Iceland Volcano

Been watching the volcano action in Iceland. So far the reports are mild. Nothing like last year's action.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – An Icelandic volcano was flinging ash, smoke and steam miles (kilometers) into the air Sunday, dropping a thick layer of gray soot in an eruption far more forceful — but likely far less impactful — than the one that grounded planes across Europe last year.

And starting prepare for trip - really miss being underwater - plus, I really feel like I can use a vacation.

The SILFRA Rift is an absolute world class dive site due to two main reasons.

First of all you will be diving in a crack between the American and Eurasian continents.

It's the place where the continental plates meet and drift apart about 2cm per year. Secondly the visibility that you will experience will rarely be surpassed, if ever. 100m+! The reasons for this clarity are twofold: the water is cold ( 2°C - 4°C all year ) since it's the melting water from a glacier about 50km away and has traveled through the lava fields for many years before coming out at the north end of Thingvellir lake through underground wells.

Housing Market Has A Long Way Before Clearing

There are still to many housing on the market, and more to come as banks place their foreclosures on the market.

More on housing prices.

The Humor of Ronald Reagan

Bush W. has destroyed most all Reagan's principles, causing the general public to loose it's faith in the Republican Party. Currently, there's much of a campaign platform for the Republican Party to campaign on. Huckabee understands this and dropped out of the Presidential race.

Bush W. weakened the U.S. DEFENSE. He failed to protect the country on 9/11 and catch bin Laden. He tarnished American's image aboard which Obama has started to restore.

Bush W cut TAXES, but increased government spending on homeland security and Iraq war. He talked about SMALL GOVERNMENT, but supported large government spending. He added a billion dollars to national debt to fund the war. Facebook/Twitter could have started a similar uprising in Iraq today for FREE.

Bush W. promoted DEREGULATION, which allowed financial institutions to create the mortgage crisis and the worst recession post-WW2.

The only platform the G.O.P has to campaign on is on lowering the national debt. Obama and his "stimulus package", and lower tax revenue due to the recession added significantly to the debt. The G.O.P. will not let him forget it.

But as the economy gains momentum over the next year, we'll see higher tax revenues and lower unemployment, many will even start forgetting about the debt, too.

Survey Shows

The survey offered a boost for the president after the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Now, 45 percent of Americans believe he will win re-election, a 1O-point rise from a poll taken before November's congressional elections.

The survey is an indication of how difficult it will be for Republicans to dislodge an incumbent president in the November 2012 election.

Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Wednesday

Good News

Gas prices expected to drop 50 cents by summer.

NEW YORK – Some relief from suffocating gas prices will likely arrive just in time for summer vacation. Expect a drop of nearly 50 cents as early as June, analysts say.

After rocketing up 91 cents since January, including 44 straight days of increases, the national average this past week stopped just shy of $4 a gallon and has retreated to under $3.98. A steady decline is expected to follow.

Good new for the economy for sure. When people spend more for gas, they spend less on other consumer goods. Purchasing more consumer goods, helps the economy and creates jobs, purchasing gas doesn't.

Worst Recession Post WWII

From Calculated Risk

The current employment recession is by far the worst recession since WWII in percentage terms, and 2nd worst in terms of the unemployment rate (only the early '80s recession with a peak of 10.8 percent was worse).

Not only the worst recession since WWII, but unique to this recession is that people with the longest duration of unemployment are having the most difficult time finding jobs. The labor market is weeding out the unemployable. The last significant recession was in '92 (not counting the tech boom/crash in '00, there wasn't significant unemployment outside the tech area). And since '92, the work place has changed significantly, plus people haven't kept up their skills.

We recently hired someone at work. Two people interviewed for the position. One a fresh masters degree graduate in a very quantitative field from a top ivy league university. And the other, someone with more work experience, more folksy, more a people person, with a family. We hire the first. He's more energetic, more ambitious, more focused.

My Motivation

At home. Finished one bottle of wine. Considering a second. First thought: No, I shouldn't. Second thought: Dude! You drink more than that one bottle of wine on Memorial Day with your friends. Justification!

FCKH8.com: The "Teachers Can't Talk About Homos" Law

A law to make it ILLEGAL for teachers to talk about gays?! This snarky F-bomb-filled video takes on the forces of Homo H8 in Tennessee. FCKH8.com is giving 25¢ for every Facebook "Like" or Twitter tweet of this video up to $25,000 to the Tennessee Equality Project. A portion of every T-shirt sold benefits the cause. T-shirts start at $13. Get yours at FCKH8.com!

Why do Christians Need to Judge Others

Why do Atheists ridicule Christianity? Without a doubt more and more youth today are turning away from religion in droves and it's antiquated believes. They've realized most of the priests and minsters are some of the stupidest people on earth. And really, who cares to listen to what they have to say? Plus their antiquated beliefs on relationships, sex, and family life are from the stone ages.

Atheism, or “antitheism,” which was once considered taboo in America, has gone somewhat mainstream in today’s society. Books like Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great, Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion, and Sam Harris’s The End of Faith were New York Times bestsellers. Faith-bashing films like Bill Maher’s documentary Religulous and Ricky Gervais’s The Invention of Lying have done reasonably well at the box office. The left never seems to miss an opportunity to point out the latest goofy statements or antics by groups purporting to speak or act in the name of Christianity, while being quick to (often angrily) point out that Islamic Extremists don’t represent Islam as a whole.

Think about it? Would you rather spend eternity in "Heaven" with a bunch of boring, humorousness, religious people or in "Hell" with the cool movie and rock stars, and people who actually have a sense of humor and some intelligence?

2012 Elections

How can Obama NOT get re-elected in 2012? Birth certificate and Osama bin Laden within a week? Come on. Really now?

Obama reformed health care, returned the economy from worst recession since the depression, killed Osama, restored America's honor internationally, repelled DADT, stopped war Iraq, etc. Plus the GOP has no worthy opponents!

All the GOP has is W. Bush's legacy: allowing the 9-11 attacks to happen, allowing a mortgage bubble to form by not regulating banks, crashing the economy, waging war on Iraq because of false WMD, etc.

If W. was smart, he would have waited on Iraq. Social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, would have caused social up risings in Iraq today, like in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain. If Saddam Hussein were a live and ruling today, his people would probably have ousted him from office. Billions of U.S. taxpayers dollars could have been saved and thousands of U.S. military lives spared.

Yes, Obama still has to deal with high gas prices and the deficit/debt is huge, but there's still a year and a half.

The G.O.P. isn't helping themselves by telling their old, white, religious constituency that Medicare and Medicate needs to be cut to reduce the deficit/debt. Even Obama is starting to look better.