“Time to listen to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the lone voice of reason in Congress today who’s got to feel like he’s shouting into a field of cotton with his repeated warnings about the dangers of a collapsing dollar, while the administration goes AWOL on the problem.”

As one commenter there (almost) put it, Elizabeth MacDonald, who authors EMac’s Stock Watch for FOX Business (truly), dares to point out that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. I just couldn’t believe that any FOX affiliate would ever go on record with a Pro-Paul stance. I think it’s gonna be a weird day…

http://emac.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2008/03/26/time-to-listen-to-ron-paul/

“Congressman Paul rightfully warns us when he says the US government has “systematically undermined” the US dollar by expanding “the money supply at will for financing war or manipulating the economy with little resistance from Congress–while benefiting the special interests that influence government.”

“Empires fail because they run out of money, or more accurately, run out of the ability to spend or inflate,” Congressman Paul warns. “We need to control spending, immediately, before it is too late.” (Here’s Ron Paul’s Economic Prosperity Plan)

The total economic costs of the war beyond the federal budget: A report by the Joint Economic Committee majority staff.

Through 2008, the True Cost of the War has been Double the Administration’s Budgeted Cost
To date, the President has requested a total of $607 billion for the Iraq war alone since 2003. This is over ten times higher than the $50 to $60 billion cost estimated by the Administration prior to the start of the war. Costs have increased every year since the start of the war in 2003. The Administration has requested $804 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.

I was at a garage sale with my brother-in-law who couldn’t make up his mind whether to buy the second-hand lawnmower that appeared to run well and seemed like a good deal, or to purchase a brand new one to replace his old one that had broken.

He needed a lawnmower - he knew that much - and he also knew that buying a new one would clean him out of all his cash. On the other hand, if he bought the second-hand mower to keep a little cash in his pocket and it turned out to be a lemon he would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Or rather, eyeball-deep in the weeds without a lawnmower. He just couldn’t make up his mind whether to take the chance or not.

I decided to help him along for his peace of mind and so I could find some shade. I pulled a quarter out of my pocket.

“OK”, I said, “If it comes up heads, you buy this one, and if it’s tails, you get a new one. Ready?” I made sure I had his attention. We both knew this was going to count.

“One… two… three!” I spun the quarter high into the air and yelled out “CALL IT!”

“HEADS!” he shouted back.

I caught the quarter and put it in my pocket. “So buy the damn thing already and let’s go. It’s hot.”

I want to tell you about a very handy Firefox extension that could save you some money.

My VOIP telephone adapter went on the fritz the other day and I spent a disheartening amount of time on my cell phone with AT&T troubleshooting the problem. When the replacement came, I spent even more time on the cell phone when installation didn’t go smoothly. The result? I exceeded my allotted minutes by a large margin, and will get an extra $31.50 tacked on to my bill. I know that I got off lucky, and there are some real horror stories out there, but I’m kicking myself for a lack of foresight all the same.

You see, a couple of months ago, I bought a new PC and have been slowly migrating my applications and documents off of my old one. I neglected to port one particular Firefox utility that would have helped me to avoid the sting of over-usage, much to my chagrin. It’s a handy little tool created by Winston Huang, that carries the straightforward and self-referential name “Verizon Minutes Used Firefox Extension”. There’s a version for T-Mobile as well, similarly named, and both may be found here. Thank you, Mr. Huang, for these very useful tools.

Installation was straightforward, which is one of the things that keeps us all loving Firefox, and resulted in a snazzy little Verizon Icon in the corner of my browser. This is what it looks like after it’s been configured. Makes it easy to keep an eye on your minutes used, don’t you think?

Hover, and you’ll get full information as shown below:

Needless to say, I’ve ported the sucker and won’t be frittering my minutes any time soon. I’ve also removed the battery to avoid temptation.