Researching Options

Guest post written by Derick Burks

We’ve been researching ADT Security Sale City for the house because my wife and I are considering allowing the kids to come home alone in the afternoons. I know it’s not that big of a deal to a lot of people but to us it’s a huge decision – my wife has been a stay at home mom until the last 2 years and having the kids come home to a house that’s empty makes us both really nervous.

 I know it’s not a problem for most kids and that nothing bad will happen but you know, what if something comes up and they’re in bad shape somehow? Will they know how to protect themselves if that kind of situation arises? I’ve thought about having my momcome over and watch them in the afternoons but they’re at an age now when they need to learn that I trust them and that I think they’re capable of being alone at the house. I know the first thunderstorm that comes up will scare them to death!

Leon Panetta: "Iran not devloping nukes"

(Via RawStory)U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta let slip on Sunday the big open secret that Washington war hawks don’t want widely known: Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Panetta admitted that despite all the rhetoric, Iran is not pursuing the ability to split atoms with weapons, saying it is instead pursuing “a nuclear capability.”

That “capability” falls in line with what Iran has said for years: that it is developing nuclear energy facilities, not nuclear weapons.

“I think the pressure of the sanctions, the diplomatic pressures from everywhere, Europe, the United States, elsewhere, it’s working to put pressure on them,” Panetta explained on Sunday. “To make them understand that they cannot continue to do what they’re doing. Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability, and that’s what concerns us. And our red line to Iran is, do not develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us.”

Republicans have been beating the drums of war in recent weeks as tensions in the Iranian gulf have soared. Iran has threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil transport hub crucial to global industry, if U.S. warships return to monitor their activities.

Iran said it was planning to hold military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz in the coming weeks, and prior wargames saw the Iranians test missiles that are designed to sink warships.

President Barack Obama recently agreed to fresh sanctions on Iran targeting the country’s central bank, in hopes of slowing down their nuclear program. The European Union was also considering fresh sanctions, and details were expected later in January. The U.N., as well, has sanctioned Iran repeatedly over its nuclear program.

Iran said recently that it had created the country’s first ever nuclear fuel rod made from domestic uranium enriched at their own facilities.

Nuclear fuel enrichment is much different from enrichment for weapons. Most commercial nuclear reactors use lightly enriched uranium, which is between 3-5 percent enriched. Weapons-grade uranium must be enriched to approximately 85 percent or more of a key radioactive isotope for it to be usable in an atomic bomb.
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(BBC)Russian blogger Navalny unmasks 'Kremlin' photo smear

(Via BBC)The Russian blogger leading Russia's vote-rigging protests has accused supporters of Vladimir Putin of seeking to smear him with a fake photo.

Alexei Navalny proved that a picture in a newspaper distributed by Putin supporters was a forgery when he published the original on his blog.
The faked photo shows Mr Navalny alongside fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who lives in London.
Protesters fear the March presidential vote may be rigged to favour Mr Putin.
Currently prime minister, he is standing for re-election after serving two previous terms as president.
Alleged fraud at parliamentary elections in December sparked the biggest anti-government rallies seen in Moscow since Soviet times.
Mr Navalny, a lawyer who campaigns against corruption, was a key speaker at the last rally, on 24 December, which drew an estimated 100,000 people.
Stolen photo

The original photo shows Alexei Navalny (right) with Mikhail Prokhorov

Young activists sporting blue rain jackets marked "Vladimir Putin" were spotted handing out newspapers containing the forged photo in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The photo shows Mr Navalny and Mr Berezovsky standing beside each other, smiling for the camera, with the caption: "Alexei Navalny has never made any secret of the fact that the oligarch Boris Berezovsky gives him money to fight Putin."
Russia has been trying for years to extradite Mr Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in the UK in 2003. He is wanted on fraud charges, which he denies.
In a blog posting which led with the words "News from [Vladimir] Putin's electoral campaign", Mr Navalny published the original photo, sent to him months earlier by photographer Alexei Yushenkov as a souvenir.
Taken on 25 May in the offices of Russian radio station Moscow Echo, the snap shows the blogger alongside Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire who has since declared himself a candidate in the March election.

One of the pastiche photos shows Alexei Navalny (right) with Josef Stalin

On his own blog, Mr Yushenkov confirmed that the photo had never been published because of its poor quality and he surmised that it had been stolen when Mr Navalny's email account was hacked last year.
Russian bloggers have been posting their own parodies of the fake photo, some of which were published on Mr Navalny's blog.
The photozhabas, as digitally altered images are known in Russian internet slang, show the blogger posing with everyone from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to Bender, the robot in the cartoon Futurama.
In another development, the Urals editor of popular Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty has denied any link to the doctored photograph.
Dmitry Bondarev told the BBC's Russian Service that his publication had no connection to the other paper, which bears the name "Argumenty i Fakty - Urals Digest" and looks similar.
A note on the paper with the fake photo, which is reportedly a special edition praising Mr Putin and trashing the opposition, says that it was compiled by the All-Russia Popular Front - a political coalition launched by Mr Putin in May.
According to Yekaterinburg blogger nuclOid, 80,000 copies were printed

Third child

The Author of this post is Solomon Dejesus
When we had our third child, we decided that my wife would cut back to part-time status at work. This decreased our income, so I decided that we needed to make some financial adjustments in our household. We began to live on a cash budget, which meant getting out a certain amount of cash each week to use on groceries and restaurants. I also decided to shop for energy online and found out that we could get fixed-rate energy for our home. My wife said she wanted to contribute to the decreased budget by clipping coupons each week from the paper and using them on groceries. Honestly, I have been doing most of the grocery shopping since our baby was born, so it will really be me using the coupons. We also stopped eating out so much. This was something that was not hard to cut out of our spending because it is nearly impossible to eat out in public with three children. It’s a lot calmer and less stressful to eat at home. Hopefully with these budget cuts, my wife will eventually be able to stay home full time.

The store

Guest post written by my buddy Royce Heath
My apartment sits just above a coffee shop and bakery, and it’s just the best thing. I wake up every morning to the scent of fresh baked pastries and the soft sounds that come through my ceiling are really soothing, in my opinion. At first I was afraid all the foot traffic down there would really get on my nerves but I’ve actually found that I like having people around. It makes me feel safer, especially at night. The coffee house used to have a wireless connection that I could tap into but they’ve since scrapped it, which is okay because I got Clearinternet anyway. My dog likes to go down there and sit at their outside tables and they even have homemade dog treats and a water bowl just outside the door! I can’t really complain, the owners Jim and Stacy are actually my landlords and they’re great at that, too. All in all, I think I’ve got a pretty sweet gig living up here above the store!

You Have to Watch Eastbound & Down

Guest post written by my buddy Orville Lynn

Ever since Eastbound & Down premiered on HBO, I haven't missed an episode; this is because it has a sports theme, which I love without a doubt. Although football is my favorite sport of all time, watching baseball to pass the time is always a plus. I still remember the first time I watched Bull Durham; that's basically what hooked me on sports movies and sports-related television shows.

Every week, I tune into Eastbound & Down on my satellite TV, which would be the only way to watch it since this premium channel is broadcast in high definition.
Danny McBride plays the role of Kenny Powers, which he does very well because he really looks like a baseball pitcher. In the show, he has had some good and b! ad moments in the major leagues, but he is finally forced to leave the majors and become a substitute Phys-Ed teacher at his hometown middle school.

If you love sports and comedy as much as I do, then there's no reason not to tune into HBO and get hooked like I did after I got Directv because of thier DirecTV new customer rates.

Congress buys more time for budget dispute

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Thursday bought itself more time to work out a much-delayed budget deal as the costs of the stalemate were increasingly felt across the globe.
By a vote of 87 to 13, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a sixth stopgap bill to keep the government running through April 8, more than six months after the fiscal year began.