie, &#8220;State of the Union&#8221;


Gene Gartman, a Vietnam veteran, has decided people need to know what’s going on in the world, so he’s using his very own billboard to get the message out.  Maybe he wants to help voters not remain amateurs.

Gene and his wife are not happy with the way government is spending like it grows on trees, and he has dedicated himself to get the word out.
“Any politician who would sell a vote that benefits his district but does harm to the USA is a treasonous pimp” was one recent offering dedicated to senators in Nebraska and Louisiana who negotiated pork barrel deals in exchange for health care votes.
Gartman contends that most people can tell you who won American Idol five years ago, but don’t know the name of the speaker of ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/30/sign-of-the-times/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Find Your Backbone</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The end of the year and the beginning of another should give us all pause to reflect, to plan, and to hope.
I came across this book quote on Jeff&#8217;s blog and I had to borrow it as it seemed timed perfectly for the end of December.
“Gumption” by novelist J.C. Hutchins
Most of us settle in, and settle for what we have. Rather than pursue, we accept. Our lives become unwitting celebrations of passivity: we undervalue our work and perceive ourselves as wage slaves (and so we phone it in at the day gig), we consume compulsively (but not create), we pine for better lives (but live vicariously through our televisions).
These corners we paint ourselves into, it’s no way to live. There’s no adventure here, no passion, no hunger for change. Remember that relentless optimism you once had? The goals you wished to achieve, before settling in? They’re still there. You need a nudge to find them; a little gumption.
You can start that ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/28/find-your-backbone/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Christmas Day 2009 Highlights</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Laura started Christmas Day, relaxing in the chair and a half with Jasper and a book.

The 22 pound turkey looked beautiful.

Lots of presents around the tree of course.

All part of mom&#8217;s glory, the dinner table&#8230;


The kids wait patiently to open presents.






Linda and George, as they try to figure out a memory card for George&#8217;s phone.

Connor and Aiden decide on which cookies to try&#8230;


And in the tradition started with MY grandmom, after the last dish is washed, the children can finally open presents!



A beautiful time with the family.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/27/christmas-day-2009-highlights/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Christmas Eve 2009 Highlights</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This Christmas Eve was special with Enric, Miranda, and Silas here with us. Jenny, back from school, was here too!
The evening was sweet starting with our Christmas Eve service at church, and my guess is, that is when the hilarity got its start. Silas didn&#8217;t go into the nursery as keeping children with parents in the service is encouraged. He was so funny singing along, imitating the violins, and speaking out loud.
Once home, the evening started with Silas opening his presents before his bedtime.

His nana got him a driving car!

He likes it!

A Buzz bath toy from Yaya!

Jasper finds a place in a box.

A Ravens Jersey from Uncle Miq!


Silas, who had eaten earlier, was then tucked away to bed, and it was time to set the table for the rest of us.
Alaskan Crab Legs, Imported Prosciutto Ham with &#8220;Pa amb Tomaquet&#8221;, Paté and crackers,  Gouda cheese, Olives, and Sobresata bought from ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/26/christmas-eve-2009-highlights/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Christmas 2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Our Christmas has been full of love and laughter so far. Merry Christmas, everyone!

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/25/christmas-2009/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Linus Explains</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/24/linus-explains/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>The Boys in the Snow</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Wednesday again, and this time, since we got nearly two feet of snow, it was a chance to take Cameron and Silas out to play in the snow.
Cameron throws some snow.



Silas gets to throw one too.

Miranda tries to make it snow again.

Laura making a snow angel.



Miranda shows Cameron how to make a snow angel.


Laura gets Silas with a big chunk of snow.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/23/the-boys-in-the-snow/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>It&#8217;s Not Too Late!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you live on the east coast and you&#8217;re not finished your Christmas shopping, don&#8217;t panic, it&#8217;s not too late.
In fact, it couldn&#8217;t be easier to send that last minute gift with Amazon.com and it couldn&#8217;t be easier. Send a gift certificate and it can go right to their email or you can print it to give it to them personally!

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/21/its-not-too-late/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Silas Discovers the Christmas Village</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Each year mom sets up a Christmas Village. While I was growing up it was under the tree, these past years, she has set it up on the piano.
With Silas in the house, I wondered how long it would be before he would discover the wonders of make believe and in his imagination &#8220;put himself&#8221; in the village.
Today you could see the imagination going as played with Yaya&#8217;s Christmas Village.



A few scenes from the village&#8230;


]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/21/silas-discovers-the-christmas-village/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Blizzard 2009: Next Day</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The day after the storm nearly breaks all December records, the sun came out and it was time to dig out.
Glen Burnie received 22.5 inches, it&#8217;s safe I think to say that Pasadena got close to that.
This is our back deck.

Enric and Miranda set out to clean the cars and driveway off.

Silas helps!

Having a day that I couldn&#8217;t do much, gave me a chance to take some time and do something I really like to do, take bird photos.
Here a hungry snow bird pays our deck a visit.

Blue Jays showed up by the dozens, but I only got a picture of this one.

Since the cold snap arrived, we have seen the unusual sparrow or two, too!

Icicles formed and the snow blew behind them.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/20/blizzard-2009-next-day/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Blizzard 2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I don&#8217;t think that our weatherman could have predicted this. They started off saying a chance of snow with some accumulation. Then they began talking inches, and pretty soon, some time later, they were talking FEET!
Today, it was a BLIZZARD!

Enric decided fairly early to get started on cleaning the driveway and cleaning off the cars.
Silas watched his daddy with excited interest.

Enric starts cleaning off Yaya&#8217;s car.

Silas became increasingly excited about to go out in the snow.

Brotherly love.
Enric cleans Miquel&#8217;s new car (Just bought last night! A Black Mazda Protogé) while Miquel sleeps.

Out kitten Jasper, watches as Enric, Miranda and Silas look over Miquel&#8217;s car.

Now, as I write this, the snow has grown much deeper and inches has definitely turned into feet!
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/19/blizzard-2009/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Actual Change</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From Committee                     On Ways &#38; Means

Nine Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs
America Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of Administration&#8217;s Projections

Is this the &#8220;Change&#8221; people voted for?
Not that I give a fig about Chavez, but even he said he &#8220;still&#8221; smelled sulfur after President Obama made a keynote speech at the Copenhagen climate conference Friday, accusing the American president of carrying the same satanic scent that Chavez believes followed Obama&#8217;s predecessor, George W. Bush.
Castro added to the mocking too.
Not that I care much about the &#8216;greens&#8217; in Copenhagen, but they have admitted love lost for Obama.
Obama is even having issues with members of his own party, to which he tells him, “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother,” Obama told DeFazio during a closed-door meeting of ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/18/actual-change/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Christmas Cookies 2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This time I missed Jenny, Petra, and Leoni, but this year we had Miranda with us to decorate our Christmas cookies!





]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/18/christmas-cookies-2009/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Deep and Wide</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ever sang Deep and Wide in Sunday School? It was also a favorite of mine at Vacation Bible School with Rev. South.
I&#8217;ve been teaching Silas some new songs. One was &#8220;This Little Light of Mine&#8221; and the one on this video, &#8220;Deep and Wide.&#8221;  This was soon after they both heard it for the first time, so they need a little more practice, but Laura captured them with her new camera. The house is mid getting ready for Christmas, which explains the big box they decided to sing behind.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/17/deep-and-wide/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Wednesdays With the Boys</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This Wednesday, Miranda thought it a good idea for the boys to do painting, Laura agreed, and indeed it was. They had a great time.
The first bit of fun was putting Enric&#8217;s old shirts on inside out to protect their clothes.

They ran around the house just enjoying the new shirts to start off.
Miranda said if she had known putting them in big shirts was such a happy thing, she would have done it long ago!
Next, Miranda set them up in a safe place in the kitchen.

Miranda taped down some blank paper to start&#8230;

Silas seemed to have a tentative start (he got more aggressive later).

Cameron has a big brush and paints away with red.

Silas soon learns, painting with authority could soon have paint all over himself!



There&#8217;s a happy face:

Painting was followed by fun outside in the barn and the yard, followed by lunch, and Cameron asking for milk and bed,  he ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/16/wednesdays-with-the-boys/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Do Re Mi</title>
		<description><![CDATA[More than 200 dancers were performing their version of &#8220;Do Re Mi&#8221;, in the Central Station of Antwerp. with just 2 rehearsals they created this amazing stunt! Those 4 fantastic minutes started the 23 of march 2009, 08:00 AM.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/13/do-re-mi/</link>
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		<title>Silent Monks Singing the Hallelujah Chorus</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Janelle posted this in facebook. Very creative and funny stuff!

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/12/silent-monks-singing-the-hallelujah-chorus/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Shopping With Silas</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A trip to the mall with my children is usually a triangle stop of just a few stores. Going with Silas means a different set of stops. Like the rides!
I am also appreciating the camera in my Samsung Impression phone!



]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/11/shopping-with-silas/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Norwegians Not at Peace with Obama</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Norwegians are upset at Obama.
From the Guardian:
Barack Obama&#8217;s trip to Oslo to pick up his Nobel peace award is in danger of being overshadowed by a row over the cancellation of a series of events normally attended by the prizewinner.
Norwegians are incensed over what they view as his shabby response to the prize by cutting short his visit.
The White House has cancelled many of the events peace prize laureates traditionally submit to, including a dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee, a press conference, a television interview, appearances at a children&#8217;s event promoting peace and a music concert, as well as a visit to an exhibition in his honour at the Nobel peace centre.
He has also turned down a lunch invitation from the King of Norway.
It should also be interesting to see how Obama can accept the peace prize while sending 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/10/norwegians-not-at-peace-with-obama/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>It Was My Dad&#8217;s</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Mom handed Cameron one day a car to play with. I wondered where it came from, as it was obviously old. She told me it was my dad&#8217;s.
Since it was my dad&#8217;s, the very moment Cameron wasn&#8217;t interested in playing with it, I put it on my shelf, and there it has been decorating my room. However, it wasn&#8217;t until today that I thought to investigate about this little toy car. First thing I did was borrow Laura&#8217;s new camera (which has a nice macro function).










The car is not in mint condition, there is one tire that is off, and the steering wheel is missing.
This is what I have been able to find out about the car:
It&#8217;s a Schuco Examico 1936 #4001 Made in Germany.
Schuco is a German toy maker founded in 1912 by Heinrich Müller and the businessman Heinrich Schreyer. Originally this company was named as Spielzeugfirma Schreyer &#38; ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/09/it-was-my-dads/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Wednesdays</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Wednesdays at our house these days, means the pitter patter of little feet. Silas is now living here and weekly has a buddy to play with as Laura babysits Cameron.
The two boys are getting along great. Silas here reads a book while Cameron focused on the beach ball.

Silas loving on Cameron&#8230;or tackling him, not sure.  

I guess it was loving.

This time, Silas is getting some loving correction from mommmy.

A favorite toy, the school bus.

Boys smiling for Laura in Granddad&#8217;s chair.

Another favorite toy, the hammer.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/09/wednesdays/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Swine Flu Bribe</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From WND
World Health Organization scientists are suspected of accepting secret bribes from vaccine manufacturers to influence the U.N. organization&#8217;s H1N1 pandemic declaration, according to Danish and Swedish newspapers.
While we wait to find out if the TRUTH will ever get out on that one&#8230;
&#8230;Meanwhile, pharmaceutical profits from swine-flu related drugs have soared – with earnings between $10 billion and $15 billion in 2009, investment bank JP Morgan estimates.
Danish newspaper Information reported that when Chan raised the level of pandemic alert on June 11, the declaration meant substantial economic benefits for the pharmaceutical industry – especially since many countries have contracts with major drug companies and are required to purchase vaccines in the event of a pandemic. Swedish newspaper SvD echoed Information&#8217;s report.
&#8220;Many of the apparently impartial researchers the WHO uses, however, are paid by the companies that produce vaccines,&#8221; states a translated version of the Information article, &#8220;Strong lobbying behind WHO ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/08/swine-flu-bribe/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Ravens!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As we watch Monday Night Football (Ravens vs. Packers), I considered Christmas presents for Ravens fans.





NFL® Baltimore Ravens Petite Purse
From backpacks to business cases to luggage and handbags, eBags has your bag. We carry a complete line of premium and popular brands, including Samsonite, Jansport and Eagle Creek. eBags combines the best selection of products with unrivaled service and extremely competitive prices.
















Quilted Tote &#8211; Baltimore Ravens
Quilted Tote with NFL team logo
















Baltimore Ravens Ravens 1/8 Charm &#8211; Sterling Silver Jewelry
You often see shirts, caps and jackets that feature logos from your favorite collegiate and professional sports teams.  Now you can add high quality jewelry products to the list! You will love the exciting collections available for each school and team!  There are more than 300 universities and sports teams to choose from so you can build a collection that is perfect for you. Logo Art manufactures the broadest and ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/07/ravens/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>This Morning</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I got out early today to take Miquel to work.
As I sat in the car, this was my view!

So we had our first snow, and it sleeted and iced up too.
It didn&#8217;t stop Laura&#8217;s hopes for a White Christmas.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/06/this-morning/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Copenhagen Climate Summit: Mockable</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Perhaps it is them who mock us?
I mean in spite of the hacked emails proving that much about global warming is an invented hoax, and in spite of the money trail showing us it will reap heavy financial rewards for those who trumpet and proclaim it, the Copenhagen Climate Summit will take place. Perhaps it is THEM who mock our stupidity in allowing them to strip us of our autonomy and our money.
1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges
Copenhagen is preparing for the climate change summit that will produce as    much carbon dioxide as a town the size of Middlesbrough.
&#8220;We haven&#8217;t got    enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand,&#8221; she says. &#8220;We&#8217;re    having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden.&#8221;
And the total number of electric cars or hybrids among that number? &#8220;Five.&#8221;
The airport says ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/06/copenhagen-climate-summit-mockable/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Distraction</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Silas showed us how short a child&#8217;s attention span can be today.
He saw his daddy pull into the driveway, got all excited about greeting him, nearly hurt himself in his anxiousness to meet him at the doorway, goes running to greet him, Enric puts his bottled water down on the table to hug Silas, and that was all that was needed to distract Silas in a big way.
&#8220;OH&#8221; he says.
We sure did laugh a long time!

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/04/distraction/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Silas!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday was Silas and Miranda&#8217;s  first full day here. They got here late Tuesday night.
Silas spent his first day with a buddy, as it was Laura&#8217;s babysitting day with Cameron.
He has renamed the cats Dante and Jasper to Danti and Basher.
Silas is a joy to have around and he has enchanted us all!

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/03/silas/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Carbon Gravy Train</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From the Australian:
&#8230;thanks to what now goes by the name of climategate, it turns out the real scandal lies elsewhere. Climategate concerns some of the world&#8217;s leading climate scientists working in tandem to block Freedom of Information requests, blackball dissenting scientists, manipulate the peer-review process, and obscure, destroy or massage inconvenient temperature data &#8212; facts that were laid bare by last week&#8217;s disclosure of thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia&#8217;s Climate Research Unit.But the deeper question is why the scientists behaved this way to begin with, especially since the science behind man-made global warming is said to be firmly setted. To answer the question, it helps to turn the alarmists&#8217; follow-the-money methods right back at them.
The article goes on to  give more than a few examples of companies that receive money and grants in large sums.
None of these outfits are per se corrupt, in the sense that ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/02/carbon-gravy-train/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Christmas Gift Ideas: Throws</title>
		<description><![CDATA[All under $20!





Frosty Winter Friends Throw
This warm and comfy throw is designed by the renowned artist Sandra Kuck. Gives your home a dash of old fashioned fun. Polyester fleece trimmed with cranberry red. Machine wash. Imported. 51&#8243; x 63&#8243;.
















Christmas Memories Throw
Designed by renowned artist Sandra Kuck, this fleece throw features a heartwarming vignette of brother &#38; sister reading by the Christmas tree. Add a feeling of warmth and create an instant yuletide atmosphere just by tossing it casually over an easy chair or sofa. Machine washable polyester fleece. 63&#8243; x 51&#8243;. Imp orted.
















Fabulous Fur Throw
When you simply can&#8221;t get too much luxury, wrap yourself within the folds of this marvelous mink imposter. As soft and as beautiful as the real thing, this delightful throw will make you feel like a million bucks a fantastic accessory to drape on a bed, chaise, or favorite chair. Fashioned of polyester fleece. Measures 50&#8243; ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/12/01/christmas-gift-ideas-throws/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>University Says All Whites are Racists</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you haven&#8217;t looked into the practices of the University of Delaware, and you are considering the in state tuition costs of $20,000 a year or the out of state cost of about $30,000+ and see for yourself if this is the right place for you.
For your hard earned money, and you&#8217;re white, you can be called a racist, and be asked deep personal questions as part of the &#8220;treatment&#8221;.
The   University of  Delaware recently made a decision to subject its students to mandatory “treatment” (‘treatment’ is a term used by the university) where they learn that “all whites are racist”, racism by the ‘people of color’ is impossible, and George Washington is merely a “famous Indian fighter, large landholder and slave owner”.
The university requires that the students adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism. Students are ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/30/university-says-all-whites-are-racists/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Global Warming Data Dumped</title>
		<description><![CDATA[While everyone is stuck on the Tiger Woods story, I&#8217;d like to point out that the BIGGER story over the weekend is that scientists who are predicting gloom and doom of global warming have been caught manipulating the data and scheming to show that the earth is warming in order to help the entity that is Al Gore and friends control our every day lives and more important our wallets.
Along with that, now scientists now admit to throwing away the data showing their &#8220;proof&#8221; of warming.
SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away  much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global  warming are based.
It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to  show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.
The admission follows the leaking of a thousand private emails sent and ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/29/global-warming-data-dumped/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Serial Killers and Politicians Share Traits</title>
		<description><![CDATA[According to Baltimore&#8217;s Examiner, serial killers and politicians share traits.
The traits include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others.
 The affective traits include a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility. 
The lifestyle behaviors include stimulation-seeking behavior, impulsivity, irresponsibility, parasitic orientation, and a lack of realistic life goals.
More here

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/29/serial-killers-and-politicians-share-traits/</link>
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		<title>Our Thanksgiving</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Our Thanksgiving was spent at Linda and George&#8217;s. Everything was perfect as usual.


Anxious for food? And yes, that is Miquel sitting on poor Jenny&#8217;s lap!



AFTER the dinner&#8230;Jenny and Miquel look done for!
Laura is sitll alive though.

Some just prefer good old peanut butter and jelly!

Celebrating Laura&#8217;s birthday again during dessert time!

The desserts&#8230;.

There was lots of football too.
We drove home in some interesting fog, and when we got home safely, it was another thing to be thankful for!
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/27/our-thanksgiving/</link>
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		<title>Thankful</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.
~ Psalm 75:1

I am thankful to God, his provision, his love, his grace.
I am thankful for family and loved ones.
I am thankful for my children under one roof filling the house with love and laughter.
I am thankful for moms and dads with no limits to their love.
I am thankful for friends far and near, who never feel that far away.
I am thankful for safety.
I am thankful for the piano playing and the guitar strumming.
I am thankful for God&#8217;s beautiful earth and that he gave me the gift of appreciating it.
I am thankful for pink fairy orchids, even though I&#8217;ve never seen one.
I am even thankful for kitten&#8217;s whiskers against my cheek first thing in the morning.
We&#8217;ve been given much. Every day should be Thanksgiving.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/26/thankful/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>The Judge</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Judge
A young man ins brought before a judge for drunk driving. When his name is announced by the bailiff, there&#8217;s a gasp in the courtroom-the defendant is the judge&#8217;s son! The judge hopes that his son is innocent, but the evidence is irrefutable. He&#8217;s guilty.
What can the judge do? He&#8217;s caught in a dilemma between justice and love. Since his son is guilty, he deserves punishment. But the judge doesn&#8217;t want to punish his son because of his great love for him.
He reluctantly announces the sentence: &#8220;Son, you can either pay a $5,000 fine or go to jail.&#8221;
The son looks up at the judge and says, &#8220;But, Dad, I promise to be good from now on! I&#8217;ll volunteer at soup kitchens. I&#8217;ll visit the elderly. I&#8217;ll even open a home to care for abused children. And I&#8217;ll never do anything wrong again! Please let me go!&#8221;
At this point the ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/25/the-judge/</link>
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		<title>Climategate</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It comes as no surprise to me, perhaps because I deal in REALITY, and not the popular &#8220;Crisis modes&#8221; of the day, however there seems to be files released that exposes Global warming scientists of falsifying evidence to their claims of global warming.
When you read some of those files – including 1079 emails and 72 documents – you realise just why the boffins at Hadley CRU might have preferred to keep them confidential. As Andrew Bolt puts it, this scandal could well be “the greatest in modern science”. These alleged emails – supposedly exchanged by some of the most prominent scientists pushing AGW theory – suggest:
Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.

Video is interesting. Banks were just one group who would greatly profit from &#8220;Global Warming&#8221;

More here:
Climategate: ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/24/climategate/</link>
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		<title>Security Tool</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When my friends and family have computer issues, they often come to be for advice or help. I like to help. Often their issues are challenging, but none more challenging than the spyware I had to deal with this week. I thought to share it as someone could be looking for help.
It&#8217;s called Security Tool.
It&#8217;s a rogue antivirus application that deliberately gives reports of false system security threats on your computer and displays fake security alerts or notifications to make you think your PC is infected with malware.
Once running, the bogus program will block legit programs and especially anti-virus software. Another interesting thing is that if you click on Updates button, you will see &#8220;Updating&#8221;, but actually there is no network activity.
One such warning it gives is: &#8220;Security Tool Warning spyware.IEMonster activity detected. This is spyware that attempts to steal passwords from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Outlook and other programs. ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/24/security-tool/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Laura&#8217;s 16th</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Laura&#8217;s birthday party was a small gathering of family and friends. What wasn&#8217;t expected was the HILARITY that made the meal and cake. Yaya made a funny and the laughter didn&#8217;t stop all the rest of the night.
We started the evening with one of Laura&#8217;s favorites, Alaskan crab legs.

Jenny was in from college and joined us for our family get-together.

For her cake, Laura chose from Cold Stone Creamery, Strawberry Passion.

Basically its a red velvet, strawberry ice-cream, with graham cracker crust with strawberry puree and icing.

Laura absolutely LOVED her present, a L100 Nikon Camera. She has hardly put it down!

Naturally Miquel was with us. Heather stopped in, Erin and her family, and it was so nice to have Enric here. I think he might have forgotten what a bunch of sillies we we&#8217;re when together for an occasion! We missed Miranda and Silas, and Enric said if Miranda had been here, ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/23/lauras-16th/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>My Little Girl is 16</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s hard to believe that 16 years ago today I waddled into the hospital, with the entire staff looking at my stomach and accusing me of  eating the whole Thanksgiving turkey.
Eight hours later, Laura was born. She was perfect. Smiling. The most beautiful little girl. She was a perfect 10. Her brother held her and she looked deep into Enric&#8217;s eyes as if he was her hero.
Happy birthday, my princess.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/23/my-little-girl-is-16/</link>
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		<title>An Enemy at the Gates</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it             cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable,             for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among             those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys,             heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not             traitor, he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their           ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/22/an-enemy-at-the-gates/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>In the University, All Men Are Not Equal</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;This campaign to equalize test scores among unequal students is utopian and unattainable, and amounts to a scam by the education industry.&#8221; ~ Pat Buchanan
We pour all kinds of money into education, but is it working? Are the young people learning?
Pat Buchanan says&#8230;
In a ranking of 50 states and D.C. by how much each spent per pupil in public schools in 2005, New York ranked first; D.C. third. The state spent $14,100, and New York City just a tad less.
And the bountiful fruits of this massive transfer of taxpayers&#8217; wealth?
In D.C., nearly half of all black and Latino students drop out. Of those who graduate, nearly half are reading and doing math at seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade levels. D.C. academic achievement ranks 51st, last in the U.S.
Yet last week came a report from New York that makes D.C look like M.I.T. Some 200 students, in their first math class at ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/20/in-the-university-all-men-are-not-equal/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Obama Rewards Big Donors</title>
		<description><![CDATA[According to Politico of the nearly 80 ambassadorship nominations or confirmations since Obama’s Inauguration, 56 percent were given to political appointees and 44 percent have gone to career diplomats, according to records kept by the American Foreign Service Association.
Beatrice Wilkinson Welters was nominated to serve as ambassador to the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She and her husband generated between $200,000 and $500,000 in donations to Obama’s presidential campaign and an additional $100,000 for his Inauguration, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Welters can be counted among the nearly two dozen Obama bundlers — fundraisers who together organized and solicited more than $10 million in donations during the 2008 campaign — who now are being dispatched to some of the world’s greatest cities.
Charles H. Rivkin, a Los Angeles-based children’s television executive and an $800,000 bundler, is in Paris; Alan Solomont, a Boston-based investor and $500,000 ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/19/obama-rewards-big-donors/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Really? Still Making Things Up?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sarah Palin&#8217;s new book is out, but the anti-palin crowd did something I felt was almost illegal. Sarah Palin&#8217;s book is called &#8220;Going Rogue&#8221;
I guess the liberals, in fear, had to do something to prevent sales. They created a book, almost identical in look and title,  &#8220;Going Rouge&#8221;. Incredible.

Now suppose you want HER book, but you see these two at the bookstore. How easy would it be to pick up the wrong one? It&#8217;s my belief that was the intention.
There really must be something though, that strikes fear in the mere mortal liberal, before the book&#8217;s release, the AP found a copy and assigned 11 people to fact check all 432 pages.
Reviewing books and holding public figures accountable is at the core of good journalism, but the treatment Palin&#8217;s book received appears to be something new for the AP. The organization did not review for accuracy recent books by the ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/18/really-still-making-things-up/</link>
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		<title>The Maze Game</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Many years ago, a game arrived from Spain called Laberinto 2. Enric took to the game immediately and poured many hours into it, trying to win this challenging game.
It &#8217;s made from plastic and had two knobs which is used to move a tiny ball around a maze, avoiding the many holes in the board and to get all the way around to the end.
It was fun for me to see Enric with the game today, after so many years away from it. It didn&#8217;t take him long to get all the way around!



Looking for some maze games Christmas ideas?





Labyrinth Wooden Maze Game
A classic since 1947 Labyrinth fascinates children and adults. Turn the side knobs to tilt the boards and guide the steel ball through the wood maze. Includes 2 metal balls. Sharp eyes and quick fingers are the key
















Maze Wizard Game by Graphicworx Design
Simply a-maze-ing In Maze Wizard a ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/18/the-maze-game/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Club 19</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Saturday night, Miquel and band, Embers For Ashes, played at Club 19 in York, Pennsylvania.
It had been a hard and exhausting week, so I really didn&#8217;t feel like the drive, but Forrest was so kind to take us.
The band played like professionals. They were confident, in sync, and showed character. Even though I had cotton stuffed in my ears, I was proud of my son.



More images from the evening HERE
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/16/club-19/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Enric is Back!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It was so nice to see my dad&#8217;s old truck back in the driveway!
We have a lot of unloading, unpacking, stacking, putting together, and trips to the dump to make.
Anyone, stop by at your own peril, you may be put to work!


Here are the guys unpacking. Mrs. Moore stopped by to lend a hand, too! Thanks, Lisa!

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/14/enric-is-back/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Buy a Better Grade</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We have all seen the pie charts how much education takes from our budget, be it on a federal level or state level. It&#8217;s usually very substantial and schools are always crying for more. (I wonder how much of those taxes the schools actually get to use, and how much ends up in bureaucratic pockets?)   I think a lot ends up in someone&#8217;s pockets because schools are always using students (and their tax-paying parents) to peddle the latest chocolates or other fund raising items for schools.
Having said that, the U.S. Department of Education says:
Education in America is primarily a State and local responsibility, and ED&#8217;s budget is only a small part of both total national education spending and the overall Federal budget,
ED currently administers a budget of $62.6 billion in regular FY 2009 discretionary appropriations and $96.8 billion in discretionary funding provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/11/buy-a-better-grade/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Don&#8217;t Send a Man to the Grocery Store!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My sister sent this to me, and I thought it quite cute. For some reason she calls her husband &#8220;Left Brain.&#8221; Enjoy.
  

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/10/dont-send-a-man-to-the-grocery-store/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Changes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Change is a part of life&#8230;.

The man who looks for security, even in the mind, is like a man who would chop off his limbs in order to have artificial ones which will give him no pain or trouble.  ~Henry Miller
Change is inevitable &#8211; except from a vending machine.  ~Robert C. Gallagher
If you&#8217;re in a bad situation, don&#8217;t worry it&#8217;ll change.  If you&#8217;re in a good situation, don&#8217;t worry it&#8217;ll change.  ~John A. Simone, Sr.
There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse!  As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one&#8217;s position, and be bruised in a new place.  ~Washington Irving

 He who rejects change is the architect of decay.  The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.  ~Harold Wilson
If you don&#8217;t like something change it; if you can&#8217;t change it, ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/10/changes/</link>
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		<title>Gerrymandering</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ger⋅ry⋅man⋅der
- noun. 
U.S. Politics. the dividing of a state, county, etc., into election districts so as to give one political party a majority in many districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few districts as possible.
I remember the first time as a young girl that my mom read the local paper and how upset she got about the lines of our district changing. I didn&#8217;t understand then the implications. What&#8217;s the difference where the lines are drawn? It wasn&#8217;t until later that I understood that politicians can practically create their own outcome depending how lines are drawn.
Here it&#8217;s obvious someone has been playing around to ensure a democrat win in Michigan:

Neither Democrats or Republicans should be gerrymandering districts for their political gain.
According to the Grand Rapids News:
In a region long viewed as a GOP heartland, West Michigan Democrats are quietly dreaming they could send one ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/09/gerrymandering/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>237 millionaires in Congress</title>
		<description><![CDATA[At a time when unemployment is at double digits, at a time when gas prices are again rising, why are we electing people to congress who are millionaires? Could there be a bunch more out of touch with the average folk? I don&#8217;t think so.
Politico reports:
Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall.
CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth about $209.7 million; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), worth about $208.8 million.
All told, at least seven lawmakers have net worths greater than $100 million, according to the Center’s 2008 figures.
Among executive branch officials, CRP says ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/08/237-millionaires-in-congress/</link>
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		<title>PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail</title>
		<description><![CDATA[“This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail.  It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”
“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]
When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/06/pelosi-buy-a-15000-policy-or-go-to-jail/</link>
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		<title>Future of Media</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Saw this on Rodney&#8217;s site, and thought to share it here at Barb&#8217;s Blog too.
Future of media: Changing times, changing rapidly!

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/05/future-of-media/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Treaty of Copenhagen</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The draft Treaty of Copenhagen, to be signed in mid-December 2009, would create an unelected world government with direct power over all financial and trading markets, and direct power to intervene over the heads of elected governments in the economic and environmental affairs of all nations that sign the Treaty. The word &#8220;government&#8221; actually appears in the Treaty as the first of three purposes of a huge, new, supranational bureaucratic entity that will have the power to require wealthier nations to redistribute up to 2% of their annual gross domestic product to third-world countries in imagined reparation for imaginary &#8220;climate debt&#8221;.
Watch the video. On October 14th 2009, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change expert, gave a presentation at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN. He has a strong warning to this country.

More information HERE
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/04/treaty-of-copenhagen/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Depression Glass Bowl Set</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Now that I have been in the barn for a week cleaning out things, I found my grandmother&#8217;s depression glass bowls. When  grand-mom passed away, my sister, my mom, and I set about to the task as to sort through my grandmother&#8217;s things. When I found this set of bowls, being the only one who didn&#8217;t have a set, and since Linda and Mom didn&#8217;t want them, I took them. I thought they would come in handing for entertaining. It wasn&#8217;t until on one of those opportunities I was entertaining that someone said to me, &#8220;You know these are depression glass and are collectibles.&#8221;
I didn&#8217;t know.
According to Wikipedia:
Depression glass is clear or colored translucent glassware that was distributed free, or at low cost, in the United States around the time of the Great Depression. The Quaker Oats Company, and other food manufacturers and distributors, put a piece of glassware in ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/11/01/depression-glass-bowl-set/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>If</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This post from Phyllis Schlafly deserves a repost here.
If Obama Had Told Us Before His Election
If Barack Obama had campaigned on what he has actually done in his first 300 days in office, would he have been elected? That&#8217;s the question so many are asking today.
If Obama had told us he would appoint 34 Czars, reporting only to himself and not vetted or confirmed in the constitutional way, building a powerful unitary executive branch of government, would he have been elected?  What if he had told us that his Green Jobs Czar had been a Communist, that the Science Czar wrote in a college textbook that compulsory &#8220;green abortions&#8221; are an acceptable way to control population growth, and that the Diversity Czar has spoken publicly of getting white media executives to &#8220;step down&#8221; in favor of minorities?
If Obama had told us he would take over the automobile industry faster ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/31/if/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Boo!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Happy Halloween  

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/31/boo/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>About Those Stimulus Jobs&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[According to an AP report, Stimulus jobs overstated by thousands.


 
An early progress report on President Barack Obama&#8217;s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.
The government&#8217;s first accounting of jobs tied to the $787 billion stimulus program claimed more than 30,000 positions paid for with recovery money. But that figure is overstated by least 5,000 jobs, according to an Associated Press review of a sample of stimulus contracts.
The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.
CBS Says White House Is Fudging Stimulus Jobs Numbers
Consider that on Thursday&#8217;s CBS &#8220;Evening ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/30/about-those-stimulus-jobs/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>19 Pounds and Nine Inches Tall</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Coming out from behind closed doors is Pelosi&#8217;s Health Care bill longer in length than the first one at 1990 pages long. The
CBO Puts House Health Bill Total Cost At $1.055 Trillion . Believe it or not, with an estimated 10-year cost of $894 billion, that comes out to about $2.24 million per word.
Republicans aide said a print-out of the bill weighs more than 19 pounds and stands nearly nine inches tall.

If you want to read the bill, be aware, there are plenty of paragraphs like this one:
“(a) Outpatient Hospitals – (1) In General – Section 1833(t)(3)(C)(iv) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395(t)(3)(C)(iv)) is amended – (A) in the first sentence – (i) by inserting “(which is subject to the productivity adjustment described in subclause (II) of such section)” after “1886(b)(3)(B)(iii); and (ii) by inserting “(but not below 0)” after “reduced”; and (B) in the second sentence, by ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/30/19-pounds-and-nine-inches-tall/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Clunkers and Mortgages</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In the &#8220;Cash for Clunkers&#8221; scheme, did you know that taxpayers paid $24,000 per car?
I&#8217;ll bet you didn&#8217;t.
According to CNNMoney:
The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.
The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.
More HERE
On other news, according to the WSJ, the latest taxpayer-funded mortgage scam has traveled fast. The Treasury&#8217;s inspector general for tax administration, J. Russell George, recently told Congress that at least 19,000 filers hadn&#8217;t purchased a home when they claimed the credit. For another 74,000 filers, claiming a total ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/29/clunkers-and-mortgages/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>The Myth of Objective Journalism</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/29/the-myth-of-objective-journalism/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Crisis is the Rallying Cry of a Tyrant</title>
		<description><![CDATA[President Obama promised not to raise taxes on people earning less than $200,000 per year and has vowed not to increase the national debt “by one nickel.” He promised his trillion-dollar stimulus plan would keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent. (Last month, our unemployment rate was 9.8, the highest it’s been in 26 years.)
In January 2008, then-presidential candidate Obama promised not to negotiate behind closed doors with health care lobbyists. In fact, he committed to broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people could see what the choices are.
Yesterday, Politico reported that aides to President Obama and Democrat Senator Max Baucus met with corporate lobbyists in April 2009 to help “set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups, that has played a key role in bolstering public support for health care reform.” (If you checked on C-Span for it, it wasn&#8217;t there)
After his ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/29/crisis-is-the-rallying-cry-of-a-tyrant/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Collapse</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My mama told me to watch this. I better had, if she said so.
The collapse of our money system?

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/29/collapse/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Rob Us of Our Freedom</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This cartoon seemed far-fetched in 1948?
This Cold War-era cartoon uses humor to tout the dangers of Communism and the benefits of capitalism.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/27/rob-us-of-our-freedom/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Flee New York</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This is what happens when taxes gets out of hand as in New York, I hope greedy politicians are paying attention:
New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers &#8212; and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars, a new study shows.
More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States from 2000 to 2008, according to the report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy. It was the biggest out-of-state migration in the country.
The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City &#8212; meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out.
&#8220;The Empire State is being drained of an invaluable resource &#8212; people,&#8221; the report said
More HERE
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/27/flee-new-york/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Troops Morale Down, Let&#8217;s Play Golf</title>
		<description><![CDATA[14 Americans killed in Afghanistan
Morale Dips for American Soldiers in Afghanistan
The death toll from Iraq&#8217;s worst attack in more than two years climbed to 155 Monday
With those headlines it&#8217;s interesting to note:


Obama plays more golf in 9 months than Bush did in nearly three years... 

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/26/troops-morale-down-lets-play-golf/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Little Guitar Man</title>
		<description><![CDATA[While at Heather&#8217;s to take her photos before Homecoming Dance, Cameron decided to show off his guitar skills.


With this one, Jim his pop-pop figures he has shown him too many Jimi Hendrix videos on You Tube.  

Oh well, at least it&#8217;s not on fire.
  
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/26/little-guitar-man/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Heather&#8217;s Homecoming</title>
		<description><![CDATA[After the Jasper in the tree crisis, I didn&#8217;t have time to breathe, have a cup of tea and just relax, we had to rush off to Heather&#8217;s as she asked me to take her photo before going to her Homecoming Dance at her school. (Same school her mom, dad, and I graduated from).
She was needless to say, glamorous!
This one turned out to be my favorite.

With friends&#8230;

Cammy in the picture too of course!

Dad gives her a sweet send off&#8230;

Britney remarked that she thought perhaps her dress was too short. I had to giggle, as I had a look at my own homecoming dress in a picture taken years ago, and it was short! (Not shown here)
  
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/25/heathers-homecoming/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Jasper in the Tree</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Our little kitten, called &#8220;Small&#8221; by Silas, and has been ordained &#8220;Medium&#8221; by Miranda, because, well, he&#8217;s growing up. No longer the baby we used to bottle feed and he is getting into everything. His new fascination is the outdoors. Cats outdoors is not new to us, but that is because they had their mama and brother kittens to play with. This time, it was different. Jasper, kinda alone in investigating outdoors ran completely nut-so, out of control high up a tree.  I have seen cats climb trees, I have never seen one, even a grown one, climb as high as Jasper did yesterday.

We called every agency having to do with animals that we could find with no help available. If the tree had been in the front yard, our local volunteer fire department would have taken the truck ladder to help, but it was unreachable to the back yard.
Of ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/25/jasper-in-the-tree/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You might be interested to read the truth about the Founding Fathers &#8212; and how they would lead  America today. This was a generation without equal, and it deserves to be rescued from the  politically correct textbooks, teachers, and professors who want to dismiss the  Founders as a cadre of dead, white, sexist, slave-holding males.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers (The Politically Incorrect Guides)
In the book you&#8217;ll discover:

The Founders were conservatives by today&#8217;s standards &#8212; for gun rights,  limited government, and religion in public life
George Washington fervently believed that God Himself saved the  Revolution
Thomas Jefferson would have vetoed all federal domestic programs of the last  one hundred years
John Adams considered virtue, morality, and religion to the bulwarks of a  free republic
Alexander Hamilton did not believe in direct taxation or a large government  debt
John Taylor of Caroline County, Virginia, predicted the ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/25/the-politically-incorrect-guide-to-the-founding-fathers/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Cell Phone Photos</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Laura and I played tennis the other day. The sky was an absolutely lovely fall sky.  I hadn&#8217;t brought my camera with me as my usual. Then I remembered, hey, my cell phone has a 3 MP camera in it!
So I pointed the phone upwards&#8230;




This could be handy!
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/23/cell-phone-photos/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Where Are the Jobs?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You have to love modern day news and how it&#8217;s all videotaped for our review and reflection. The following clip where Obama mentions the how the stimulus package will create or save jobs &#8220;right now&#8221;, &#8220;immediately&#8221;, &#8220;ahead of schedule&#8221;  and then how he backs off from those words in clips later should be an embarrassment to this administration.
The real news is actually scary:
 7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs
 America Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of Administration&#8217;s Projections


Click here to see the chart of all the jobs lost in each state
It has the estimated &#8220;change&#8221; and the REAL &#8220;change&#8221;



]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/21/where-are-the-jobs/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Enric, So Long Ago</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Enric turns 27 today. How my mind has been full of the memories that led up to his birth, his birth, and then the year after&#8230; Happy Birthday my precious son.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/21/enric-so-long-ago/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Closing Statement</title>
		<description><![CDATA[History class took Laura and I to the Scopes Trial today. I learned a lot that I didn&#8217;t know before. There are a lot of  myths out there on what really happened, but that&#8217;s a whole other blog&#8230;
The closing statement of William Jennings Bryan, died five days later after the Scopes trail. Perhaps the cruel tactics of Darrow, the ridicule of the press, and the realization that many people had fallen for evolution took it&#8217;s toll on him. Clarence Darrow resorted to emotionalism, ridicule, humiliation, and circular reasoning.  Darrow called the people of Tennessee ignorant and backward so many times that many of them started professing a belief in evolution just to show they were really intelligent.
Here are parts of Bryan&#8217;s closing statement:
&#8230;Religion is not hostile to learning; Christianity has been the greatest patron learning has ever had.  But Christians know that &#8220;the fear of the Lord is the ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/21/closing-statement/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>8th Grade Education</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I remember my mom telling me how she only went to school until the 10th grade (She later got her high school diploma at our local college).
Yet she could read and learn and do crossword puzzles and do the Reader&#8217;s Digest vocabulary test with ease. Now she didn&#8217;t have a lot of science in school as it wasn&#8217;t taught, but what she was taught, she knew.
The following is supposed to be true, it hasn&#8217;t been proven false. Since it seems quite possible, just listening to stories my  mom has told, and her frustration with my education even back then, I will print this here. (If you want the answers to the questions, email me)
&#8220;&#8220;&#8220;&#8220;&#8220;&#8220;&#8220;&#8220;&#8220;&#8220;`
Remember when grandparents and  great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check  this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?       This is the  eighth-grade final ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/20/8th-grade-education/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Down or Not</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today the popular photo sharing site, Flickr was offline. It set my Canon 40D group in a near panic.
Someone shared with the group however, an interesting site to help you determine if indeed a site is down to just you (and the issue is your connection) or it&#8217;s down to everyone. Down or Not
When I went to Down or Not and looked up Flickr.com, this is the information the site gives you;  all the attempts that tried and failed.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/20/down-or-not/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Escape Hell</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today we read in Laura&#8217;s American Literature book an excerpt from &#8220;Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God&#8221; by Jonathan Edwards.
&#8220;All wicked men&#8217;s pains and contrivance they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do; every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself  that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but a few saved, and that the bigger part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done: ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/19/escape-hell/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>AIDS Dollars Squandered in DC</title>
		<description><![CDATA[While the sick languished in alleyways and on park benches in the city with the nation&#8217;s highest AIDS rate, D.C. government allowed widespread waste and mismanagement to overwhelm the city&#8217;s AIDS services. (Video Here)
One in three of D.C.’s AIDS dollars earmarked for small groups went to organizations marked by financial problems and questionable services.
Between 2004 and 2008, the D.C. Department of Health awarded approximately $80 million in grants to about 90 specialized AIDS groups, which along with medical clinics make up the front lines in the District&#8217;s fight against the disease. But while some provided a critically needed lifeline to the sick, others were wracked by questionable spending, practices and services. During those five years, one in three dollars earmarked for local AIDS groups went to these troubled programs, a total of more than $25 million. (More Here)
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/18/aidsdollarssquanderedindc/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Iconography</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Never before has a president been branded with such a visual after his election.
Is this a bad thing?

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/17/iconography/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Never Saw Congress Mangle the Defense Budget as Badly as This Year</title>
		<description><![CDATA[From Washington Times
Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops.
Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.
While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, &#8220;in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year,&#8221; said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization.
Way to support those troops on the front line.
Mr. Wheeler, who conducted the study, compared ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/16/never-saw-congress-mangle-the-defense-budget-as-badly-as-this-year/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Family Map</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Along with my new phone plan, came this trial offer to try Family Map by AT&#38;T.
This helps me find Laura, or at least Laura&#8217;s phone. I also added my phone to the plan, because for some reason, we part at times. 
(I don&#8217;t guess I am the only one to lose my cell phone temporarily).
So in signing up and trying it today, it gave me this map:

As you can see the accuracy was off by two miles.
So, I zoomed in and searched again, that time (not shown here) it had pin point accuracy within yards.
I don&#8217;t know if I would ever have signed up with this, but I will give it a good run my first month and see how it goes.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/16/family-map/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>It&#8217;s Rabbit Season?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When you think of Sweden, you might think of how cold it is.
Keeping warm could be a very important issue in Scandinavia.
But burning the bunnies to heat Sweden&#8230;there must be a better way.
I know that in many places, rabbit is on the menu and acceptable, but burning them just to keep warm? I know rabbits&#8230;multiply quickly. This feels so wrong &#8230;
In  &#8221; The Local&#8220;
The decision to use Stockholm’s rabbit cadavers as bioenergy to warm Swedes living in Värmland doesn&#8217;t sit well with Stockholm-based animal rights activists.
 “Those who support the culling of rabbits surely think it’s good to use the bodies for a good cause. But it feels like they’re trying to turn the animals into an industry rather than look at the main problem,” Anna Johannesson of Vilda kaniners värn (‘Society for the Protection of Wild Rabbits’) told the local Vårt Kungsholmen newspaper.


More on the article HERE » 
Stockholm&#8217;s ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/15/its-rabbit-season/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Morph Phone</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
The phone of the future? Perhaps no more bulging pockets and dropping your cell phone?

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/15/morph-phone/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Not Above the Law</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs into law no cell phone use while driving.
So his wife gets busted talking on the phone while driving.
I don&#8217;t know what the penalty is for talking on the phone but the governor promised, &#8220;Thanks for bringing her violations to my attention. There&#8217;s going to be swift action.&#8221;
Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear says that by &#8220;swift action,&#8221; the governor means he&#8217;ll ask his wife not to hold the phone while driving. A law that took effect in 2008 requires California drivers to use a handsfree device.
Is that the &#8220;swift action&#8221; all Californians caught will receive?
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/14/not-above-the-law/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Friends and Friends of Friends</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Watch who your friends are. And the friends of your friends&#8230;


President Hugo Chavez ordered the &#8220;acquisition by force&#8221; of the landmark hotel, Hilton,  Tuesday, according to Venezuelan officials.
This is some time after more than a dozen of 34 radio stations ordered shut by the Venezuelan government went off the air on Saturday, part of President Hugo Chavez&#8217;s drive to extend his socialist revolution to the media.
Not surprising then, he approved law legalizing armed civilian militias to work with the military could be used to crack down on opposition protests. What is it about 2009 that makes it a bad year for protests? After all the protest over the years we have had to endure of so many, suddenly it&#8217;s the most taboo thing ever.


Effectively making himself a dictator, closing down the freedom of press, a basic liberty and right to most Americans,  I wonder how the following celebrities can call ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/14/friends-and-friends-of-friends/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>How To Change The Text Message Ringtone For The Samsung Impression?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, the new mobile phone is still a novelty around here. Laura is breaking records on text messages, but wasn&#8217;t very crazy about the alert tone announcing a text message. Unlike cell phones in the past that I have owned, this one didn&#8217;t come with a booklet/manual. It had a small quick guide, and a rather unimpressive down-loadable pdf manual.
After some trial and error, I now know how to how to change the text message ringtone for our new phone.
Here is what you do:
1. Menu
&#8211;&#62; Settings
&#8211;&#62; Sound Profile
&#8211;&#62; Click on Normal
&#8211;&#62; Click on the drop box on the top where it says &#8220;Normal&#8221; Change it to MESSAGE
2. Click on Message Alert Tone
&#8211;&#62; Click the bottom right TONES. Pick a tone  
It only gives you four options.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/14/how-to-change-the-text-message-ringtone-for-the-samsung-impression/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Impression</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today, I joined the 21st century and turned in my antique cell phone for a new one.
Laura also got one, we decided on the Samsung Impression.
The Impression&#8217;s touch screen is undoubtedly the highlight. As an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display, it is a sight to behold with its brilliant colors, bright graphics, and sharp animations. At 3.25 inches, it&#8217;s just over the minimum size that we require from a touch-screen phone, but it offers plenty of room for most functions.
The phone book holds a hefty 2,000 contracts, with room in each entry for four phone numbers, an e-mail address, a URL, a company name and job title, a birthday, a nickname, a street address, and notes. You can save callers to groups and pair them with a photo, a message, and one of 11 (72-chord) polyphonic ringtones. You can save an additional 250 names to the SIM card.
The 3-megapixel camera ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/12/impression/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Public School Answering System</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Schools aren&#8217;t supposed to raise your children, and this school in Queensland, Australia, tired of the absences, excuses, and outright lies of the parents and students, came up with this idea for their telephone answering system.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/12/public-school-answering-system/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Sunday Link Round-up</title>
		<description><![CDATA[At Gateway Pundit: » Rep. Michelle Bachman told a radio host today that the federal government will start funding the pimp and prostitution supporting ACORN organization again at month&#8217;s end. It was all a show&#8230;. More Here

From American Solutions: President Obama&#8217;s energy &#8220;czar&#8221; Carol Browner hinted today that the EPA might implement a cap and trade plan for carbon dioxide emissions even if that type of plan fails in the Senate. In other words, if our elected leaders recognize that enough Americans oppose a cap and trade system and the energy tax is defeated, the government is preparing to impose it on us anyway&#8230;..More Here

Canada Free Press: President Barack Obama and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus have come up with a brilliant new idea:  Tax the sick! &#8230;.More Here
Black and Right: State Sen. R.C. Soles shoots one of two home intruders. State Sen. R.C. Soles shot one of two ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/11/sunday-link-round-up/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>What Are They Hiding?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Remember durning Obama&#8217;s campaign the word &#8220;transparency&#8221; was said, and often, to the cheers of many people.
I am not surprised that nine months into the presidency, we are looking for this transparency, in particular with the new legislation that no one even reads, they just vote on it.
On Yahoo News:
The push for transparency has become a running side debate in Congress, with lawmakers — often minority Republicans, but some Democrats too — pressing leaders to post measures online for 72 hours before a vote.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think the American people can be left in the dark,&#8221; House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said this week.
It might sound like a no-brainer. President Barack Obama has made transparency a watchword of his administration, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged upon taking office to &#8220;create the most open and honest government in history.&#8221;
The Internet makes it all possible.
So what&#8217;s the problem?
Indeed there should be ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/10/what-are-they-hiding/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Blast the Ballast</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Our family acquired (according to Laura, by heavenly means) a big screen TV. I am beginning to take issue with the heaven sent theory and regard it as a rather hellish one. The TV when it&#8217;s working is a gem. The picture image is great.

However most of the time it sits in our living room broke, taking up space, begging for me to convert it into an aquarium.
The television is a Panasonic PT-50LC13 and apparently we&#8217;re not the only ones with issues with it.
When we first got it, we found out it needed a lamp replacement (common with this set according to my investigations on the net). I ordered a lamp through Panasonic (never again). It worked great for awhile but it wasn&#8217;t long that the lamp needed replacing again. As these are costly, I ordered one through a company (not Panasonic) that sent me a lamp for a fraction ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/10/blast-the-ballast/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Extraordinary Efforts to Read a Teleprompter</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I am not the only person wondering how Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize with only 11 days in office.
Obama got in the office the end of January and the deadline to submit a candidate is February 1st.
So with less than two weeks as acting president, someone in Norway decided he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Nine months in office, even Saturday Night Live is doing spoofs on how NOTHING this administration is, and yet, a few days in office and someone nominates him for the Nobel Prize.
Yahoo News:
The last thing Barack Obama needed at this moment in his presidency and our politics is a prize for a promise.
Inspirational words have brought him a long way &#8211; including to the night in Grant Park less than a year ago when he asked that we &#8220;join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it&#8217;s been done in ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/09/extraordinary-efforts-to-read-a-teleprompter/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Miquel is 20!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My son Miquel is now 20.
Today we had a quiet (as quiet as here gets) celebration at home with his favorite meal (fideus) and some ice-cream cake. His friend Brandon joined us and so did Jenny via the webcam!


Ice cream cake and presents.

Tomorrow he will have a big celebration with his friends.
Happy Birthday Miquel. You sure have made my life interesting, and I love you all the more for it.
Love, Mama xoxoxo
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/08/miquel-is-20/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Governmentalism</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Governmentalism: the phenomenon of providing a program, causing expectation and dependency, then not able to cut spending.
The 2008 Index of Government Dependency
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.xerraireart.com/blog/2009/10/08/governmentalism/</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>
