Blogging in General

Are you using a computer installed with Windows XP? Do you get tired of seeing the dull desktop all the time? As a matter of fact, Microsoft Windows XP lets you change the look of your operating system. You can make a change in every aspect or just several aspects.

If you want change every aspect of your computer’s appearance, including colors, sounds, pointers, password and the desktop background, you should change your theme. Firstly find out a theme you like. Then right click the desktop and click Properties. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Themes tab, click the Theme list, and then select the theme you want to use. In the preview of the theme, if you like, click OK. Otherwise, click Cancel. The new theme takes effect quickly like windows password reset.

If you just want to change your screen’s appearance, you should do like this: also right click the desktop, and then click Properties. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Appearance tab. Then you should choose what you want to change. Click Color scheme list to change colors, click Font size to change text size. Also you can click Advanced button to make more changes, such as the color of buttons, the size of the text and so on. When you have finished, click OK. In the Display Properties dialog box, click Apply to test your settings.

Of course if you get tired of your computer’s new look, you can always change the theme again, or you can select the Windows XP theme to return to the familiar blue.

In addition, it is possible that you may set up a password to protect the safety of your computer. Remember create a Windows XP password reset disk at the same time which can be helpful if you forget the password. 

Sitting here in my fifteen year old truck on what police call heroin alley.  It's a dark, damp morning.

I'm a dinosaur. I'm old enough to remember three social wars in my country; the war on poverty, the war on crime, and the war on drugs. I need only step out of my vehicle and begin to walk in order to find out how these wars turned out.

Based upon the outcome of these social wars I got the feeling I know how our latest war, the war on terror is going to turn out.

Looking out over Martin Luther King Boulevard before I exit and walk to the last job in Cleveland, I remember a quote from the late, great Martin Luther King Jr., Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. Life-like figures emerging from the blackness, make their transactions, and then disappear back into the beautiful, sardonic park called Rockefeller.

The emerging blackness in our veins makes a transaction in our brain then disappears into the beautiful, sardonic park called high.

As I fall victim to the actors in this crossroads of wars I found myself in, I wonder, am I also the creator?

As we fall victim to the actors in the crossroads of wars we find ourselves in, I wonder, are we also the creator?

Remember the Fallen



Memorial Day…
A day to remember
Fallen heroes.

Whether famous in
Their chosen pursuits
Or consigned to the
Realm of obscurity,
All are heroes for
Heeding the call and
Sacrificing themselves
At the altar of war
Defending their homes
Or attacking oppressors.

Remember also those who
Continue to fight
Long after the smoke clears
And the last sword lowered.

Those who came home
Found new battles to fight,
New challenges to peace
In a restless society.

Not all injustices come
From axes of evil,
But are found anywhere
Inequalities exist and
Oppression suffered,
Whether fault of governments
Or indifference by its peoples.

Remember the fallen,
Regardless of the battlefields
That claimed them;
They gave their last breath
To give others life.

In memory of
Lt. Brandon Ratliff
(10/27/72 – 3/18/04)

© 2010 by Robert E. Blackwell

Ohio's woes have come to this.

Governor Strickland's support for Issue 2, the attempted corporate hi-jacking of the state Constitution by agri-business, leads me to call upon Jerry Springer to challenge Governor Strickland for the Democratic nomination for Ohio governor.

Governor Strickland has regularly dissed his left flank since taking office.

He has drastically cut the social safety net. He has forsaken renewable energy sources and supported dirty coal, oil and nuke power . He has been silent about single-payer, Medicare for All which would save the state and local levels of government billions of dollars each year by reducing the taxpayers' cost for health insurance for public employees. Governor Strickland helped to unlawfully and unethically rob Attorney General Marc Dann of his elected office.  He continues to support the death penalty. Drug decriminalization and industrial hemp legalization, not on the horizon. And, Strickland has appointed Taft/Bush acolytes throughout state government.

Ohio continues to be on the wrong track. Strickland's trickle-down, Reaganomic policies will not bring back our manufacturing and innovative base.

The people of Ohio decisiviely voted for real change in 2006 and 2008. Governnor Strickland deserves a Democratic primary challenge from someone who will not be beholden to corporate and tycoon campaign contributors. What other liberal has the name recognition, communication skills, money and ego other than Jerry Springer?

C'mon home Jerry, you've made enough money.

Springer for Governor in 2010!

Let Jerry know that Ohio needs him. Here's a link to his Facebook page. :

www.facebook.com/pages/Jerry-Springer/19144538776

Our tax dollars pay for costly private health insurance for public employees. Columbus has about 8,000 employees and the city’s contribution for health insurance premiums was about $95,000,000 in 2008, according to a city hall employee. That’s a sizable portion of the city budget (about 6.5%).

The state of Ohio has about 60,000 employees. State government is byzantine and I haven’t been able to determine the state’s contributions for health insurance but it must be in the neighborhood of $500 to $600 million (any state workers out there know?)

btw, I am not opposed to government employees getting health insurance. Health care is a human right, you know, the right to life, liberty, ….. But, taxpayers shouldn’t have to over-pay for it so health insurance CEOs make $100 million a year.

The point is that Governor Strickland and Mayor Coleman and other government chief executives should be pounding podiums across the nation demanding single-payer (Medicare for All). Getting public employees into Medicare for All would save government at all levels (and school districts) hundreds of billions of dollars per year nationwide. Some of the savings could be used to make sure every American is insured.

These are outdated statistics but demonstrate how the U.S. overpays for health care.

Healthcare spending, per capita, in the U.S. is $6,714, which is expected to double in the next 7 to 10 years if nothing is done.

Health care spending, per capita, in Canada is $3,698 (Medicare for all)

Health care spending, per capita, in the U.K. is $2,760 (socialist medical system).

The cost savings of single-payer (Medicare for all) for public employees would be in the 40% range. That would mean a wind-fall of about $40 million for the city of Columbus alone. Which would make the recent sales tax increase unnecessary.

This is all very relevent because Rep. Dennis Kucinich sponsored an admendment that was approved in the House Committee on Education and Labor to the House’s health-care reform bill allowing states to create single-payer health care systems if they so choose.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/452493

Our local corporate media has for some reason not reported how single-payer, (Medicare for All) would save Ohio taxpayers billions of dollars by removing the middle-man, the insurance companies, between doctors and patients.

I think President Obama foolishly took a national Medicare for all off the table right from the start. He should have instructed Democratic poo-bahs to hold rallies for it. At least then, the so-called public option would have been viewed as a middle-ground, compromise position.

There is still no excuse for governors, mayors, county commissioners and school board members not to be advocating strongly for getting public employees into a Medicare for all system to conserve taxpayer dollars.

Governor Strickland,  

You say that "education is the only long-term solution for the state of Ohio." Unfortunately, you're putting the cart in front of the horse.

We need to bring back manufacturing to re-build the tax base in order to fund education. The U.S. needs to withdraw from the WTO and tear up NAFTA to bring back our industrial base.

And, cutting vital government services and wages of state workers puts us in a race to the bottom. Governor Strickland, Ohioans aren't buying new cars because wages aren't keeping up with the cost of living.

The only way out of the economic collapse is to stimulate demand in the economy and wages are the source of demand.

Again Governor, will you convey to President Obama that we urgently need to withdraw from the WTO and NAFTA and instead negotiate bi-lateral trade deals? There's no reason America can't make it's own shoes, TV's, and most other consumer and industrial goods.

Sure, doing so will increase prices. But fair trade will also put people back to work in good jobs. Re-inflating the credit bubble is sheer madness and not the route to sustained prosperity.

Promoted from the forums. --David

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