– Quotes of the week: "A government big enough to give you all you want, is big enough to take it all away." Barry Goldwater

"Giving in its purest form expects nothing in return." Secret Santa

– Another "star wars" missile fails the test: I’m feeling safer already.

– Do the taste additives in fast food produce right-winged Republicans?

– You don’t need a large corporation to raise a chicken or a hog. We have lost too many family farms by chasing the lie that "big" is better. Big may be able to make things cheaper for us, but it is destroying our communities and our land. It is time for us to step forward and correct this. We are destroying things that cannot be replaced.

– Bringing in industry won’t work: Year after year we squander away our money trying to lure "big business" into our community. After our school districts repeatedly agree to give away the tax dollars meant for them, now District 205 wants to raise our taxes. Seems they are perpetually broke. Seems they deserve it. Somehow, we have been convinced that giving our money to business will somehow magically help us. Some day. Some way. Politicians and financiers promote this Chamber masquerade as progress. But this welfare for the rich has done nothing but promote greed (Wal-Mart), indifference (Maytag), and ends up doing severe damage to the community. We need to end the practice of giving our tax dollars to business. We get nothing out of it but higher taxes. They get nothing out of it but higher salaries. We should first of all make sure that we have made the most and the best of what is already here. We need to promote our community for what we have, or can produce ourselves. By adding value to locally produced goods and marketing them locally and regionally, we can emerge from the destructive trends that we have turned to for hope. We have been too tolerant of GREDA, the Chamber, and the local good-old-boys. We have entrusted our future with a group of men and women whose vision is short-sighted and self-serving. Make yourself a New Year’s resolution to quit buying the bull they have been spreading.

– An Iraqi election will end in death for the winner: Iraq is not ready for an election. Iraq is not ready for anything short of us leaving. If someone wins that we favor, they will kill him. If someone wins that they favor, we will kill him. Either way, in three months, the guy’s a dead man.

– Rumsfeld should go: But don’t count on it. Rumsfeld is inside the in crowd. He is George Sr’s right hand man. George Jr. will go before Rumsfeld does.

– New Year Resolutions:

• I got to eat healthier. I bought some hummus, whatever the hell that is.

• I’m going to read more. My first book is going to be "How Wal-Mart Ruined America," although I pretty much already know. Then I’m going to get "Whatever Happened to Kansas," although I pretty much already know that to.

• I got to exercise more, which means I’m going to have to increase my eating, ‘cause exercising makes me hungry, which means I’m going to have to diet, which means this probably ain’t going to work.

• I have decided to become a minister, since America seems to be becoming more and more religious. With the internet, it’s much easier now.

Have a good and lucky New Year. Remember, if you drink, don’t talk.