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What is the value of having ones picture on a piece of US currency and should we be concerned that we are now posting a non-president on our twenty dollar bill (or at least should be in about 10 years)? It’s certainly not a precedent since Susan B. Anthony graced the one dollar coin and perhaps there is a difference there, but certainly not a precedent. The question around the breakfast table at my little eatery seems to be and extraordinary number of people that simply don’t know who don’t know who Harriet Tubman is or why she is more deserving than Andrew Jackson to grade the twenty dollar bill.

Personally, I am a lot less concerned about there being a woman or man on our currency but I am a little concerned about posting anyone that has not held a significant office. A president and prominent political figure would seem to be more fitting. Did they ever consider putting FDR on a bill? He was the last president to serve three terms and God knows, his accomplishments speak for themselves.

Don’t get we wrong; I have nothing against Ms. Tubman, I simply don’t think her achievements rise to being on a piece of Federal currency. I would support having her statue on the DC Mall right next to the Lincoln memorial or even a holiday named after her, but it seems to me that the face on the currency should represent those that we hold in the highest regard and represent the nation as a whole, not necessarily a special interest. Before you call me bigot, do tell me how many Irish, German, Japanese or Jewish people of noteworthiness were not included? My point is that currency should not be a symbol or anything other than the strength and integrity of the meaning and value behind the currency. For that matter, I think that many would consider Martin L. King Jr. in higher standing that Ms. Tubman, but then again, that’s just my opinion. Actually, since the Native Americans where here first, should we have more of their faces on our currency … I mean beyond the Indian head nickle? How about more than one face? Something like Crazy Horse, Chief Gail, and Sitting Bull grouped together and a picture of the battle of the Little Bighorn on the back? Certainly would inspire a few more interesting conversations.

Or maybe we should copy the Chinese and put beautiful renderings of majestic scene’s on the face … you know, to have a more calming effect on those shelling out their money for those overpriced speeding tickets, or TAXES!!! Yeah, I’ll bet the IRS would be in favor of that one. How about being like the Peso where the number darn near stretches across the entire thing …. Not to suggest OUR currency is becoming worthless. In fact, with technology being what it is, just how much longer will paper currency survive? Hard coins would make counterfeiting harder and a roll of quarters in your fist helps fend of the world be robber than a fist full of twenty dollar bills.

Well, any way we go, there is bound to be controversy; after all, many of the states in the deep South are still wrestling with removing the old confederate stars and bars, removing statues of confederate hero’s from their state houses and apparently trying to repaint history to make this appear to be a much “kinder & gentler” nation. Wait, wouldn’t that make a great government slogan? Oh no, that’s right; that was one of the first George Bush’s proclamations; after which we have had two wars, a hell of a high murder rate among young black men, and the lowest rating of the government and the congress since it’s original formation.

Sorry, time to run, got to get ready for the upcoming battle between The Donald and Hillary ….. We should consider putting their pictures on the penny. One on each side. Yep, that’s the ticket and since it’s not even worth what it costs to produce, it certainly seems fitting!

One of the presidential candidates of my home country blurted out that he shld have been the first to rape the late Australian rape victim. When he was bashed for saying so, he issued an apology to the Filipino people. I just can't understand how crooked the mind of that man and more so of his supporters. I cringe every time I think what if he wins. If ever, it won't be a democratic system with a rule of law. People have been lambasting politicians in various countries for their gaffes. This one tops them all!

Everybody, from the humble street sweeper to the head of the nation, deserves our respect; at least until he proves to be not worthy of it.

Respect goes a long way and it is synonymous with good manners. Good manners dictate that we should respect our fellow man. Fair enough, sometimes we lose our respect for a certain person, but that is still no reason to be rude.

We respect our employers, senior colleagues, and the likes by default. Those who don’t will soon enough be able to call themselves ex-employees or at best they will sit and watch how promotions pass them by year after year. Protocol demands that we respect our seniors; if not the person, then his position. That of course, are those who know what is good for them. You will get those who will blame the system and not recognize their own disrespectful nature.

And we respect older people. Take Jim for an instance. I respect him even though he is a cupcake thief. I owe him that because he is older than what I am. Rubbing his age under his nose is not out of disrespect; it is merely being honest.

But not everybody is capable of respect. Respect and narcissism, for an example, are mutually exclusive. Narcissists find it difficult to respect anybody but the self. They believe that others are inferior to them and as such, have to earn their respect. Of course, nobody ever can, because nobody can ever do anything good in their eyes. Oh, they will throw morsels to those who suck up to them but that is just to encourage them to keep it up and to give them hope that they (the narcissists) may still evolve into a normal human being with feelings.

In short, you have to pay respect to receive respect. There is no need to suck up, just be polite and respectful and doors will open at places where you did not even know doors existed.

May you all have a wonderful day.

Unknown to a majority of Americans was the withholding of 20+ pages of the report by the 9/11 commission that detailed the involvement of a number of prominent and wealthy Saudi families and government officials in the financial aid of the terrorists and their movement. Perhaps the government was right in this action, hoping to avoid a tremendous backlash from the obvious outrage that Americans would have felt toward a reportedly long time alley in the region. Now, at last, that outrage is surfacing and the Congress should be extremely careful for fear of a revolt. The Saudi’s appear to have clearly identified themselves as state sponsors of terrorism.

Saudi Arabia has chosen to attempt to hold America and it’s government hostage; threatening to sell off billions of dollars worth of assets if the government chooses to release those papers and give American citizens (victims & their families of 9/11) the right to bring legal action against those Saudi citizens that were involved. Notable is the comment that Saudi had already dealt with the offenders despite there was no indication through stiff financial punishment, long term imprisonment or executions as is so often the practice of the Saudi government. I simple threat to the US, suggesting that we now must take orders from a foreign government and supported the murder of 3,000+ American citizens.

The Saudis get such royal, preferential treatment because they’ve stomped their feet, threatened to pull all their money out of the U.S. economy and bankrupt the world if not given their way. As ridiculous as that threat sounds, the Obama administration is apparently very scared by it. Worse yet is the fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been dismissed from the 9/11 families lawsuit via their Foreign Sovereign Immunities.

As much as I saw value in the first decisions by this president 7 years ago, he has been and continues to be on a downhill slide. The Russians violate NATO alliances & harass our Navy without response; China is encouraged and is now doing similar injustices throughout the Asia, North Korea is completely out of control with extreme provocations and still, the president sits on his hands, more worried about his image in history. Has anyone within his administration bothered to explain it in 9th grade English so he can fully understand? Perhaps he needs to be taught what the term “high treason” means and how it can be applied.

The next administration had better be willing to put it’s foot down and reestablish the status of the USA as well as our willingness to back it up in real time. The Soviets broke the nuclear agreements years ago, yet we have not started rebuilding our nuclear stock piles. We have not completely blockaded North Korea and we are still buying goods from both Russia & China. While I certainly don’t want to see the US become an isolationist, I do think we need to stop trading with our enemies until such time as the tow the line and behave themselves. One cannot be or expect to be treated as a world power when we present such a 3rd world approach to problems.

Sadly, none of our presidential candidates appear to be capable of dealing with these problems. We can only hope at their respective conventions, somebody comes out of the woodwork who it capable and will to lead. These are very serious times requiring a strong leader that can think for themselves, persuade others, and speak softly with a very large and prickly stick!

The train from the opposite lane stopped and several passengers got off including thee 4 foreign-looking young men. They had that happy look after all it's Sunday and probably had a fun day roaming the town. They were around 4 meters away from the exit when they stopped and turned around. I have this little game of watching people who dillydally in getting out of the train station especially those who deliberately stay behind. Then I spotted one station staff waiting at the exit. Only then I understand why they hesitated to exit. If they underfare their tickets, all they have to do is go to the fare adjustment machine, insert their tickets, pay the adjustment fare, get the adjusted ticket, insert it into the exit box and they'll be able to leave the train clean. But, they never did that until the train on my lane left. It was something like 10 mins. Most probably they entered an unmanned station and would be exiting another unmanned station. I noticed that their happy look was changed into a worried one. Indeed unmanned stations aren't abreast with the time.

Ive said it once, and I will say it again.

Actions speak louder than words, a small gesture is all it takes,

A blink of an eye, is acknowledgement, a nod of a head is acceptance, little gestures.

It pisses me off, that people do not have manners, you hold a door open, and the person behind you, just glides through, not even lifting their eyes from their mobile, you wait, while someone corrects their parking, just a quick salute, would be nice.

Manners cost nothing, we all have them, well, most of us do.

Oh dear me, the British language had me stumbling for words when I was young. But by the time I finished school, I have learned a few English words. Not too many though; the most notable were the three words ‘graffiti’, ‘hypocrite’ and ‘narcissist’. I hope I spelled it correctly. But anyway, I won’t be talking about the latter word today.

I can still remember the day most vividly when our teacher explained the word ‘hypocrite’ as being a person who criticizes other people for the very things that he himself is guilty of. Now, after all these years, I discovered that he did not teach us the entire definition of the word. Apparently it does not count when you criticize somebody for raising his opinion without pointing a finger at anybody while suggesting an alternative with it.

No, I won’t be calling anybody a hypocrite today for that will put me in the same category. The word ‘hypocrite’ does not enjoy the same conditional protection as ‘criticize’. Besides, I’m not very good at mudslinging. When I engage in mudslinging contests, I usually lose.

For that reason I rather retreat to a safe distance when there is a lot of mud flying around. I have learned that when you sling mud (or when you stir shit) you normally get yourself full of it as well. It is more fun to stand on the sidelines watching the gunmudslingers (and shit stirrers) soiling themselves.

Besides, what is the point of leaving graffiti on a wall when the proprietor is known to wash it off before anybody can read it if he (or she) does not like the message therein. I suppose the wall will be demolished afterwards as well.

Methinks some people just like to stir shit. Let’s face it; it is a sure way to get attention. As they say in show business: there is no such thing as bad publicity.

So, the weekend is on us. What now?

I don’t have a problem with a picture or video blog, but why not make a decent blog of it? You should really treat your readers with a bit more respect.

Don’t just dump a photo in your blog for us to guess what you’re trying to convey to us. Tell us something about the photo or video. What does it mean to you? Share your thoughts on it.

Or are you too scared to write something because it may give away something about yourself?

You don’t have to write much. Just tell us your reflections on it, or maybe just a descriptive heading for each pic or video.

This may sound like criticism but it is meant to be constructive and not aimed at anybody specific. Some of you will probably think that I should mind my own business and tell me to worry about my own blog. And you’d be perfectly right, but being the busy body I am, I just had to poke my nose into it.

But then again, it is all opinion and, as things stand, it is just mine. So do with it whatever you want. You can even print it on soft paper to use it in the toilet.

Hang in there. The weekend is on the horizon.

In real life you have to place a guard on your tongue. When on-line, your tongue is pretty ineffective, but what you write (type?) is as good as coming from your mouth.

Writing reveals your soul. It strips your flesh bare to the bone for everybody to see. Your posts will confirm or contradict the narratives in your profile. Only one irresponsible post can rip your carefully composed profile to pieces. What’s the point of claiming to be a decent and peaceful person, while your posts indicate the opposite?

People will believe what you demonstrate in your posts, not what you claim to be in your profile. And suddenly your entire profile will be under scrutiny, because if you can lie once, you can lie again… and again.

The contents of your posts describe you much better than what any narrative in your profile can. It tells everything about you; it will expose your true nature, no matter how much you try to hide it.

May this day be the day!

Hackers are getting smarter by the day. Two of my three email accounts have been hacked on Saturday. Only a small number of people know my real email address.

I have one gmail account exclusively for CS friends and I use another gmail account for my friends and family. Then, not to give my email address to all the sites I deal with, I use a yahoo account as a decoy. All the email arriving at yahoo is then redirected to my main gmail account (family and friends) which is downloaded by an email client (Thunderbird) every two hours, hoping to put a layer between my real account and the hackers. It did not work.

Both the yahoo and the gmail account were accessed by a device in Russia. Whoever did that was in possession of both passwords. How did they get hold of that? I have not directly accessed any of my email accounts for months so there cannot be a keylogger at work on my PC.

This is when I appreciate the use of an email client. At the best of times there is very little or nothing on the yahoo or gmail servers that a hacker can use. All my contacts and emails are managed by Thunderbird on my PC. The longest that a message can stay on the servers is two hours before it is downloaded and deleted from the servers. I can only hope that there was not anything on the servers at the time when they accessed my accounts.

Anyway, I changed my passwords and hope they don’t come back.