Before I write up my Burning Man adventures, there are more important matters that must be addressed. First and foremost, this idiot in Gainesville Florida that is planning on burning a Quran on Saturday. Can you believe this guy?

Terry Jones, Gainesville Idiot

He says that he’s targeting the Islamic extremists, but his outbursts and reaction are equally as ignorant. He has never read the book, despite planning on constructing a bonfire to burn 200 copies of the sacred Islamic text.

Terry Jones (I refuse to use his religious title) believes the book is evil because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims. Let us not forget that  for about 200 years, many religious Christians acted out in violence as a method to spread their views.

This act will most certainly put American lives at risk — just look at what happened after the Muhammed Cartoon Controversy in Denmark five years ago. Jones is taking an American tragedy and politicizing it to further his own agenda.

The terrorists that attacked the United States on 9/11 were Muslim exteremists, yes. What kind of message will burning a book that is sacred to 1.5 billion people on the planet send to the rest of the world?

Jones is a religious nutcase and his ignorance and intolerance clearly demonstrate that he is no better than the terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center that fateful September morning.

There.. I’ve said my piece.

It’s official. Barak H. Obama has taken the Presidential Oath of Office and is now the 44th President of the United States of America, despite John Roberts’ best attempt to invalidate the oath (just kidding.. it was obviously an honest mistake).

Regardless, it was great to watch the Inauguration coverage on CNN yesterday followed by all of the highlights from the Inaugural balls. Barak and Michelle looked like they were having the time of their lives — as I would hope.

Following the tradition of Presidential transition, George W., left a note for Barack on the desk in the Oval Office. I feel like most of the world would be very interested to know what the letter contains, however, this is obviously only Mr. Obama’s Eyes Only.

Lastly, it was so fantastic to see the country come together and support the new President,  yesterday. It was such a historic day, and even those people in states that do not agree with his political views, still wish the best for him — which is great to see.

After 8 years of doom and gloom, it’s so refreshing to know that someone with such an open mind is leading the country. It’s been too long. Thank you, Mr. Obama. Thank you.

Less than a block from our house here in Los Gatos, a train derailed causing a main road in Los Gatos/Campbell to be shut down. I missed the action, though Winchester is expected to be shut down through tomorrow morning. For full details of the story, visit the Los Gatos Observer.

Last night, President Bush addressed the nation for the first time in several months, carrying a stern message about the dangers of the economy. He explained that if the $7B bailout plan was not carried out immediately that our economy would “experience a long and painful recession.”

This is the first time that the President has spoken any negative words about the economy and yet, for some reason, we’re supposed to take his word for it. He’s done such a magnificent job of managing the other crises faced by the country, let’s check out his track record:

How can we trust someone who thinks kittens are an American delicacy?

• 9/11: The President failed to act on intelligence reporting that a serious attack with airplanes would take place on American soil.
• Afghanistan: After said attack, the President attacks Afghanistan citing that “we will chase them out of their caves” — only to let Osama Bin Laden get away.
• Iraq: The President then manages to convince the country that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that we would need to attack… swiftly.
• Katrina: The President let the city of New Orleans drown while he watched from the sidelines.
• Housing Crisis: In March, when the banks and mortgage companies started to fail and people were not able to make their mortgage payments, the President ensured the country that the economy was in great shape!

He’s done such a great job managing all of these past major crises throughout his term — does he really believe that now is the time to start trusting him?

There are so many great shows on NPR that take a complicated subject or topic and break it down in a way that makes it easy to understand for just about anyone. This American Life and RadioLab are two of these shows that come to mind, not to mention Fresh Air, Forum, and All Things Considered.

The great thing about technology now, though, is that you can listen to a lot of these weekly shows when you want with Podcasts. The latest podcast episode of This American Life did a fantastic job of breaking down a complex subject that is extremely important in understanding a topic that is discussed nearly every day in the news — and did a bang-up job explaining it in layman’s terms.

The episode, titled The Giant Pool of Money focused on the housing crisis. It goes into great detail explaining the hows and whys of it all — and what was the exact cause of the situation. If you had asked me a week ago, I would’ve said that it had something to do with mortgages that people couldn’t afford.. but that was it. Now, I feel I have a very good understanding of the problem and just how serious this is for everyone.

The show even concluded comparing the current crisis to what could be as bad as the housing / banking crisis of the 1930′s — but is more likely to be a repeat performance of the economic period just before I was born — the 1970′s.

It’s a great listen and I would encourage everyone who’s been interested in the topic to check it out. It’s actually quite fascinating.