At some point recently, I allowed a Windows update that upgraded my Internet Explorer to version 7. This version sucks worse than any other version. I usually don’t care because I’ve been a Firefox user for years. But my bank’s online tools have a glitch, and they will only work in IE. So I have to fire up IE on occasion. And each time I do, it takes me to this web page: http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx.

It doesn’t matter that my home page setting is something else; every time it starts up it takes me to the above page. The page says “Are you ready to choose your settings?”. The problem is that there is no way for me to answer “no”. This is just another case of Microsoft trying to make me do things they way they want me to do them, instead of the way I want to.

And now every time I run IE, IE launches an MS web site and they know about it. Microsoft, the true American phishermen.

We need oil. We use oil. We have oil.

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about the debate over drilling for oil. And I’ve just whittled all the oil drilling arguments down to 9 words. The above 9 words are the reason the United States should drill more for domestic oil. It’s all that simple.

You can argue all you want about the individual parts of the above 9 words. Sure, we should reduce our “need” for oil. Sure, we could reduce our “use” of oil. Sure, we can disagree on how much oil we “have”. But no argument disputes the accuracy of the above 9 words.

Let’s drill more of our own oil, stop depending so much on other countries and just take care of ourselves for a change.

On August 1, 2000 I bought my first PDA, a Handspring Visor Deluxe. Actually, ten years earlier, I had purchased a Casio B.O.S.S., but my Visor was the first device I had that synchronized with my computer. So I’ve been keeping my calendar and contacts on some kind of electronic device for 18 years.

I’ve gotten to the point in my life that I don’t go anywhere or plan anything until I first check my PDA. It’s become my activities bible. So of course my wife and daughters have come to know that if they ask me if we’re doing anything on any particular day, I can’t answer unless I have my PDA.

So, for the past 8 years, I’ve wanted to have a way to share my calendar with my family, without giving them access to update it. I simply want to allow them to view my schedule from any computer on the internet. I’ve seen various attempts and solutions come and go over the years, but nothing worked, until today.

Today, my PDA is a Palm LifeDrive, which I purchased in August 2006. And today, I installed GooSync. GooSync allows me to sync all of my calendar events over to my Google Calendar via wifi. It’s quite simple actually, and since it uses a wifi connection, it’s quite fast. Then in Google, I shared my calendar with each of my family members, and voila, 8 years of frustration have ended. My entire family can now see my calendar from any computer on the internet.

I haven’t yet purchased the premium version of GooSync, after all, I’ve only been using it for a number of hours now. But if things go as they seem they will, I’ll be upgrading to the premium account to take advantage of even more features.

The United States is too dependent on foreign countries for oil. That’s our problem, plain and simple, and we must solve it.

Senator John McCain (Republican candidate for president) is calling for more domestic drilling. President Bush is calling for more domestic drilling. Senator Barack Obama (Democratic candidate for president) opposes the drilling. Obama is wrong. There is so much disagreement about this issue, so I’ll just set the record straight for you, so you know why McCain & Bush are correct.

First, let me make it clear than I’m focusing on the big issues here, and that’s oil. It’s easy for us to reduce the issue to the price of gas. And if you do that, you’re looking at the wrong problem. Soaring gas prices in the U.S. are of course a major concern. But our problem is that we refuse to depend on our own resources, and instead depend on other countries for our oil supply.

We have oil reserves in the Outer Continental Shelf. We have oil reserves in ANWR (Artic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska). We need to tap those resources. I’ve now heard and read statements from many people about why we should not increase domestic drilling. I’ll address each one.

Increased domestic drilling is not a short term solution for high gas prices. I agree. But that’s not a good reason to not drill. President Clinton vetoed a bill in 1995 that would have increased drilling in ANWR. Had he not done that, we’d be drilling more today, and according to some reports, we’d have harvested over a million barrels of oil from ANWR this year.

We need to reduce our dependence on oil. Again, I agree. And again, it’s not a reason to not drill. You can talk all you want about our need to drive more environmentally-friendly cars. All good stuff. You can talk about alternative energy resources. Even more good stuff. But how many years have we been trying to be more green? How much can we sit here and think that being green will solve our problems? Don’t get me wrong, I agree with our green efforts. They are all quite noble and we’re even changing our ways in my own household. But we still need to drill more in our own backyard.

Drilling in ANWR would hurt our wildlife. Possibly. But this is a tricky issue. We need to decide once and for all what’s more important to the American way of life. If we continue to cave to the demands of environmentalists, all we do is sit here not drilling, enjoying all of our wild caribou, while we allow the Saudis to control everything. It’s great to save the caribou, but at what cost? We’re doing this to ourselves. We don’t have to go hogwild and completely ignore environmental concerns. But we do need to stop caving 100% of the time.

Speculators are driving up gas prices, not the Saudis. Yet another good point. But what are you going to do about that? Not drill? Some experts say that even the announcement of more domestic drilling could burst the speculation bubble.

One report I read stated that the United States owns about 3% of the world’s oil supply, while we use 25%. That’s a tough one. More drilling certainly won’t solve that. But we still must drill. We must be responsible for ourselves.

Listen, all of the above points are good ones. But none of them are reason to not explore our own resources more fully. We have our own oil resources. We need to tap them.

My favorite TV news man died today. Tim Russert was the NBC Washington bureau chief, and for the past 17 years, moderator of Meet The Press. Russert was at the NBC studios in Washington this morning when he collapsed from a heart attack, what his doctor called a “sudden coronary thrombosis”. He died immediately.

When it came to news and politics in Washington, Russert was me. He was an every day Joe American. He asked the questions and got the information that I wanted to know. His interviews on Meet The Press were entertaining and extremely informative, not only because of the guests he hosted and the topics they discussed, but because of the way he did it.

When I first started watching him many years ago, Russert’s interviews actually frustrated me. See, he quickly became for me the guy that would ask the extra question, the question that I was thinking about. A politician would be talking, and in my mind I’d be thinking, “yeah, but that’s not what you said 6 months ago when you were in this city…” and then Russert would chime in saying, “but that’s not what you said 6 months ago…”. But Russert didn’t stop there. He showed the quote right there on the TV screen for all of America to see, and more importantly to make sure the guest knew that we knew. But when the guest would still not give a straight answer, Russert would move on to the next question. And that upset me. He would go further than any other news guy, which is why I loved him, but he just wouldn’t quite finish the job.

And then I learned. Then I got to know Tim. I learned more about his past, his roots in Buffalo, his Catholic upbringing, his work for Senator Moynahan on Capitol Hill, his passion for the Buffalo Bills. I identified with him due in no small part to the fact that I’ve always felt a kinship with Buffalo Bills fans. They are quite similar to Green Bay Packers fans: blue collar town, cold weather football, loyal fans through and through, down-to-earth simple people. And as I got to know more about who Tim Russert really was, I finally understood. I realized what he was doing. Tim Russert respected his guests. And even though he knew he had them in one of those “gotcha” moments, he never actually said, “gotcha”. Instead, he left that up to me to say for myself. It was almost as if in that moment, he could have looked at the camera right into my eyes, and with that look that we shared, we would both know what each other was thinking.

Rather than challenging a guest’s position on an issue, he would ask his questions in such a way that when the guest would answer, we the viewers would knew exactly where the guest stood. And that’s how Tim saw his job. That was his responsibility. It was not to catch a politician in a lie; not to embarrass a foreign head of state. But to make sure that when the Tim Russert interview was over, there was no question in anyone’s mind how the guest felt about the subject. Tim Russert respected me and my intelligence enough to allow me to watch and make that determination for myself.

Russert also had a great sense of humor. I loved watching him with his white board during the 2000 presidential election. And many folks may not know that in addition to hosting Meet The Press, he also hosted The Tim Russert Show, where he would interview many guests outside of the political arena, promoting books, discussing their lives. He brought his same thoroughness to those interviews, and after an hour with a guest, I knew everything I wanted to know.

One of the other endearing qualities in Russert was that when it came to sports and allegiance, everyone knew where he stood. He was a big Buffalo Bills fan, and he made sure everyone knew it. There are so many TV news personalities who are afraid to show their sports team allegiances for fear of offending fans of the other team. Well, this blogger, a huge fan of the Green Bay Packers, has enormous respect for Tim Russert, a Bills fan. He loved his Bills like I love my Packers.

Tim Russert was one of very few people who could cause me to immediately put the remote down when I was flipping through channels. If the show was Tim Russert, it was genuine, it was real. It was exactly what I wanted to see, and I watched. Russert was a great American, a true patriot, and I’m going to miss him.

As made clear in Tim’s book “Big Russ & Me“, he had a great respect for his father. He cherished his relationship with his son Luke. He was a devoted husband. And I can’t think of a better time for us to remember Tim Russert, than Fathers Day weekend.

If it’s Sunday morning, it’s Meet The Press Tim Russert.

The sportsmanship committee of the WIAA is recommending a ban against fans with bare or painted chests from indoor games. The story is all over the internet, including our local TV station, Fox 11 news, who ran the story along with a clip of some boys from West De Pere High School who had painted their bodies at a basketball game. These same boys also painted their bodies to show support for the school’s dance team at several competitions this past year.

I can’t believe they’re wasting their time on such a proposal. I’ve got several problems with it.

1. I was at a number of high school dance competitions this past season where 5 or 6 boys painted their bodies to match the girls’ uniforms. It was fantastic! They showed so much support in a sport that doesn’t get much attendance from the student body. And when the dancers see this, it has a real impact on their spirit and their level of performance. These boys also did the same thing at a couple of basketball games, showing great support and school spirit.
2. According to Mike Blackburn, NIAAA executive director, “Wisconsin’s proposed ban could be the first in the country. Nationally, bare-chested fans have not been a big problem at high school games”. Exactly. What is the real problem that we’re trying to solve here?
3. Tom Shafranski, WIAA assistant director said, “High school students can’t bare their chests in class, so there’s no reason for them to do it at indoor sporting events.” Are you serious? That’s your reasoning? Many schools don’t allow their students to stand up and cheer in class either, so perhaps we should ban cheering from indoor sports. Come on. You need to find a better reason than this.
4. According to Todd Clark, WIAA sportsmanship committee coordinator, “some people find such exposure offensive.” Oh geez. If someone sees a boy or a man with no shirt on and they don’t like it, tough. It’s not illegal. Get over it.
5. Clark also said, “It’s usually only a handful of young men, but they draw a lot of attention.” Yeah, and what? A handful of young men showing their support and drawing attention is wrong? Think about it. If you make them wear shirts, do you really think the same “handful of young men” won’t do something else that draws attention? If drawing attention is what you think is wrong, then I’m telling you right now, this ban won’t fix it.
6. The effort put in by these boys to paint their bodies and support their teams is admirable. They should be commended, not reprimanded.

The interesting aspect of this issue for us here in the West De Pere School District is that the boys that do it have done it mostly at dance competitions. Dance competitions in Wisconsin are sanctioned by the WACPC, not WIAA. So it will be interesting to see if WACPC follows suit, or continues to allow the support.

If the WIAA is going to propose such a ban, they need to have good reason. They need to have an actual problem that they’re trying to solve. So far, the reasons stated are baseless. I can’t wait to see the painted guys again at the dance competitions next season.

General Motors announced two days ago that they’re closing four truck and SUV plants in North America, affecting 10,000 workers. Included in the closings is the plant in Janesville, Wisconsin. What surprises me is all the politicians who are stunned by this announcement.

Come on folks, wake up. Think about it. Have you been paying attention to the economy? Do you know how much a gallon of gas costs today? Do you really expect the production of SUVs to be a growing business? We should have seen this coming.

I’m impressed with Governor Doyle’s statement, “Bad corporate decisions kept these lines turning out gas guzzlers as fuel prices went from 2 dollars to 3 dollars and now to 4 dollars per gallon. Now we stand here, carrying the burden of those bad corporate decisions.” I don’t know if I totally agree that there were “bad corporate decisions”, after all demand for gas guzzlers is down, and GM is closing the plants that make them. Sounds like good decision-making to me. But Doyle is indeed looking at this situation from the right perspective. This was inevitable. You can’t blame GM for the problem. If Americans didn’t want SUVs in the first place, they wouldn’t have made them.

All we can do now is figure out how we can help the 2,800 workers from the Janesville plant.

There are times when I’d prefer to be wrong, but in this case, I was definitely correct in my analysis and prediction. Just a year ago, I wrote an entry in this blog about Governor Doyle’s intent to provide free tuition to Wisconsin veterans. And my basic point was simple. Doyle was wrong. Not only did he neglect to tell us how he intended to pay for such a plan, but he exploited the memories of dead American soldiers by making the announcement on Memorial Day. How shameful.

I expect more from my elected officials. Heck, I can be governor and make all kinds of proposals if I don’t have to pay for them. And who in their right mind is going to speak out against a tuition plan for veterans on Memorial Day? Me, that’s who. And as far as I know, I’m the only one.

Listen, as I said in my post last year, I am so grateful for what American service men and women have done for me. The fact that you’re reading this right now means that I had the freedom to write it. I don’t discount their sacrifices for a moment, and I’m the first to say that they deserve our utmost respect and gratitude. And I would love nothing more than to provide them with a free college education. But if Governor Doyle was truly interested in making a difference, he would have done the right thing and figured out how to pay for such a worthy plan. But he didn’t.

So, where does that leave us today? Well, the result hit the headlines of every major newspaper in the state yesterday. Here are a couple:

• UW System regents approve 5.5 percent tuition hike, Wisconsin State Journal
• Plan would hike tuition by 5.5 percent at 4-year UW schools, La Crosse Tribune

The AP article, which ran in the La Crosse Tribune, says in part, “…to pay for an unfunded mandate to give free tuition to veterans…most of the increases would be used to pay for a state program giving free tuition to veterans and some of their family members. Lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle created the program in 2006 but have not fully funded the benefits.”

But, nothing I’ve said so far is the worst part; here it is. Governor Doyle left the UW system with no choice but to increase tuition. With no funding, he left the burden up to the veterans’ classmates. Wisconsin taxpayers aren’t even paying for this! What a coward. “Hey veterans, you want free tuition? No problem. Just take up a collection from your classmates!” And this comes at a time when presidential candidates are talking about trying to make college education affordable.

Governor Doyle should be ashamed of himself. The UW Board of Regents will vote on the tuition increase next Thursday. They need to vote against it, and come up with a real plan with real funding, so that all Wisconsin taxpayers can give our veterans what they deserve.

The biggest problem we have with immigration in the United States is enforcement of current laws. I’ve read statements and opinions from many people on many sides of this issue, and whether you agree with our laws or not, most people agree that we don’t enforce our existing laws. After all, if we did, then why are there 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was formed in 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It accounts for more than 15,000 employees working in offices here in the U.S. and around the world. So what have they been up to in the past couple of years? A lot.

Most recently, on May 12, they arrested 390 suspected illegal immigrants at Agriprocessors, a meat plant in Iowa. According to Time Magazine, in April, they arrested more than 300 workers at Pilgrim’s Pride chicken plants in five states. In December 2006, they arrested 1,297 workers at six locations of Swift & Company (nearly 70% of whom have been convicted or deported and a union official was convicted of harboring illegal aliens). In April 2006, more than 1,100 workers were arrested at 52 locations of IFCO Systems North America (seven managers have plead guilty of knowingly hiring illegals and five more convicted).

So, it’s working folks. Slowly but surely, it’s working. If you’re in the U.S. illegally, you must know that your day is coming. Employers, now’s your opportunity to keep your logo out of my blog.

And one last message. To those of you who are reading this blog from outside the borders of the United States. America is a great country. It is indeed all you’ve heard it is, and I hope you’ll come here some day. Bring your family. Bring your extended family. Bring your friends. Bring your native customs and traditions. Visit one of our thousands of immigration offices throughout our country. Go through the proper channels. Do the right thing like my European ancestors did. Pledge your allegiance to our country, and I’ll be glad to call you my fellow American!

What a week. Anyone who knows me well knows that I frequently misplace stuff. I’m always looking around the house for something I just had. Tuesday morning was no different. I was getting ready to walk out the door and head to work, and I couldn’t find my glasses. I looked everywhere. So I just figured that maybe I left them at the office on Monday.

Before I go any further, let me give you a bit of background first. I started wearing bifocals a couple years ago. They work great. But I also ride a motorcycle a lot. And when I do, I put my glasses in their case and put them in my pocket, and I wear sunglasses (or no glasses) inside my helmet. This works great, except it means that I have to carry my glasses around with me, instead of wearing them 100% of the time.

So, I headed to the office on Tuesday, expecting to find my glasses on my desk. No such luck. I thought hard and figured that maybe they’re still in the pocket of the jacket that I wore on Monday night, when I drove my motorcycle to Kimberly (21 miles away) for my quartet rehearsal. Again, no such luck. I looked around the house on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning. And I finally came to the realization that I was out the $400 that they cost me. I just got this pair a few months ago. Crap.

While I was at work Wednesday morning, I kept stewing over this in my head. I just couldn’t believe that I’d have to pay $400 to buy another pair of glasses. Then I got an idea. I figured that when I drove my motorcycle to Kimberly and back on Monday night, maybe the glasses fell out of my pocket on the road.

So at lunch time, I set out on my mission. I drove home and then headed south to Kimberly. I figured I’d just retrace the route, and watch the roads and curbs and shoulders to see if my glasses were there. On my motorcycle it’s a nice drive anyway. I take a more scenic route through small towns on county highways instead of the main state highway. It’s 21 miles one way, so I figured I’d just barely have enough time to drive it round trip on my lunch hour.

And wouldn’t you know. I was about 16 miles south of my house, on County Hwy OO in Kaukauna, and there they were, sitting in the middle of the road, at the corner of Hyland Ave and Delanglade St, my glasses still in the case, flat as a pancake. What a stroke of luck!

So now I had mixed feelings. I did indeed find my glasses as I had hoped. But they had been out there for 2 days and had obviously been run over a number of times by what seemed to be quite large trucks. So I was still out the $400.

I got back to the office and was a bit bummed out. I decided to call ShopKo Eyecare Center where I purchased them. I asked the lady two things: do they have some kind of warranty that would cover this kind of thing, and did I get in on that? I figured that at this point, what do I have to lose? And to my surprise, she said, “as long as you have the pieces, bring them in, they’re under warranty.” Holy cow! So I brought them in and my new glasses will be ready in 7 to 10 days. Just like that.

What a roller coaster of a day. I had had some troubles with a few other eye glass stores when I originally bought these. And I decided on ShopKo because the ladies there really seem to care. They treated me like they truly wanted me as a customer. And now after this incident, I’m a ShopKo customer for life!

Two separate issues came up today regarding immigration, both of which made my blood boil, so I must write.

First, Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Senator Clinton (D-NY) aired in two parts on Fox News Channel last night and tonight. In part 2 which aired tonight, O’Reilly asked Clinton about immigration. In explaining her position, she said, “If they’ve committed a crime in this country or elsewhere, they should be deported no questions asked, or tried for the crime.” This woman doesn’t have any idea what she’s saying. She proves once again a point that I made in this blog back on January 31, that she doesn’t understand what “illegal” means.

Every single one of the 12 million illegal immigrants in this country is a criminal. I don’t understand why people don’t get this. Even if you don’t like our laws, you can’t dispute the fact that entering any country in the world without following the proper procedures is a crime. It just is. It’s indisputable. So, if Senator Clinton wants to deport every illegal immigrant who has “committed a crime”, then she better get started.

The second story that bothers me comes from Santa Ana, California, where I lived for 12 years, and whose news I follow via the Orange County Register. Today was a day of immigration rallies in many locations throughout the United States. Now, I’m all for immigration, as long as it’s done legally. What bothers me is when folks come here illegally (from any country) and wave the American flag.

According to an article in the Register, a 12-year-old girl whose parents brought her here from Mexico when she was 1 said, “we’re here to fight for our rights.” The problem with that statement is that  her parents obviously didn’t tell her that the list of rights is quite short for illegal immigrants.

I love the United States. But if for some reason I decided to move to France, and I also decided to do it illegally, there is no way I’d wave the French flag and say, “I’m here marching today, fighting for my rights!” That’s just ridiculous.

And if you come into the U.S. illegally, there is one right that you absolutely do not have, and that is the right to wave the American flag and say that you’re fighting for your rights! What rights?

My feelings on immigration are simple. We have laws that are good. People follow these laws every day and they work. But we don’t enforce them. So the first step is to enforce them. The next step is to figure out a plan to make the 12 million immigrants currently here illegally legal. Deporting them is ridiculous.

If you’re like me, you receive several e-mails every week from some friend or relative plugging some cause and including a call to action like, “make your voice heard, forward this e-mail to everyone you know”.

Most such messages I receive are about U.S. immigration policies. But I also receive messages like, “put Christ back in Christmas”, or “don’t vote for this politician”, or “this guy kills babies”. And I actually agree with the underlying message in most of these e-mails. Here’s one I just received yesterday from a relative in California:

The following immigration laws are proposed…

1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.
2. All ballots will be in this nation’s language.
3. All government business will be conducted in our language.
4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.
5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office.
6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.
7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.
8. If foreigners come here and buy land, options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.
9. Foreigners may have no protests; no demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.
10. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted and when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you.

The above laws are current immigration laws of MEXICO!!!

What bothers me about this message is that I’m quite sure that all the sender did was read an e-mail he received, click “Forward”, fill in addresses from his contact list, and click “Send”. Big deal. You won’t change any laws by e-mailing your contact list.

My sincere question is simple. Who do you call when you want a local law changed? Who do you call when you don’t agree with a national policy? And don’t misunderstand my question. I’m not asking who should you call or who would you call. I’m asking, who do you call? I’m glad you feel passionately about an important issue. But if you don’t even contact your own government representatives about these issues, then don’t preach to me. Don’t fill my inbox with your hypocrisy. Get off your high horse and do something that will actually make a difference.