Haiti and New Years Resolutions

THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK
First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti. The devastation is unimaginable. My frame of reference for natural disasters is Greensburg. This is Greensburg times ten thousand. I cannot comprehend what these people are going through. The resources it will take to rebuild an already impoverished country are extraordinary. The response that the U.S. has provided so far is beyond impressive. If you need a reason why the United States is the greatest country on the planet, look at how its citizens respond to natural disasters around the world. If you feel called to donate to the relief effort in Haiti, please donate to the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org) or text HAITI to 90999. A $10 donation will be sent to Red Cross and appear on your cell phone bill.
How many of you make New Year’s Resolutions? How many of you have stopped pursuing them by MLK Day? According to some google research (I love google), by now 29 percent of us have already stopped pursuing our resolutions. By the end of the month that number will rise to 36 percent and by June 30th, 54 percent of us will have failed. That being said, studies have shown that almost half of all Americans make at least one resolution. And if you haven’t made one, how can you break it? This then, is my list of New Year’s resolutions. I usually try to come up with ten resolutions every year. Several of these are not new, and I have even been successful on a couple of these in previous years. I have never been able to accomplish all ten in one year however. We will check back periodically to see how bad I am doing.
(1) Blog consistently for an entire year.
(2) Lose ten pounds
(3) Read twelve new books
(4) Read five books off of the New York Times 100 best books of all time
(5) Read the entire bible
(6) Watch ten movies off of the AFI List of Greatest 100 movies of all time
(7) Visit a state / country that I have never been in
(8) Shoot under 40 for nine holes
(9) Increase my net worth
(10) Learn / re-learn a foreign language

RANT OF THE WEEK
This is more of a mini-rant / observation this week. Earlier today, I was driving in my car running errands. It is not often that I listen to weekday talk radio, but today I was able to. (Thank you Dr. King). During one of the commercial breaks, three commercials in a row were provided by U.S. Bureau of the Census, Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Now all of the programs advertised are good programs that people should participate in or be aware of. But in today’s economic climate, and with the amount of money our government is in debt with, should our taxpayer dollars be used in this manner? Are there better ways to spend less money and still reach the target audiences? When the federal government never even attempts to balance its own budget and the state of Kansas is facing a tax increase or drastic cuts in almost all areas, shouldn’t this be examined?
SPORTS NEWS OF THE WEEK
Mark McGwire – So Mr. McGwire finally decides to admit he used steroids during most of his major league baseball career. Of course this was done because he was hired as the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals which is a curious decision by itself. I don’t remember McGwire ever being much of a complete hitter, other than he could crush the ball. I have conflicted emotions about the steroids era, how it should be handled now, and how history and the record books should judge those who played during that era. At some point I will try to explain those emotions when I can sort them all out. But what I CAN’T STAND is the great hypocrisy of MLB and ‘the integrity of the game’. MLB is big on ‘integrity of the game’. Pete Rose remains banned from anything remotely related to MLB, the Hall of Fame and everything else because he violated the ‘integrity of the game’. But what about all those players who BROKE THE LAW, and committed CRIMES with their use of steroids? That’s not cheating? That isn’t violating the ‘integrity of the game’? whatever.
COOL PERSON OF THE WEEK
The cool person of the week is not one person, it is a collection of people. This is for every person who rushed to Haiti to provide the immediate assistance that is needed for so many people. From search and rescue crews from the City of Los Angeles to a Mercy Corps group from Harvard University. There are thousands of Americans rushing to Haiti to provide assistance in any way possible. I am so incredibly proud of the generosity, the sense of duty, and the overwhelming response that you have shown.
DOUCHE OF THE WEEK
Pat Robertson / Rush Limbaugh – This week it is a tie on the DOUCHE of the week. I couldn’t decide which one was worse. Pat Robertson saying that the country of Haiti made a pact with the devil in the 1700 or 1800s which led us to the earthquake or Rush Limbaugh saying the earthquake was made to order for President Obama and that the President will use Haiti to boost his credibility with the light skinned and dark skinned black community in this country. I don’t care if you believe this is true or not, the week that 200,000 people were killed and another 1.5 million displaced is not the time to politicize a horrible tragedy. Talk about the economy, Afghanistan, what color tie the President wore, but leave tragedies alone. Douche!