"This Things I Believe..."

I do not support raising taxes for the sake of fairness, regardless of the negative impact it is likely to have on the economy. In fact, I support equal taxation by percentage across the board, regardless of income levels.

I believe the federal government has gone too far in bailing out the auto, insurance and finance industries.

I do not support illegal immigration. I also realize that a solution that is completely in line with my principles and ideals is not practical. I support a registration program that includes a fine as penalty and requires the payment of estimated back taxes implemented simultaneously with a new guest worker program.

I believe that English should be the official language of the United States, though we have to give new arrivals a chance to learn the language, even if we help them on the government's dime.

I have not completely agreed with the large expansion in social spending and welfare that we have seen over the past decade and I believe that the time to start cutting back benefits is just around the corner. There should be length of time, education and work requirements for all able-bodied Americans on welfare programs.

I believe that if the effort that recently went into socialized medicine had gone into creating jobs, we would be better off today.

I did not support the creation of a national health insurance program administered by the U.S. Federal Government. While recognizing the need for reform, a completely partisan bill rammed through the congress was not the right solution, especially from a man who said he was going to unite the country. I believe that once the federal government is dictating prices and eligibility to doctors and hospitals, the quality and availability of healthcare will be greatly reduced. Those with no insurance will now have insurance at the cost of the 50% of Americans that actually pay income taxes and those who already had insurance will see the quality of their care decline. I also believe that the development of new medicine and treatments will greatly suffer under the weight of this new federal health insurance program.

I believe that we should eliminate teacher tenure and increase the use of performance standards and accountability.

I believe that our armed forces should remain an all-volunteer force.

I do not believe that federal employees should be allowed to unionize if they serve in positions critical to safety and security. I do believe that union elections and initiatives should have secret ballots.

As The Highest NASDAQ Closing In History Turns 10 Years Old...

Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the NASDAQ Peaking at 5,048.62.

An entire decade has passed and we are nowhere near the numbers when the tech bubble burst in 2000. Right now, the NASDAQ is at 2,431. Some things have changed since then, though. Fast Company has given us the following to reflect upon:

World's Richest Man Then: Bill Gates
World's Richest Man Now: Bill Gates

U.S. Cell Phone Penetration Then: 34%
U.S. Cell Phone Penetration Now: 89%

Number Of Daily Newspapers In The U.S. Then: 1,480
Number Of Daily Newspapers In The U.S. Now: 1,422

No. 1 Web Site Then: AOL
No. 1 Web Site Now: Google

Internet Users Worldwide Then: 360 Million
Internet Users Worldwide Now: 1.7 Billion

No. 1 Auto Manufacturer In The World Then: General Motors
No. 1 Auto Manufacturer In The World Now: Toyota

Keep Your Eye Out For The Brown M&M's

A recent Fast Company Magazine article pointed out some different ways that people are looking at data for tell-tale signs of what the future may hold. For instance, Johns Hopkins University researchers took a look at the attendance patterns and grade patterns of students who had dropped out of high school and found that students who missed more than one out of every five days of class, or students who had failed either an English or math class were most likely to not finish high school. 78% of those missing one out of five days, and 75% of those who had failed either an English or math class were destined to drop out. By knowing this pattern, educators can begin to identify troubled students earlier and, perhaps, turn that student around before it is too late.

Credit card companies are now spending a good deal of money ensuring that they are able to track your "normal" spending patters because it helps them identify when someone is using your card, perhaps, even before you come to the realization that it has been lost or stolen.

The article also pointed out that data that can foretell the future doesn't have to be high tech, and in some cases, doesn't even have to be numerical. As the magazine points out, consider how Van Halen would determine whether or not their equipment had been set up properly during their 1980s-era heyday concerts...brown M&M's. Due to the large amount of equipment and minute details that were required to put on one of these extremely large, extremely costly, and potentially extremely profitable concerts, the band needed to ensure that their set-up instructions had been followed precisely by the venue. How did the band know whether they were good to go, or whether they needed to quickly avoid show disasters by having all of their equipment (nine full-size truck trailers worth, by the way) re-checked? According to David Lee Roth, all he had to do was look at the bowl of M&M's in the dressing room and see whether or not it had brown M&M's in it.

The contract between the band and the concert venues was often so large that required steps were often missed or skipped due to time constraints, so in order to give themselves a clear view of whether or not these instructions were followed properly, the band inserted what they called "Article 126," which read, "There will be no brown M&M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation." So, if David Lee Roth didn't see brown M&M's, the band was confident the contract had been read and followed, but if he saw brown M&M's in the bowl, that meant it was time to yell at some venue reps because chances were, the band's equipment had not been set up properly.