Wordpress Privacy Settings
I hate to admit this, but I received a complaint today from an owner of one of the blogs that I do the sys admin work for. This one was about the Provision Networks blog at http://blogs.inside.quest.com/provision/. They actually started this blog a while back and I remember when it was first put up checking in Google by dropping in the blog title and finding the results. So this really came as a surprise to me. So the first thing I checked was the privacy settings in the Wordpress admin console and sure enough, that was the problem.
Since I am not the only administrator for this blog, I will not claim full responsibility for this mishap. Needless to say, this is definately a setting that I will keep a closer eye on in the future.
The Republican Answer to Environmental Regulation
About a month ago, I wrote a blog post asking why Republican’s are so anti-environmental. That post was sparked by an article in the Los Angeles times pointing out how Republican Fred Upton was introducing 200 amendments to the Waxman-Markey bill with the intent of trying to stop the bill from every becoming law. Fred Upton has now answered to me (not personally of course) with the introduction of environmental legislation from the Republican side. The legislation focuses on three areas.
1. Licensing 100 new nuclear reactors over the next 20 years - 31 of which are already in the pipeline.
2. Arctic exploration and drilling for oil.
3. Tax incentives for fuel efficient vehicles.
Having grown up in the shadows of remembering the “Three Mile Island” scare, I like many of the rest of us use to fear nuclear energy. However, great improvements in technologies have been developed over the years causing the fears of a nuclear reactor meltdown to simply subside. During the last presidential political campaign, even Barrack Obama stated that he too did support increasing the use of nuclear power. I see no reason why it should be excluded from the democratic Waxman-Markey bill. It is after all CO2 emission free energy and a lesser expensive sure approach at creating it. If we had enough nuclear energy in production, we could even tear down the fish damaging dams along the Columbian and other rivers.
Regarding the exploration of arctic oil, that is it’s entire own issue. We all know that the environmentalists as a general rule oppose this action. It has been heavily argued that the amount of oil retrieved through this drilling is insignificant compared to the demand. It is argued that development would alter the natural ecosystem of the Arctic. I can see both arguments and personally side with the environmentalists on this one.
The last issue is on the offering of tax incentives for individuals purchasing fuel efficient vehicles. Certainly it is good to offer cash incentives for purchasing fuel efficient vehicles. However, let’s not forget that someone has to pay for it. There needs to be a revenue generating mechanism to pay for this tax incentive and this is not defined in the bill from what I can tell - once again - more deficit spending.
On this issue of deficit spending, I would like to state emphatically that any environmental bill that gets signed into law must become revenue neutral. We have got to end this practice of just spending money on any initiative that is popular and adopt a pay as you go program. We are already looking at the strong potential of serious inflation if the federal government does not reign in the intense projected deficits already on the books.
While I am grateful that Mike Pence, John Shimkus and Fred Upton have come together to introduce GOP sponsored legislation to answer to the energy and environmental issues, I unfortunately still question the sincerity of it. Why was it so absent when you were in control? Fellow Republicans, this is an example where you need to be embracing the centrist of your party and not be saying good riddance to them as they leave. Many of the moderates will push for much of the social conservative agendas that you seek. We will support a leaner, smaller, and responsible government. And we will also seek to protect the earth that we live in keeping the party more in touch with the heavily divided mainstream America.
By the way, I still believe that a cap and trade program is a correct approach to further reducing CO2 emissions. The Republican answer does not resolve keeping private enterprises from spewing out environmentally harmful emissions. And the argument of job losses to foreign competitors can and should be handled through trade regulations. Change happens, and when it does, jobs shift and economies adjust.
The Chrysler Sale is Just Wrong
Aside from excessive deficit spending, this is probably the second act that President Obama has done that really has me concerned. Chrysler was in financial trouble and landed in the bankruptcy courts. The company was heavily laden with creditors who owned secured debts. The expected course of action in a bankruptcy would be liquidation - and the money would go to the creditors. Had this course of action taken, several wealthy investors (albeit not as wealthy as they use to be) would have had the opportunities to start their own car companies. We could have ended up with say 10 small car companies each doing unique things. Instead, the union was salvaged, the creditors were stiffed, and Chrysler ends up in the hands of another foreign owner. How is that right?
There are many downsides to the course of action taken by the administration in this case.
1. Investors will be less willing to invest in the bond measures of larger companies driving up fund raising costs for those who could really do our economy good.
2. Many companies already burdened in debt will be less able to get further funding.
3. Ford Motor Corporation will be disadvantaged to a foreign competitor as they still owe their creditors money.
4. From a moral standpoint, this was just plain stealing from the rich in an attempt to give to the UAW.
President Obama, If you want the Republican party to have a resurgence, then just keep putting the requests of labor unions over common sense decisions. On this one, you got it wrong.
Ethanol - Should the US Continue Down that Path?
Today’s spotlighted article comes out of the Wall Street Journal in an article called Ethanol’s Grocery Bill. The anonymous author is criticizing the Obama administration for pushing to increase the share of the corn-based fuel required in gasoline to 15% from 10%. The article makes some valid arguments against the use of ethanol; yet leaves out one major piece of the argument in favor of such legislation.
The arguments against the use of ethanol are as follows:
1. $3 Billion dollars a year is given out in subsidies to the industry which amounts to a 45 cent tax credit for every gallon of ethanol produced.
2. Between 2007 and 2008, the use of ethanol accounted for 10 to 15% of the increase in the cost of food.
3. Reduction in CO2 emissions from ethanol are minimal and may be negative.
So then comes the question. Is it ridiculous to push for increasing the amount of ethanol we use in our gasoline?
One major issue has been completely left out of the equation. What about national security and energy independence? When the price of gasoline was $4.00 per gallon, everyone was fuming at the middle eastern countries. Energy independence was at the forefront of everybody’s conversation.
It is certainly easy to be critical when discussing politics. Everyone can always find fault when looking at the policies of the party which they do not belong to. I too am concerned about the subsidy’s being paid for the use of this energy source. In fact, I am critical of most any subsidy being paid out into the farming community. Nevertheless, before simply shooting down the idea, I do believe we need to strongly consider the benefits made towards bringing us closer to energy independence. Is ethanol the total solution? Absolutely not. Nevertheless, there certainly is merit in knocking out a 5% usage in our reliance on the Middle East. Obama is most certainly not in the wrong to be concerned about our energy independence. There are other nations who have wisely done much more.
I look forward to someday seeing massive amounts of our ethanol being produced by Paul Stamets group using fungi to produce this fuel.
Paul Stamets talk at TED Conference.
When I spoke with members of his organization a year ago, they were not yet ready for prime time. But they were working hard at getting there.
Solar Power Using Salt in the Mojave Desert
The Los Angeles Times ran a article in the paper on Friday about a company called SolarReserve that plans to shore up a previously closed solar energy plant making it large enough to power 100,000 homes. The name of the article is A Solar Plant Worth its Salt.
I have got to say that if the news in this article is true, this is a totally incredible breakthrough. The concept of this plant is to use thousands of heliostats (mirrors) to shine into a central location - kind of like a reverse light house. The extreme heat generated from the sun on these mirrors would molten salt. The molten salt would be saved in heat retaining containers that would afterwards be used to generate the steam for the turbines. What in incredible concept.
The building of the plant is still in the planning and approval stages.
The technology for this plant is not new. It actually existed about 10 years ago, but since the cost of natural gas was low at the time, the plant performing this process was closed.
If solar energy is something interesting to you, read the article. It is well worth your time.
Nuclear Blast in North Korea
We all got the news now that North Korea did a legitimate nuclear explosion underground that is estimated to have been larger than the bomb used to blow up Hiroshima. According to the Wall Street Journal, now even China is split as to whether or not they should continue to support their rogue brother. I mean, it shocked the Chinese too as the explosion was closer to the Chinese border then it was to the capital of North Korea. Chinese schools had to evacuate out of fear from what they were experiencing.
Many people were critical of Obama for going soft after their missile test about 1 1/2 months ago. This is way bigger of a deal than just a missile test now.
I would like some opinions from readers. Realistically, what should the US do now? Sanctions? Give me a break. What options are there? Please comment.
Mormons Anonymous
I have now launched a new community called Mormons Anonymous. From now on, all of my posting under the category of God and Religion will now be done in that community. I am currently actively looking for bloggers who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to join me as authors in this blog.
The purpose of having an anonymous blog talking about religious topics is because religion is a very personal thing. There are many things that I personally would like to blog about and make available to the readers, but would not be willing to do so with my name attached because of one of two reasons:
1. I may be embarrassed because I am writing about sinful activities.
2. I may be reluctant to write because I do not wish to praise my actions.
In the New Testament, Jesus was very clear in that we should not be boastful of our good works. We should let our light shine forth; however, we are to do our alms in secret. By blogging in Mormon’s Anonymous, it allows bloggers who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to shine their light while performing their alms in secret. It is a perfect solution.
I may periodically make entries about religion in this blog when I feel it is appropriate. Nevertheless, I invite all to check out and participate in http://mormonsanonymous.org.
java.sql.SQLException: No suitable driver - JDBC
This should be a very simple problem, but finding the solution does not always jump out at you based on the tutorials out there.
When doing a JDBC connection for SQL Server you may have the following line of code:
String sqlServerConnectionString = “jdbc:sqlserver://10.0.0.233:1433;databaseName=mydatabasename;user=sa;password=mypassword”;
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(sqlServerConnectionString);
Then you go to run it and run into the following:
java.sql.SQLException: No suitable driver
Actually, the problem is very simple. Earlier on, you may have forgotten this:
try
{
Class.forName(”com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver”);
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e)
{
System.out.println(e);
}
//Now run the code you originally ran:
String sqlServerConnectionString = “jdbc:sqlserver://10.0.0.233:1433;databaseName=mydatabasename;user=sa;password=mypassword”;
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(sqlServerConnectionString);
That should either solve your problem or at least give you a hint of what to do next.
Adam Lambert is Gay - OMGosh
Okay, so he never admitted it while on the show, but everyone knew. So whats the big deal?
My big deal is not about Adam Lambert. He knows who he is and he is an honest guy. He is also a fabulous singer. He is also a fabulous entertainer. I actually gave him and Allison quite a few votes during the season. My big deal is with all of the comments by viewers on AmericanIdol.com. My big deal is with blog posts by blog authors on CNN.com. My big deal is with the bigotry that exists out there - the huge lack of tolerance shown by so many people to a guy who did not bring up sexuality during the show or during the season. He probably kept it quiet because homosexuality is not appropriate to bring up on a show watched by kids and adults. I totally applaud him for that. I was mostly taken aback by a blogger on CNN that decided to use religion as a basis to vote for Kris Allen when this was a singing talent show and not a revival meeting.
I am going to be straight up with you. I live in California and campaigned hard for the passage of Proposition 8 banning gay marriage. I did this for religious reasons. I do not believe in the marriage of a man to a man or a woman to a woman. I believe that it is morally wrong. I also believe that sex between two unwed individuals is morally wrong - no matter what the gender of the two individuals are. I do believe that when gays have the right to marry, they will push their beliefs onto the religious community and insist on acceptance for something that is morally not right in the eyes of God and in the eyes of those who wish to promote this concept in their religious teachings.
I suppose that if I listen to some of these blggers, I should be condemned for buying and listening to Queen. I had better burn those CDs. And the same goes for my Elton John records that I have stashed away. And we had better quickly kick Jerry Brown out of the Attorney General’s office, because he is gay too. And a former supervisor of mine who now works at “eharmony.com” who is openly gay and is one of the kindest guys I know - well, they had better fire him. And I had better not get my hair cut anymore from my favorite hair stylist that works a Supercuts. Wow!!!
I voted for Adam Lambert to win American Idol because he has real talent and is a pleasure to watch and hear perform. I like Kris Allen too, but I really like Adam Lambert. Some people did not vote for Adam because his style of music is not theirs. Fine. That is the right reason to not vote for him. But to fight against him because he is gay? Well that is just straight bigotry. What really surprised me is that it is mostly the younger generation that made all of these comments of hatred on the blogs. This is the same generation that is supposed to be the tolerant generation - the ones who fought hard for the defeat of proposition 8.
I don’t know. I thought we as a nation were beyond this. We voted in a black president. We are torn on issues of abortion and gay marriage. But I really thought we had gotten past the hate of people whose sexual preferences were homosexual. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
American Idol Season 8 Finale
So I wake up at 4:30 this morning with a huge smile on my face. I mean, I went to bed last night at midnight totally exhausted. I am not supposed to wake up at 4:30 with an alert mind. This is crazy. But yes. There is a huge smile on my face.
On the show
The American Idol finally last night was just the bomb. Adam Lambert singing with Kiss…all decked out with makeup and all. The show ending with what is left of Queen. OMGoss (as I heard Kriss say it last night). Allison Iraheta singing with Cyndi Lauper. And getting to hear Cyndi make comments about how some people are going to hate you and others are going to love you. Steve Martin doing that fun folksy song with Megan Joy and Michael Sarver. I actually very much liked Megan’s singing and performances on the show. I wished she could have lasted a few more weeks. I do hope to see her again. Kris Allen sang that really cool country song with a singer I am not familiar with. Rod Stewart coming on stage. I saw Rod in concert two years ago in San Diego. He did not look good tonight but he always sounds good. My biggest regret was that I did not put a tape in and record that show. I could have watched that show over and over again.
On the Winner
Ok, so Kris Allen won. I like it. He is a humble guy. A nice guy. A down to earth guy. He is also a spiritual guy, and a tolerant guy. His wife is lucky…assuming he does not change. He is a very talented singer, artist, and probably songwriter judging on his artistry during the show. I think he was a good choice. I like the fact that he and Adam got along well.
On Adam Lambert
Adam was definitely my favorite to win. His strong voice and the versitility of what he can do with his voice was out of this world. He brought back the best of the 70’s. He did wonderful renditions of long time classics. His performances were first rate, first class. I would laugh, smile, and be in awe most every time he would perform. He to me was supposed to be the clear winner. There were two reasons he did not. 1. His music does not appeal to all (but whose music does?). 2. There is a big backlash by anit-gays - this will be a separate post in my God and Religion section.
All I gotta say is that I hope that next year, they are both back on stage with AI singing hits from their albums. I hope Allison makes it back someday as well because of successes.
About Danny Gokey
I was an early fan of Danny Gokey. I did not hear his story about he becoming a widower at first. I just liked his style. But in the end, I wanted him off. This really started with the food fight. It was very obvious after the fact that Allison was quite upset at him. I mean really mad. And when he was handed the bill for the disaster mess they created, he makes this comment, “doesn’t American Idol pay for this?”. OMGoss, so it is okay to trash places? I remember hearing of big name musician partying it up and trashing places and paying big bills for doing so. It is disgusting…I mean show some respect for other peoples property. The next week, when Allyson was voted off, we all saw her hug some and give Danny a big shove in the chest. Wow, she really was mad. Then the invincible never been in the bottom three had a big gloating smile when he survived the Aerosmith scream that had the blogsphere Adam Lambert fans all saying - “In your face of who the real screamer is”. Danny sings wonderful ballads. That is his style. This probably won’t be the end of him either. But I was not going to vote for him after all of that- and I did not want him to win.
What a fun show this was. What a fun season this was. Thanks Fox. Thanks contestants. The whole group gave me something to be happy about all season long during this time when so many people are struggling and having difficult times.
Good luck Adam.
Good luck Kris.
Good luck Allison.
Good luck Matt G.
Good luck Megan.
I will be watching for all of you.
