MarkChristopher's Blog

I am so tired of so many people comparing Hilary Clinton and Obama as female and black, and this really seems to be the big focus on these candidates.

 

Do you really think voter’s main influence on who they vote for will be because they are female or black??

 

Why should this be so important? I care about what the candidate stands for and what their Presidential plan is.... not what sex they are or race.

 

Unfortunately I think that voters will be to influenced on voting for a female or a black person, and not really knowing what they truly stand for, and what path they want our country to take.

 

What do you think?

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO (June 23) - Is city water better than bottled water? Mayor Gavin Newsom thinks so.

Newsom has issued an executive order banning city departments from buying bottled water, even for water coolers. The ban goes into effect July 1, and will extend to water coolers by Dec. 1.

The move was billed as a way to help stem global warming and save taxpayer money.
"We're hoping to set the example for the private sector and other cities in getting off the bottle," said Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the San Francisco public utilities commission.

In a press release announcing the decision, the mayor cited the environmental impact of making, transporting and disposing of the bottles. More than a billion of them end up in the state's landfills each year, the release said.

When the ban goes into effect, city and county offices will dispense municipal tap water from a reservoir. Winnicker said exceptions will be made in cases where potable water is not easily available or poses health concerns.

What do you think about this bottled water ban???

I drink bottled water, however I always put my empty bottles in the recyle bin. I would not say Florida's water from the tap is cleaner than bottled water?

I had recently bought a new car a few months ago, and had decided to finance it and I have never had a loan with this finance company, which is American Honda Finance.

I use online banking to pay my bills, and for those who do use online banking know about "e-bills",  which is when you can request the company you make payment  to send you your bill / statement via e-mail, verse sending you a paper statement in the mail each month. I love this feature, becuase to me it's nice to know you are saving paper, as it's pointless to me to have a paper statement when you do everything online.

Not all companies offer this, actually a good portion do not, and to me it's stupid of them becuase they would save huge money on paper and postage each month, and also it's much better for our environment to cut back on the amount of paper usage.

I think big companies such as the one I am talking about should have to offer e-bills to it's customers.

I just get so aggrevated when I see paper and things such as this going to waste.

What do you think? Should these big companies be forced to offer it's customers e-bills?

I am following up to Fox's morning show blog about doctors being able to say something to children who are over weight, and also parents and also want to take it a little further.

I think the doctors have every right to, as this is part of their job to try to keep patients healthy, whether they are children or not, and being over weight and or obese is not healthy and can lead to a lot of other health problems, and it's worse for a child to be over weight verse an adult as their body has not fully developed.

I do not agree with making fun of over weight kids by calling them mean names, this only makes them worse in most cases. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to try to help them by seeing if they would like help or ideas for exercising, or help them with their diet.

The main reason why I am posting this blog today is because this afternoon I was in Wal-mart (a rare place for me to be lol) and I was waiting in line to check out and I was watching the family who was checking out in front of me, this was a mother, two sons (one was around 10, the other around 13), two daughters (one was around 15, the other around 2) They all would be considered obese or close to. The older son was extremely obese, he could barely fit down the check out lane. The baby was not really that over weight, however I am sure she will become a victim soon enough, just like the rest of the children.

As I noticed this family I decided to look at what kinds of groceries they put on the counter, as I really had nothing better to do, all of the food was JUNK, they must have had ten plus boxes of frozen pizza, the big 100 count box's of pizza rolls, sugary cereals, ten plus bottles of soda, and just all kinds of stuff like this, nothing healthy at all which of course did not suprise me after looking at them.

I am not the one to tell anyone what they should or should not eat, however when you are a mother and you have children who are grossly over weight to obese and you continue to feed them foods like this I think it becomes a matter of child abuse, and of course bad parenting. If you cannot cook for your children or are not able to feed them healthy meals than in my opinion you should not have children because this is not being responsible for your children.

What do you think about parents like this??? I know this is not a rare sight to see, I have seen plenty of other families like this.

I remember a while back the authorities where trying to take that obese child away from the mother over in Europe because she was not putting her child on a diet and they where accusing her of child abuse... not sure of what the outcome was.

I have noticed a good amount of people moving out of Florida and going to the Carolina's and Tennessee areas.

Seems like every week, sometimes more often someone I know, whether it's a friend, co worker or just someone I know is informing me they are moving up that way or are already gone.

I know that Florida has not been such a friendly place recently between the expenses, crime, and weather but I know I just could not do it, I love Florida (even though I have to get away sometimes) and I could not imagine living away from the ocean, warmer weather, and the Florida lifestyle.

Has anyone else seem to notice this new trend of people moving up that way over the past year or so?

Also, do you think they will move back later becuase they miss Florida?

I have always lived in Florida so I wouldn't know.

The U.S. military commander in charge of northern Iraqi operations on Friday said more troops are needed to stem rising insurgent violence in Diyala province.

"I do not have enough soldiers right now in Diyala province to get that security situation moving," said Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, commander of the 25th Infantry Division.

Mixon's comments came as a political battle was being waged in Washington over whether funding for U.S. forces fighting in Iraq should be tied to a deadline for their withdrawal.

____________________________________________

I am so tired of political parties arguing of what we should do in Iraq. We need to either pull our troops out now (no timeline) OR we need to increase our troops (which is obviously needed to make progress) and then hopefully stand a chance of winning this war!

 

How hard is it to make this decision??? I am with Bush when it comes to war plan! Wether we went in for the right reason or not, we must finish our job no matter what it takes, if we don't than we become a failure and that is not American!

 

 

 

 

 

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, depicted the situation there as “exceedingly complex and very tough” Thursday and said the U.S. effort might become more difficult before it gets easier.

The four-star general called the war there “the most complex and challenging I have ever seen.”

He said there have been some improvements in the two months since President Bush’s troop buildup began, but “there is vastly more work to be done across the board. ... We are just getting started with the new effort.”

Petraeus spoke as the Senate debated House-passed legislation to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in October.

Asked about the impact on the effort in Iraq if that legislation passed, Petraeus said, “I have tried to stay clear of the political minefields of various legislative proposals.” Bush has said he will veto the bill.

“This effort may get harder before it gets easier,” Petraeus told a briefing for reporters at the Pentagon.

The general also said, however, that improvements can be seen both in the capital of Baghdad and the volatile Anbar Province in Western Iraq. Still, he said, these achievements “have not come without sacrifice.”

He said that the increasing use of car bombs and suicide attacks, plus the greater concentration of U.S. troops among the population, has “led to greater U.S. losses” as well as increased Iraqi military casualties.

Petraeus sidestepped a direct question on how long U.S. troops would have to remain in Iraq.

“I wouldn’t try to truly anticipate what level might be some years down the road,” he said.

Still, Petraeus noted, it was “an endeavor that clearly is going to require an enormous commitment over time.”

_________________________________________

What do you think about this, and the Democrats legislation to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in October?

I personally think they need to stay out of this, how can you put a deadline on this? Whether you agree with the war or not, we need to finish what we started whether it takes a year from now or ten! If we pull out to soon or before the job is finished the long term effects will be much worse (in my opinion) and as far as the casualties we have had so far, this is apart of war, and with greatest respect to our troops and their families.

We all know about the tragedy that happened at Virginia Tech yesterday.

Many countries offered their condolences after this tragic event yesterday, however most of them acted not suprised, criticizing the availability of guns in the United States, lax gun controls and the number of Americans who cling to the constitutional right that allows them to bear arms.

Gun crime is extremely rare in Britain, and handguns are completely illegal. The ban is so strictly enforced that Britain’s Olympic pistol shooting team is barred from practicing in its own country.

Britain’s 46 homicides involving firearms was the lowest total since the late 1980s. New York City, with 8 million people compared to 53 million in England and Wales, recorded at least 579 homicides last year.

The shooting drew intense coverage by media in China, in part because the school has a relatively large Chinese student body and because U.S. reports said the gunman may have been Chinese or Asian.

Private citizens are forbidden from owning guns in China.

In Italy, there are three types of licenses for gun ownership: for personal safety, target practice and BLEEP shooting, and hunting. Authorization is granted by the police. To obtain a gun for personal safety, the owner must be an adult and have a “valid” reason.

Howard, the Australian prime minister, staked his political leadership on pushing through tough laws on gun ownership in his country after a lone gunman went on one of the world’s deadliest killing sprees 11 years ago in his country.

“We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country,” he said.

What do you think about gun control in the United States, not only look at this event but all the others along with our extremly HIGH murder rate in our own neighborhood along with the rest of the country.

In my opinion we do need to be alot more strick with fire arms in our country, and this should have been put into effect a long time ago. You can say all you want about "rights" however the facts show our current ways just do not work.

What is your opinion?

The media and a good amount of people have been talking about the recent news with foreclosure rates and subprime loans.

Below are the facts from the Mortgage Bankers Association:

Fact: The homeownership rate remains near record levels, at 68.9 percent.

Fact: 35 percent of homeowners own their home outright; 49 percent are in fixed rate loans. That leaves 16 percent of homeowners with adjustable rate products. Only 5 percent of homeowners are nonprime borrowers with adjustable rate loans.

Fact: ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) products have a long and successful history and nontraditional products have allowed many first-time homebuyers to own their homes.

Fact: About 1 percent of all loans are in the foreclosure process, well within historical norms, despite the record number of homes sold in the last 3-5 years. This is down from the post-recession peak of 1.5 percent

Fact: Three out of every four loans that enter the foreclosure process do not wind up as a foreclosure sale, either through the homeowner curing the delinquency, a workout between the lender and borrower, a refinance or a voluntary sale of the home.

Fact: The number one cause of delinquencies and foreclosures is job related, as we casn see in the midwest, which has seen a significant number of manufacturing jobs lost.

Fact: There is no evidence that the increased delinquency and foreclosure rates are the result of hybrid ARMs or nontraditional products, such as interest only and payment option mortgages.

Fact: Historically, delinquency rates tend to peak in the first 3-5 years after origination. With more than half of all outstanding loans less than three years old, it stands to reason delinquency and foreclosure rates may rise again.

Fact: Nonprime borrowers have always had higher delinquency and foreclouser rate. Nonprime borrowers are also higher share of adjustable rate mortgage borrowers. thus it stands to reason that nonprime ARMs have a higher delinquency rate.

Fact: Lenders want to lend money to borrowers who are willing and able to pay the loan back on time. Each time a foreclouser sale occurs, it typically cost a lender 30 to 50 percent of the outstanding loan balance, so everybody loses when a home goes into foreclosure - the borrower gets a black mark on his or her credit, the lender and investor lose and the community loses.

Fact: Between $1.1 trillion and $1.5 trillion of ARMs (adjustable rate mortages) could potentially reset in 2007, of those, $600 billion - $700 billion will refinance prior to or at reset, thus the borrower will not face a payment increase. The remaining $500 billion - $800 billion will actually reset. It is important to note, however, with short term rates rising, more borrowers are moving to fixed rate loans.

Fact: There is continuing competition among companies given the current environment, and that is good for consumers, especially those who "shop for their loans".

Fact: The marketplace is working. The volumes on many nontradition products have not been this high before. As a result, investors, rating agencies and lenders tightened underwriting standards.

*data as of April 2007

The federal government should join the state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over numerous health issues.
Kennedy's home state is the first to require everyone to have health insurance, just as drivers must have automobile coverage.
Kennedy has his own version of what universal health coverage would look like. He wants to extend Medicare to all. In his first hearing Wednesday as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Massachusetts Democrat called on 10 witnesses from all over the country to talk about how to make health care more affordable.
"Insurance coverage is down. Costs are up. And America is heading to the bottom of the league of major nations in important measures of the quality of care," Kennedy said.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week proposed a plan that would extend health care to 6.5 million uninsured Californians. Under the proposal, all Californians must have insurance, although the poorest would be subsidized.
Some of the committee's Republicans would like the committee to renew its attention to help for small businesses. They support a plan that would let businesses buy insurance through regional or national trade associations. The insurance would be free of many state mandates. That could make it a cheaper alternative, but would also provide scaled-back coverage in some instances.


What do you think about this?
It would be very interesting to hear everyone's input.

House Democrats powered toward passage Wednesday of a boost in the federal minimum wage that would increase paychecks for hundreds of thousands of janitors, fast food clerks and other workers at the bottom of the income scale.

As their second bill since taking control of Congress, the Democratic-written legislation would raise the federal wage floor from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over 26 months. It’s one of their top priorities.

What do you think about this????

My feelings are kind of mixed about this and would like some input.