THE SMILE

The smile blows my mind.

Bill and his wife have the same smile.

wow

Money where the mouth is........

Davos, Switzerland (CNN) -- Bill and Melinda Gates announced plans Friday to invest $10 billion in the fight against a number of illnesses including AIDS and said the record donation could save nearly nine million lives.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, they said the 10-year program will focus on vaccines for AIDS, tuberculosis, rota virus and pneumonia.

"We must make this the decade of vaccines," said Bill Gates.

"Vaccines are a miracle," added Melinda Gates. "With just a few doses, they can prevent deadly diseases for a lifetime. We've made vaccines our priority at the Gates Foundation because we've seen firsthand their incredible impact on children's lives."

Since stepping down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in mid-2008, Bill Gates has devoted most of his time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic organization he set up with his wife Melinda. He remains part-time chairman of the software giant.

The foundation directs most of its attention to global health, education and agriculture in the third world and has committed more than $21 billion since it was established in 1994.

The $10 billion commitment is the largest pledge ever made by a charitable foundation to a single cause, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofit organizations.

The couple told delegates at Davos that they used a model developed by a consortium at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States to project the potential impact of vaccines on childhood deaths over the next decade.

Watch interview with Bill and Melinda Gates

IT'S NICE WHEN YOU SEE THAT INSTEAD OF DECIDING TO BUY A FOOTBALL TEAM.....THEY DECIDE TO SAVE MILLIONS OF CHILDREN.

By the way....there is still plenty left to buy a team. Rams are available!

Greg Mortenson

Two weeks ago Greg Mortenson was on Bill Moyers Journal.

He has written a new book called STONES into SCHOOLS.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01152010/watch2.html

The above site will take you to the interview.

One of the statistics mentioned in the interview

continues to haunt me.

Keep in mind that WE have always been told

that EDUCATION is the key to EVERYTHING.

ESPECIALLY FOR A DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM TO WORK

AT ITS HIGHEST LEVEL.

EDUCATION !

EDUCATION !

EDUCATION !

Accepting that premise and learning what Greg Mortenson

is both doing and saying

and suddenly

you realize that

THE POLITICIANS IN CHARGE

OF OUR FOREIGN POLICY DECISIONS

REGARDING AFGHANISTAN.....

(WHICH MIGHT BE ALL OF THEM)

HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO HANDLE

THE SITUATION.

SENDING 30,000 MORE TROOPS IS THE LEAST AFFECTIVE WAY TO

IMPROVE THE PROBLEMS OF THAT COUNTRY.

BACK TO THE HAUNTING STATISTIC

$1,000,000 IS THE COST OF HAVING A US SOLDIER

ON THE GROUND IN AFGHANISTAN

FOR ONE YEAR.

$1.000,000 BUILDS 30-40 SCHOOLS.

SCHOOLS THAT TEACH CHILDREN ABOUT THE WORLD

AND THE POSSIBILITIES

OF LIVING A LONG AND EVENTFUL LIFE.

SCHOOL IS NOT THE ANSWER IF YOU BELONG TO

THE TALIBAN

OR

AL-QAEDA

SCHOOL IS YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE

IF YOU TEACH SUICIDE BOMBING 101

SCHOOL IS SATAN IF YOU WANT CHILDREN TO HATE

JUST HAVING THAT KNOWLEDGE SHOULD MAKE

EVERY POLITICIAN

IN AMERICA

FEEL ASHAMED

IMAGINE HOW MANY SCHOOLS 30,000 TROOPS COULD BUILD

IN ONE YEAR

but

it's better to have the local people building the schools

because it puts them

to work and gives them personal pride in their local community.

Read the book, watch the interview and then try to tell me

that our Foreign Policy regarding

Afghanistan

has any

validity.

My hearing aid is tuned and ready to go.

But just like the politicans.....I'm lying.

I don't have a hearing aid.

AND they don't really care about solutions that work.

BECAUSE

whether or not you accept it

THE MILITARY COMPLEX

IS

IN

CHARGE

And schools are a waste of time when you can teach

an uneducated villager how to

operate a hand held grenade launcher.

WTFATT?

Michael Timothy McAlevey

TIME TO EXPLAIN

A few of my conservative acquaintances, which happen to include family members, have began to gloat and ask what happened in Massachusetts?

I realize the last year and a half has been hard on them, but their overall reaction to our Democratic President and Democratic Congress has been piss poor to say the least. I have never received more vicious and odd e-mails than in the last year and 90% of those e-mails have been directed at ridiculing and bashing President Obama.

Everyone is aware of the negative campaign from the big three bozo's...better known as Sean, Glenn and Rush....as well as the continued campaign to claim that Obama was not born in the United States.

Blaming Obama for the economic problems of the country is the same as blaming Bush or Clinton or Reagan.

Ok, so maybe we can blame Reagan but that's another deregulation story.

Yesterday The Supreme Court overturned a rule that now allows Corporations and Unions to contribute directly to political campaigns.

I AM TOTALLY CONFUSED because I simply assumed that through maneuvering that every politician was already receiving anything and everything he or she needed from whoever they needed it from.

The ruling was 5-4 with the 5 Conservative Judges saying one thing and the four liberal Judges saying another.

I suggest that you read about the ruling.

CITIZENS UNITED VS FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION.

Multi-national corporations will now be able to do things regarding campaigns they hadn't done before. God help us!

SCOTT BROWN being elected to the Kennedy Senate seat in Massachusetts and yesterday's ruling by the Supreme Court are REACTIONARY STATEMENTS.

REACTING TO WHAT?

In Massachusetts the reaction is from democratic voters saying one simple thing.

"Barack Obama is acting a lot like a Republican, when it comes to Foreign Affairs, so what's the difference?

"We elected a person who was going to put an end to the military lost of lives in both Iraq and Afghanistan and that is not what is happening, so let's tell him."

AND THEY DID!

The problem is that Health Care Reform will become the real loser and any potential long needed overhaul will be put on the perennial back burner.

I understand the statement being made, but I'm pretty sure most people in Boston did not consider the full ramifications of their statement.

I think someone needs to get in their faces and ask them to explain their actions.

The ruling by the Supreme Court just boggles my mind because I had no idea that restrictions were actually in place.

LOBBYISTS FOR MAJOR CORPORATIONS ARE NOT NEW PARTICIPANTS IN THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN SYSTEM

unless I've totally missed something in the program.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

ROME needs to step up

Haiti is 80% Roman Catholic.

The above organization, based in Rome, needs to get totally involved in the problems of Haiti.

TODAY!!

NOW!

Michael Timothy McAlevey

TEN DOLLARS and a million reasons

From Reuters

Play VideoABC News – Save the Children CEO on Haiti

• Slideshow:Massive earthquake hits Haiti
• Play VideoVideo:UN survivor pulled from Haiti rubble Reuters
• Play VideoVideo:Bill Clinton's Haiti relief trip Reuters

Reuters – A four-year-old boy cries as he receives medical treatment to his injured fingers at a make-shift hospital …
THERE APPEARS TO BE A MILLION DIFFERENT GROUPSINVOLVED
START WITH THE RED CROSS
TEN DOLLARS
WHAT A MESS.
Maybe their political infrastructure will start to take shape.
IT'S ABOUT TIME
Michael Timothy McAlevey

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor – 2 hrs 51 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An earthquake killing up to 200,000 people would have been bad enough anywhere, but in Haiti, where AIDS,tuberculosis and malaria are rampant, children are malnourished and hygiene is already a challenge, it may create one of the worst medical disasters ever.

Medical teams pouring in to set up mobile hospitals say they are already overwhelmed by the casualties and fear the worst is yet to come as infection and disease take hold.

"The number one risk is always bacterial infections where they haveopen wounds," said Josh Ruxin, a Columbia University public health expert living and working in Rwanda.

Haitian government officials said the death toll from Tuesday's magnitude 7 quake was likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000, and no one has even begun to get a count of injuries, which include crushed or amputated limbs, compound fractures and lacerations.

Without quick treatment, these wounds will become infected. "Things are going to get much much worse before they are going to get better," Ruxin said.

Goel a little nuts

A man named Goel Ratzon was arrested yesterday in Tel Aviv, Israel for apparently having way too many women in his life.

As the story starts to unfold (no pictures available at this time) the word CULT comes into play.

He had approximately 17 women and 40 children living in three apartments in downtown Tel Aviv.

His cable bill was $1500 a month because every woman wanted to watch a different program.

The Israeli army confiscated 100 wide screen plasma TV's and each one came with a DVR player.

One of the young soldiers who happens to be from Agoura, California, I think his name was Jon, said, "nothing like this could ever happen in Agoura."

BUT

After being interviewed Mr. Ratzon said his favorite show was BIG LOVE on HBO and he was very interested in being deported to Utah.

Utah representatives from the Mormon faith said that their mosque in Israel is currently closed because their business license expired on the 31st of December. One man and six women were operating the office but they can't seem to locate them.

When the authorities tried to explain to him that BIG LOVE was simply a TV show, Goel Ratzon answered with....."isn't everything a TV show?"

Israeli TV producers are categorically denying that they had anything to do with Mr. Ratzon but were willing to begin negotiations on future projects. They all agreed that 17 was too large a number and that some of the female cast members would have to be narrowed down.

They couldn't agree on an actual number without first seeing pictures.

Sometimes things happen in the news that just make life worth living.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

NATURAL DISASTER and goofy responses

Can't we just have natural disasters without everyone totally losing their minds?

Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh come to mind but I'm sure there will be more chiming in.

The Devil has been mentioned but Voodoo hasn't made the papers yet.

The Earth is subject to quite a few physical hiccups that human beings have absolutely nothing to do with.....and hopefully MOST of the humans on this planet know that to be true.

What we need to do is apply ourselves in areas that become problematic BECAUSE of our behavior.

EARTHQUAKES and the cause of them are truly beyond the human hand....

Except of course when underground nuclear explosions are detonated in order to cause an earthquake but there was no report of that being done, so we have to rule it out.

KEEP IN MIND THAT A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION CANNOT BE HIDDEN.

Google Earth would report it within a few hours.

Haiti has some immense internal problems

and power struggles for the last 150 years

have been continuous and devastating.

Perhaps with the attention being directed toward their current plight they will be able to generate a more positive future.

Whatever they grow and whatever they make they need to grow more and make more.

AND CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES NEED TO BUY MORE OF WHATEVER THEY ARE GROWING AND MAKING.

Do they still make Major League Baseballs?

I'm sorry to say this but I hope it doesn't affect Spring Training.

Does that last comment rival Pat Robertson's for total stupidity?

Michael Timothy McAlevey

TOXIC and sorry I brought it up but........

Wikipedia

Toxic waste is waste material that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It can be spread quite easily and can contaminate lakes and rivers. The term is often used interchangeably with “hazardous waste”, or discarded material that can pose a long-term risk to health or environment.

As with most pollutionproblems, toxic waste began to be a significant issue during theindustrial revolution. It usually is the product of industry or commerce, but comes also from residential use (e.g. cleaning products, cosmetics, lawn care products), agriculture (e.g.chemical fertilizers, pesticides), the military (nuclear weapons testing, chemical warfare, medical facilities (e.g. pharmaceuticals), radioactive sources, and light industry, such as dry cleaning establishments.^[1][2]

The Green dots are ones that are being cleaned up or have been cleaned up...(maybe)

The Red dots are areas with problems sites with Priority status.

The Yellow sites are potential problems.

The reason you don't hear a lot of questions at Presidential news conferences about Toxic Waste cleanup is due to one simple fact.

IT'S BASICALLY OUT OF CONTROL

In December of 1980 departing President James Earl Carter signed a bill into law that addressed the problem.

The COMPREHESIVE ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE, COMPENSATION AND LIABILITY ACT or CERCLA created an agency, The ATSOR whose job was to "clean up hazarddous sustances that could endanger public health or the environment.

After its initial passage, the Reagan administration appointed Rita Lavelle, a former hazardous waste-producing company employee, as Superfund's administrator.

BASICALLY NOTHING WAS DONE FOR THE NEXT 6 YEARS REGARDING THIS MATTER.

Please read about Rita Lavelle when you get a chance.

Another beautiful moment in the legacy of President Ronald Reagan.

I'm not going to blame Ronnie for hazardous waste, but getting a start on the clean-up was definitely in his ball park and he dropped the ball because giving breaks to big business is the backbone of the Republican Party, and big business not only created the toxic problems but refused to be involved in the clean up.

THEY MADE THE PROFITS and therefore they should pay the piper.

Civil lawsuits have brought notoriety to various Toxic Waste problems and damages have been awarded in certain high profile cases

BUT

A MAJOR PART OF THE CLEAN UP MONEY HAS BEEN GENERATED THROUGH VARIOUS TAXES.

AND THERE ARE MANY MANY PLACES WHERE THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO.

I HOPE YOU DON'T LIVE CLOSE TO ONE OF THOSE SITES BUT THERE'S A REAL GOOD CHANCE THAT YOU DO.

Sorry I brought it up but this isn't a Presidential news conference so.....

WGAFF?

and

WTFWTT?

Michael Timothy McAlevey