Status Press 1.12

It was brought to my attention that while updating my plugins to be completely 2.7 compatible, something fell by the wayside (as it normally does). This thing that had fallen was indeed the dear Status Press Widget. Apparently in the 1.11 version of the code, my function to simulate a PHP5 function if the user was using PHP4 had been moved to an incorrect placement inside the widget class. This caused the widget to blow up, even when attempting to activate it. Moving this function outside the class at the very beginning (before the class institiation) corrects the problem and allows both PHP4 and PHP5 users to succefully enjoy this widget.

Please accept my apologies for the previous version mishap.

You can download the latest version on the Status Press Widget page.

Plugin Updates

Tonight I decided to update my Wordpress plugins. So, each of my plugins are now officially compatible with Wordpress 2.7(.1). Please take a look at some of the new features and such of each of them.

The $700 Billion Bailout

We’ve all heard about the recent push by the government to pass quickly a bill that would bailout the large corporations that are coming up short with crap mortgages and junk bonds and such. Apparently this bailout solution is supposed to keep the economy from an apocalyptic meltdown, and is supposed to completely fix the economy as it is. However, this action is not what the government and media have made it out to be. This is a quick fix that will not last.

So now I am extremely concerned about the government’s band-aid action to the recent financial crisis. $700 billion dollars is not just money to throw around; it is our hard earned money as tax payers that will be going to these dishonest companies and individuals. Giving them this money and bailing them out like this will just result in the pat on the back that tells them its OK, we’ll always be there to bail you out whenever you need it. No! They are the ones who have gambled by throwing the dice, and they have lost. Just like in Vegas, they need to accept their losses and move on, do their best to scrape together and start again.

The thing that really ticks me off is that this “bailout” is being postulated as the one and only option available by both the government and the media. How can they get away with pushing this through so quick without a real analysis of alternative options? Do you realize what will happen when the government gives away $700 Billion? The only way the government can get this money in the first place is to print it, which will thereby decrease the low value of the dollar even lower!

So has anyone taken any time to consider some of these alternative options? Former Presidential Candidate Governor Mike Huckabee wrote a blog about his frank disappointment with the way his party (the Republicans, President Bush) has handled this crisis. But he does not just criticize, he offers some alternative suggestions:
If Congress wants to do something, here are some suggestions:

1. Eliminate ALL capital gains taxes and taxes on savings and dividends right now. Free up the capital and encourage investment. This is the kind of economic stimulus the Fair Tax would bring and if Congress is going to lose money, let them lose it with lower taxes, not with public dollar bailouts of private market mistakes.

2. Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley. It has failed. It was supposed to prevent this. It didn’t. Kill it.

3. Demand that the executives who steered their ships into the ground be forced to pay back the losses of their companies. Of course, they can’t, so let them work and give back to the government and they can live like the people they put on the streets or kept there. It makes no sense to put them in jail-that’s just more they will cost you and me. I’d rather them go out and earn money-just not get to keep so much of it this time. I’m not talking about limiting CEO salaries—just those of the people who now are up in Washington begging for help because they ruined their companies.
[link]

Another option I have heard is about something on the table in Washington to “change the mark-to-market accounting law and to extend insurance but extend no loans.” Supposedly, doing this will help open up the market for a far less price.

“If the government insured those mortgages, they would then be marketable. And could sell them. And the companies would stay afloat. And we, the people, don’t have to get into the mortgage business.”
[link]

So why have we not heard about any of these as viable alternative options? Because everyone in the government is all up in arms to fix this thing quick the only way they know how…step in and throw tax payer money at the beggars.

We the people of this nation should not be punished for the greed and misconduct of the companies and executives as a result of their asinine gambling and risky stakes that they have taken because of their corruption and greed!

We need to take a stand and voice our concerns over giving our money away without our consent to executives and companies that will just waste this money again… This will just be a vicious cycle resulting in the continual downward spiral of the American economy resulting in collapse.

Voices

I recently found the new House of Heroes cd, The End is Not the End streaming online at Absolute Punk.net (you can also find it at Relevant’s The Drop). A complete review will be coming soon.

However, I did want to touch on one aspect that hit me good. Their second to last (technically third to last, as there is a “secret song” at the end of the last track) song, Voices, vividly describes the haunting of innocent voices that have been disgraced by the singer. Essentially the core of the song is summed up in this quote:

In a graceless world / I was graceless / …how can God show mercy? / I was merciless to them?

This is recounted through cries of regrets of deeds done and not done in life.  Injustice was introduced to the world around. The main crux, the sin that the singer so regrets, is the constant murder required of him while fighting in a brutal war.

Then, after all this lament, a speaker comes in with these profound words:

Your greatest sin is not the abortion you’ve asked forgiveness for
or the adultery or whatever it is you did in your life in your past that you’re ashamed of
that keeps hounding you.

Your greatest sin is not that.
Your greatest sin is not believing God’s Word when God says you’re forgiven!
Your greatest sin is unbelief!

You want to repent of something, friend?
Stop repenting of sins you’ve already repented of
and repent of your unbelief.

Wow. How often do I beat myself up over something that I know I am ashamed of, that I have asked forgiveness for? This is a continuing attack even after I have been forgiven. God has forgiven me, and that is that. Don’t continue to crucify Christ over again by beating myself up over and over again in an attempts to suffer through my own purgatory.

P.S. If you are interested in where that sermon is from, I scoured the internat and finally stumbled upon it among some sermon notes. It is a sermon by Rich Nathan at Vineyard Church of Columbus (Ohio), called The Triumph of the Cross. Clicking that link will take you to the mp3 of that sermon, and that section above is located about 3/4 the way in.

Doomsday is Upon Us.

CERN is testing their 17-mile long Large Hadron Collider on Wednesday, an experiment that could destroy earth from the inside out in four years. Hmm… four years… 2008 + 4 = 2012 which also happens to be the last year on the Mayan Calendar, a year many traditions hold to be the end of life as we know it. Could the two be correlated? Could Doomsday really be up us?

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