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Dan Popkey raises the dead

I read today's column by Dan regarding the Keep the Commandments leaders in Boise and the fine they paid.

His column simply misses the mark....it doesn't work. It paid too much attention to the issue.

Recently, I blogged on the issue, myself, and wrote from a position of having been arrested in that case. My bottom line was that until the Supreme Court makes their decision, the issue is dead...so quit bringing it back to life.

And Dan brings it back to life...AGAIN...agghh!

Then he beats them to death...again.

It's the Night of the Living Dead, again and again. "More brains....."

The good thing about the piece is his last paragraph. He's apparently made a decision to focus on more centrist characters in our community. I think that's a good idea. 

I've long ago learned that the edges of a painting do not a landscape painting make...so quit focusing on them.

But that's just me...
Den

Ready for an adventure?

                                                     Ready for an adventure?

Thanks to all of you who connected with my comments on the recent post regarding ex-inmates and jobs. The MSNBC article WAS awesome.

With all the bad financial news on banks, stocks and such...some have asked me how to gain a return in a recession-proof business....hmmm...how 'bout crime?

What? Well, let me explain.

I suppose it'd be better put by saying how 'bout financially supporting efforts to see folks come out of jail/prison and start their lives over anew....and having a piece of the business that helps them succeed, at the same time. Believe it or not, helping ex-inmates is recession-proof....and can be a great blessing.

There are lots of ways to do it via loans, etc, just email me at Dennis@DennisMansfield.com and I'll connect you with the key person in our firm who does that sort of thing.

Don't be down-in-the-financial dumps...fly high, baby...fly high.

Den

Hand Cuffs? How 'bout Idaho French Cuffs?

Huggy Bear repeatedly reminded Starsky and Hutch that "It's another plan perpetrated by THE MAN to keep the brothers down".  But who is THE MAN?

Well, based on what market place economics are proving, we can sure see who HE is NOT.

THE MAN ain't "bidness"...

Read the CrimnalBuilder.com...er CareerBuilder.com/ MSNBC article below and see what I mean.

Along that path, we have started Renaissance Group Services in Idaho- employing the unemployable.

Den

Getting Out of Prison and Into a Job

   

      Federal, local governments offering tax incentives to hire parolees    

       

                         By Eve Tahmincioglu, MSNBC.com careers contributor        

               

       

       

                          

Clayton Smalls has come a long way since he was holding up tellers behind bank counters.

Today he works as a deli man behind the counter of a Fairway Market in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Smalls, 49, who got out of prison in October 2007 after serving 17 months for selling marijuana, has spent most of his life in and out of jail for everything from robbery to drug dealing.

But he's finally ready to change his life, and the job he landed -- thanks to help from America Works, an employment agency that trains and finds jobs for hard-to-place candidates like ex-cons and welfare recipients -- has gone a long way in motivating him.

"I get to work every day an hour early," he says proudly. "The store manager has high hopes for me. He's teaching me how to cut salmon."

"This job is the most important thing in my life," he adds.

There's a growing desire in this country to get ex-offenders jobs as a way to keep them out of jail. The federal government and some municipalities are doing what they can to help parolees get job training and offering employers incentives to hire former prisoners, spurred by skyrocketing incarceration costs and exploding prison populations.

Back in the Saddle, Again

From what the front page ot the Idaho Statesman shows today, we are in a heap a' trouble, financial that is, as a state and as a nation....

or are we?

There's no doubt that an undercurrent of "something" is happening throughout America. Most polls show two things: that people are fearful of the economy tubing....AND that their own lives are doing moderately well.

So what's the something?

Well, let's see....by most estimates a total of almost $700 million will be spent between now and the first Tuesday in November by both parties, super-sizing every little financial, personal or familial problem. Every hurting person becomes a trend...or could become one. It's crazy.

Look at your life. Look at your family. Look at your savings and/or investments. To suddenlty feel like collapsing in fear is wrong. Declining stock percentages by Banks do not a "bank run" make...nor should those figures be used to drive "fear" into folks...to MAKE a "bank run" occur. Stocks rise and fall. It's a financial gravity thing.

The fear-mongers are wrong. America's financial position is strong. Like a sloped and landscaped hillside, supported by a million small plants, whose root sytems shoot out tens of millions of rooted lifelines, keeping the plant healthy and the hillside stable, so are the millions of small business owners in our country. Success is always within our grasp. It's our call if we extend our fingers and embrace it.

That's what America faces right now, come Obama or McCain.

Den

Jackson/Obama: Hot Mic=Cold Truth

  Here are Den's thoughts all the way from the heartland of Kansas City, Mo. while eating at Arthur Bryants' BBQ on Brooklyn Avenue:

Jesse Jackson's attack against Barack Obama shows the true color of his character and it does not line with Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy of the color of their skin. Jackson, a twice failed presidential candidate, made a patently obvious comment to the casual observer that Barack Obama is not black enough for him. Thinking his mic was off we heard the cold truth: that Jesse is not relevant to the political debate of this new generation. He may have stood on the balcony where MLK was assinated, but he is no longer in the same universe King dreamed about.

I'm a conservative replublican and always have been; I've added to my resume the term progressive conservative. Why? Because in all aspects of the political debate the key for all of us it to adapt and change our thinking patterns to see what works and what doesn't work. I've said this now for the last 4 years; the problem with Jesse Jackson or for that matter Jesse Helms, is their decaying ideas do not speak life into our culture.

Somebody's private parts were impacted yesterday and today, but they weren't Barack Obama's. Political self-mutilation is a terrible thing to behold, but maybe in this case, Jackson's vitriol should perish from the earth. Sound biblical? "One generation passes away, and another generation comes" Ecclesiastes 1:4

In case you missed the audio/video...

God is a middle-aged' heavy set Black Woman

Bait and switched you from my 'last' posting. Here's why:

I'm right in the middle of William P. Young's book 'The Shack'...and it's blowing my mind. For everyone who has had "evangelical" theology stick in the throat like a giant fish-bone....go read it. No kidding! I'm halfway thru it and it is TERRIFIC. If you don't trust the Jesus you think Jerry Falwell worshipped, grab this book. If my brand of "Christian" creeps you out, get this book. Read it. Meet God..."she's" amazing. Curious? Run to "The Shack". No more blog postings from me for a few days, now, I promise! Read Lee's stuff on this site. He's smarter than I am anyway tee hee. Den

Band on the run...

Goin' to Kansas City... Headed to see my son, who's doing great. Livin' life there w/pro teams, real diverse neighborhoods and a great gal. In my place these next few days I've asked Lee Gaupp to blog. He's my webmaster and bosom friend (to quote Anne of Green Gables...hmm). Please feel free slap him around...tee hee. BTW: I've had too much fun lately, w/Zombies, Hancock and Obama.

I will leave you with the words that often greet visitors in KC: " get outta da car...this is a carjack..." Den

Energy & T. Boone Pickens

Not sure who out there knows about T. Boone Pickens, but he's about 80 years old, 60 years in the business of energy (oil, natural gas, wind that I know of) and making waves across America trying to sell his latest plan to every politician and person alike.

Here's the skinny: whatever it takes to make American independent of foreign oil.

A plan that is controversial and simple.

Have you heard about his Pickens Plan? Check it out on his website and let me know what you think. One quote I have to point out - "On January 20, 2009, a new President gets sworn in. If we're organized, we can convince Congress to make major changes towards cleaner, cheaper and domestic energy resources." (emphasis added) you can also check out his recent interview with CNBC

Randy Fowler alert....

As a keen social commentator, I'm always on the look-out for punctuated moments in time when cutting edge meets hum-drum...

So, the other night, while going out for Cold Stone Ice Cream with my bride and some dear new friends, I spotted my long-time pal, Randy Fowler, as he was doing that thing he does with Rod's Limos.

I introduced everyone to each other and then asked for the proverbial photo session. (My bride was the paparazzi on this one.)

So in the world of celebrity "Where's Waldo", it just seemed fun to capture the photo and fill you in on the Randy Fowler alert...."Wake up Maggie, I think I got something to say to you..."

Den

PS: It's hard to tell since we both look like Rod Stewart but I'm the one on the left and Randy's the one next to me in the conservative get up. Check out his website about himself and his brother, Academy Award winning actor, Kevin Spacey....interesting, as always.