I'm not a 9-9-9 fan, but some of the "Satanic" arguments against it simply don't hold water!

Where's the Sign of the Beast in This?
Simply turning 9-9-9 upside-down looks like d-d-d to this old curmudgeon. Of course, if you flip it both horizontally and vertically, you might get something like 6-6-6, but I think that I could come up with better arguments against Herman Cain's tax plan.

For starters, it's simply d-d-d-dumber than d-d-d-dog d-d-d-doo-doo.

And will make the wealthier only wealthier than they already are while hurting the less fortunate 99% and surely not balancing the budget. (Actually, it would be fairer to put that percentage at 90% or so.)

Forty hours per week up here might get a little boring, but now and then a deer or bear walks up to the Quinault River for a drink.

View of the mouth of the Quinault River from the center 90 degree row of windows in my upper floor office of the Round House in the northwest corner of the Quinault Indian Nation

Only problem is that I have to stand to look out the window inasmuch as the lower window sills (all 360 degrees) are at the same level as the top of my head when I'm seated at my workstation. Then again, I'm almost always alone, so who notices when I stand up? The Pacific Ocean is off my left shoulder and some dogs lying in a sandy road are usually asleep behind me. To my right is a beautiful scene of a forested bluff with the Olympic Mountains in the distance. If I stand on my tiptoes and look straight down, I can check the roof of my Honda CRV for presents from the crows, terns or seagulls that seem to be excellent bombardiers.

What causes the universe's size to increase at an accelerating rate? Why ... Dark Energy, of course! Or might it be Dark Matter?

Who took this picture anyway? Dark is dark and even Black Holes suck up light!

Or do we have the Law of Gravity backwards?

Neutrons traveling faster than light? The Universe expanding at an ever increasing rate? Time-travel backwards? Eleven dimensions? (But don't get caught teaching Intelligent Design in a Public School in America!)

Is Dark Matter or Dark Energy (sounds like Satan to me) to blame?

Well, if Harold Camping's latest prediction for the end of the world (October 21, 2011) pans out, many of us will have the answers in less than a week.

I'm not counting on it, but have given my life to the Lord (Jesus) whenever He returns--surely some measurable period of time before the end of the world, as I read the Book of Revelation--at least as I read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

Okay, I've been won over. It's now Herman Cain for 2012!

I’m in the Herman Cain Team from this moment forward. Listen to this incredible voice and see if you aren’t taken in by Mr. "Godfather Pizza” too.

The lyrics go sorta like this: (Think John Lennon singing "Imagine")

Imagine there's no pizza
I couldn't if I tried
Eating only tacos
Or Kentucky Fried
Imagine only burgers
It's frightening and sad

You're lucky you have pizza
To feed your kids for you
Only frosting or cookies
And no dishes you must do
Imagine eating pizza
Each and every day

Imagine there's no pizza
I couldn't if I tried
Eating only tacos
Or Kentucky Fried

Should you feel a bit depressed these days, Mr. Obama, just peek at the picture below and tell yourself, "I'm gonna run against one of THEM !?!"

As I understand it, Mr. Cain will be more towards the center this evening and between Romney and Perry (shown in the center in this photo, but won't be in the center tonight, as I understand it).

On the positive side of the Republican candidates, they do at least seem to agree with biology (and God! ... and Mediawingnuts!) that we all begin human life at conception and not sometime shortly after the first or second trimester--however "trimesters" are determined/computed to the millisecond.

But then, they don't believe that anyone who (1) is not working or (2) wasn't born in America or (3) didn't vote for Barry Goldwater some years back or (4) speaks English as their second language or (5) has slightly darker skin than Ann Coulter is human either, so we have a little quarrel on the issue of what/who is human one way or the other.

Enjoy the debate [sic] !!

Who are you calling a "mob," Mr. Cantor?

House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) addresses the Values Voter Summit, hosted by Family Research Council Action (FRC Action), in Washington, D.C., Friday

Of course, the Values Voter Summit wasn't a "mob," was it Mr. Cantor?

“Mobs” you call them? Well, what were you saying when the Tea Party was getting started in exactly the same way?

The theme of these protests is “I am one of the 99%” -- And I AM!!

Well, I have been unemployed for more than half of the time since coming to Ocean Shores, Washington—and I am clearly among the 99% of Americans earning less than one million dollars.

Yes, let’s tell Wall Street to join the rest of America—who are people (not corporations and hedge funds) who CARE!!

Yes, let’s occupy Wall Street and get our people back on track!

Steve Jobs' Macintosh -- the machine that my kids and I will remember ... forever!

We Didn't Own an External Disk Drive, BTW

And notice that the word, "Macintosh," wasn't even on the front of the original Macs.

The specifications shown below (taken from www.apple.com) were enough, even with only 128k RAM, to enrapture my family for years--although I did upgrade to 512k somewhere along the way. Imagine! That's only one-eighth of a kilobytes (a thousand bytes--where a byte was/is only eight bits)! Today, with megabytes (millions of bytes), gigabytes (billions of bytes) and even terabytes (trillions of bytes) showing up in the specifications of active memory ... we can't even imagine what's in store for tomorrow.

Thomas Edison, stand aside ... you have company. Steve Jobs was indeed an inventor of the first order.

System
•Introduced: 1/24/84
•Discontinued: 10/1/85
•Floppy Size: 400K
•Internal HD: none none
•Upgrade From: none
•Upgrade To: 512Ke, Plus
•Form Factor: 128
•Weight: 16.5 lbs.
Logic Board
•Main Processor: 8 MHz 68000
•PMMU: none
•FPU: none
•Data Path: 8 MHz 16-bit
•Secondary Processor: none
•Slots: none
•MIPS Rating: .7
Memory
•Memory on Logic Board: 0.125MB
•RAM Range: 0.125MB to 0.125MB
•RAM Slots: 0 n/a
•RAM Type: ns n/a SIMMs in groups of n/a
•Notes: This system has no built-in memory expansion, however third-party upgrades could take this system to 512K.
Video
•Built-in Display: 9" monochrome CRT
•VRAM Configuration: built-in CRT
•VRAM Speed: n/a
•VRAM Expansion: built in
•Color Bit Depth by Screen Resolution:
◦512x384: 1-bit
(1-bit = Black & White, 2-bit = 4 colors, 4-bit = 16 colors, 8-bit = 256 colors, 16-bit = thousands, 24-bit = millions)
The maximum color depth listed for 640x870 is 8-bit, reflecting the capabilities of the Apple 15 inch Portrait Display

•Notes: Screen size is 512x342.
Sound
•Sound In: none
•Sound Out: mono, 8-bit
•Microphone Port: none
Ports
•ADB: none
•Video: none
•Floppy: DB-19 - Disk Drive Port: 500K baud
•SCSI: none
•GeoPorts:
•Ethernet: none
•Microphone Port Type: none
•Ports: Printer Modem Speaker
•Notes: The serial ports in this system do not support handshaking or synchronous modems.
Serial Port specs
•AppleTalk: 230.4K baud
•Asynchronous: 57.6K baud (maximum rate)
•Synchronous: 920K baud (maximum rate with external clock)
Power
•Source: .5A 105-125V 50-60 Hz
•Consumption: 60 W or 205.2 BTU
•Battery Type: 4.5V alkaline, #523
Software
•Addressing Modes: 24-bit
•Original System Software: 0.0
•Original Enabler: none
•ROM ID: $0000
•ROM Version: n/a
•ROM Size: 64K
•AppleTalk Version: n/a
•System Software Supported: Mac OS 1.0 through 4.1 in 1984