There was an article posted on FOX NEWS.com this morning about North Korea warning of a strike against South Korea and the USA.

The isolated communist regime said through its official news agency that it would respond with military action if South Korea tries to stop or search any of its ships as part of the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative.

“Those who provoke (North Korea) once will not be able to escape its unimaginable and merciless punishment,” the North’s official news agency said.

…”It is a laughable delusion for the United States to think that it can get us to kneel with sanctions,” it said. “We’ve been living under U.S. sanctions for decades, but have firmly safeguarded our ideology and system while moving our achievements forward. The U.S. sanctions policy toward North Korea is like striking a rock with a rotten egg.”

Unimaginable and merciless punishment?  I think the band R.E.M. was right with their 1987 song – “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”.

A possible business revival and growth opportunity: Bomb Shelters

You can read the full article here:  N. Korea Warns of Strike Against S. Korea, U.S.

Today I read an article by Larry Winget about the book “The Secret”.  I love this guy!  His article is called, “The Secret Is A Total Load Of Crap”.  So who is Larry Winget? He is a best-selling author, a speaker, and starred in an A&E television series called Big Spender.  Larry is the trademarked Pitbull of Personal Development. His latest New York Times best-seller is called “People Are Idiots And I Can Prove It”.

So what does Larry say about “The Secret”?  Here are some excerpts from his article, but be fore-warned – Larry is very blunt and open about his views and they may not be palatable for some:

People are scrambling to find some secret that will help them be more successful. There are thousands of books on the market claiming to have all of those secrets. In fact, the bestselling book on the planet for the past two years is a book called The Secret. Let me repeat my opening line when it comes to this book: The Secret is a total load of crap!

The Secret basically says, “What you think about and talk about comes about.” Really? Is that how it works? I believe, “What you think about, talk about and get off your ass and DO something about is what comes about!” Thinking is important, focus is important, self-talk plays a role, but alone they are a waste of time. In that way, The Secret is a half-truth, which in my book, makes it a lie. The Secret cheats people of the real gratification and success that comes from having put forth good old-fashioned hard work.

You can read the whole article here: http://larrywinget.net/blog/?p=153

According to Larry, work is The Secret.

I have recently become a fan of the social media application Twitter and lately I have been following Senator Tom Coburn, M.D.  from Oklahoma.  On March 31st he posted these remarks:

• Congress has spent $136.3 billion each week it has been in session.
• Congress has spent $26.7 billion each day it has been in session this year.
• Little Known Fact: Page 72 of the budget admits it increases the federal debt by $4.9 trillion, rising by “$16,200 on every U.S. citizen”

For three weeks Congress has spent somewhere around $408.9 billion.  What does that look like?  Let’s look at some of the top ten companies in the Fortune 500 list – looking at annual revenues as a point of reference.

So in three weeks congress has managed to spend more than Wal-Mart’s global revenues for an entire year.  That’s more than all the products sold in all the Wal-Marts and Sam’s Clubs in 14 countries.  In three weeks congress would spend  more than twice as much as General Motors revenue (there’s a certain amount of irony in that).

The top ten Fortune 500 companies revenues are $2.07 trillion -  less than half of the increase in federal debt of $4.9 billion.

No matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of money.

I guess AT&T is just going to have to sell more iPhones.

I remember the day in 1999 that 3 of the Guys drove down to Nashville for the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS) and seeing Buster B. Jones play.  It was a jaw dropping experience. For those of you who may never have gotten the opportunity to see Buster, below are a couple of excerpts of Buster’s lightning fast picking.

Here is a little musical taste of Buster’s playing, “How to play lead guitar”:

And a little “Alabama Jubilee”

Rest in peace, Buster.

Today was our Saturday morning get together with the 4 guys, except today it was only 3.  One of the guys had to work.  Of course he was the one that picked the place for our breakfast gathering – a very expensive place.  Today we ended up having one of our longest conversations about solving the universe’s problems.  We wanted to get the most time for our dollar.  We covered politics, music, what we wanted to do with our lives when we grow up, family, and solar flares.

We talked about how our families will allow us to humiliate ourselves to no end.  As an example, last Tuesday I left the house early to be with my mom who was going to have a procedure done at a local hospital.  I joined my father, brother, his wife and some of  my mother’s friends as we waited in a really nice area for the procedure to happen.  When I say I left the house early I mean I left the house while the sun was down.  It was dark.  I had forgotten to set my clothes out the night before.  I ended up dressing in the dark so that I wouldn’t awaken my wife.  You can see where I’m going with this, right?  I buttoned my dress shirt one button off.  The collar didn’t match at the neck. It was bizarre looking.  I am at the hospital for just under 4 hours.  No one says a word.  We go to breakfast.  No one says a word.  One of my mom’s friends says, “Nice Shirt.”  I politely say, “Thank you.”  She doesn’t say another word.  I had no idea that what she was really trying to say was, “Hey idiot, your shirt is on wrong!”  I go home to tell my wife, who I didn’t want to wake up that morning,  that the procedure went well and everything is fine.  She says nothing.  I finally go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and bam!  I’m in front of the mirror wondering why I’m such an idiot and why know one told me I don’t know how to dress myself.

The guys have come to the conclusion that family doesn’t want our heads to get too big so they allow a little humiliation in our lives for our benefit.  I don’t like it.

The 4 Guys are close friends.  If Bob had some kind of wardrobe malfunction I would gladly say, “Bob, you are wearing your underwear on the outside of your pants!”  The real  question is would I take him quietly aside and tell him, or would I yell it across the room as he entered a public place.  The jury is still out on that.

Maybe family is right.  A little humiliation is a good thing.

Today the Wall Street Journal posted an article stating “Despite a flurry of last-minute shoppers lured by the deep discounts, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell over the year-earlier period by 5.5% in November and 8% in December through Christmas Eve.” I guess it’s not as bad if you exclude gasoline sales – a 2.5% drop in November and a 4% decline in December.

So now that Christmas is over and we scurried at the last minute to buy all those deep-discounted gifts that were given the past few days to be exchanged the next few days; and we have eaten so much incredible food that we have to break out the drill to make another hole in the belt, did we miss Christmas or what it is all about?  Did the days just go by too fast? That was a question posed by that wise, never aging, philosopher Charlie Brown only to be answered by a boy with a blanket.

In an age of such diversity, the meaning of Christmas can sometimes be buried.  Then again, 43 years ago it was almost buried.

When “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was first aired in December of 1965, the network executives didn’t want Linus to recite the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke.  Charles Schulz insisted in keeping the scene remarking that “If we don’t tell the true meaning of Christmas, who will?”

A very good question indeed.

Today I woke up to -9.7 degrees.  Brrr.  Thank goodness for a new battery in an old car.

I came across a movie trailer for a movie being released in January called “New In Town”.  The movie takes place during the winter in a town in Minnesota called New Ulm.  As I’m bundling up to go outside and scrape the ice off the car I couldn’t help but think of these lines from the movie:

“Folks around these parts freeze to death all the time.”

“Especially the stupid ones.”

I woke up this morning in the Twin Cities to -10 degrees, freshly fallen snow (after a previous night of rain), and 30 mph winds.  What happened to global warming?   I have recently found out that there is an organization here in Minnesota that has been asking the same question, the “Minnesotans For Global Warming“.  The M4GW group has made a wonderful video that has addressed my questions.  So check out the video below and let the 4Guys know what you think.

Set the flamingo free!!!

At work I receive a daily e-newsletter telling me about all things with consumer electronics.  A while ago I came across an article in the newsletter about an organization called “Citizens Against Government Waste”.  They had just named the FCC “Porker of the Month” for October.  Here’s why:

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin its October Porker of the Month for using FCC funds to sponsor a NASCAR driver from his home state.

The FCC will pay $355,000 to sponsor David Gilliland’s number 38 car, owned by Yates Racing, for three races, in order to raise awareness about the upcoming switch to digital television (DTV) in February.  Even though the commission has inundated networks with paid announcements for months, Martin considered it necessary to use additional taxpayer dollars to pay for the car and driver to bear slogans such as “Is Your TV ready for Digital?”  The sponsorship has gotten off to a rocky start, as Gilliland’s car crashed into the wall on October 19 the first race with the new ad.

Bummer, $355,000 and the car crashes.  I guess I’ll never know if my TV is ready for digital.

I think I now understand why the U.S. Treasury is considering bailing out General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.  They don’t want to be shown up by the FCC.

I think I’ll go get my 1990 Olds Toronado ready for Treasury Secretary Paulson in case he needs more cars.

I realize that I’m a late adopter and this has probably been running around the internet for a while, but I’m a guy that knows nothing so what can I say?  I discovered this little ditty today from the Dull Men’s Cub.  It’s regarding the discovery of a new chemical element.  Enjoy!

A major research institution (MRI) has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest chemical element yet known to science. The new element has been tentatively named Governmentium. Governmentium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Governmentium has a normal half-life of three years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass.