Born Sarah Louise Heath on February 11, 1964, in Sandpoint, Idaho, her parents moved to Skagwag, Alaska when she was only three months old. Her father was a science teacher and her mother was a school secretary.

Sarah graduated from Wasilla High School in 1982. In 1984 she was crowned Miss Wasilla and was runner-up for Miss Alaska. In 1987 she graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism.

In 1988 she eloped to marry her childhood sweetheart, Todd Palin.

She won a seat on the Wasilla City Council in 1992. She became mayor of Wasilla four years later. As mayor she learned firsthand about Congressional earmarks. Taxpayers for Common Sense identified $26.9 million in earmarks for Wasilla, including $15 million for a commuter rail project for the town of 4,028 people (1990 Census). Now, the commuter rail project was not just for Wasilla. It was a regional project that she simply signed onto. The benefit for Wasilla was to move the train tracks out of downtown Wasilla.

2002 found Sarah running for Lt. Governor. She lost. The next year she was appointed to the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a position she resigned a year later. She was elected Alaska’s governor in 2006, a position she resigned in 2009. (continued below)

I disagree with her on too many issues to ever vote for her, but I do admire how she has risen from obscurity to becoming a millionaire. She knew how to open the door when opportunity knocked. Far too many people fail to do that and, of course, there are an awful lot of people living in America who never get that knock.

While I believe the decisions we have available to us today are limited by decisions we made in the past, not everyone had the opportunity to make those same decisions. I cannot be a heart surgeon today because I made a decision long ago to pursue a different profession. I grew up in the South during the time of segregated schools. The educational opportunities were not equal. I saw a large number of young people drafted shortly after graduating from high school, sent off to Vietnam, and return a shell of their former selves.

They could not afford to go to college and get a student deferment. Financial opportunities were not equal. Housing opportunities were not equal. The opportunity that knocked on someone else’s door was, perhaps, of much lower quality than opportunities that knocked on the doors of others.

America had an opportunity and, I hope, still does to provide more equality in health care for American citizens. Yet there are those pounding the pulpits, the lecturns and the drums saying they don’t want all American citizens to have that same opportunity. THAT I do not understand.

Visit Sarah Palin Videos.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Health Care Reform in 2010 has corrected a few things that, I’m guessing, most Americans did not know existed. Let’s take a look at one item put into law in 2003. At that time, the Bush administration and Republican-led Congress prepared to expand Medicare to include prescription drug coverage.

Nevermind the fact that the legislation did not provide for competitive pricing. A few large corporations that provided prescription drug benefits for their retirees threatened to cut off that benefit since those retirees could take advantage of the proposed Medicare benefit.

So, Congress said, "We’ll give you a subsidy to help you pay for that benefit. Not only will we give you the money, but we’ll allow you to use it as a deduction and get a tax benefit as well."

Think about that. The federal government was giving money to the corporations. When those same corporations spent the money, they could then claim it as a deduction on their taxes just like they had spent their own money.

The recently passed Health Care Reform legislation eliminates that deduction. Corporations will now be paying more taxes since they can no longer "double dip" the subsidy money. Recents announcements about write-downs provide a little insight into how much this ill-advised program was hurting government revenue.

A T & T announced they would be taking a $1 BILLION write off. Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, expects to record a charge of about $100 million in the first quarter of 2010, due to new tax liabilities. John Deere is also expecting to write off $85 – $90 million. Verizon is taking a look at how they’ll be affected but hasn’t released any figures yet.

The fact is that the government will receive more tax revenue because of this one correction.

I’m quite sure unemployed workers wish unemployment benefits had worked like that. Yes, they were receiving a subsidy from the government from unemployment insurance that their employers had paid for. But, quite a bit of that income had to be paid for COBRA coverage to continue their health insurance. However, not only did the unemployed have to pay taxes on the amount of their unemployment checks, they could NOT DEDUCT the cost of COBRA coverage unless it exceeded 7.5% of their adjusted gross income and they were able to file itemized deductions on the tax return.

Let me put it this way. I know one person who received an unemployment benefit of $400 per week after losing a $1,000 per week job. (continued below)

Out of that $400 per week, that person had to pay $750 each month for COBRA continuation of health insurance benefits. That didn’t leave very much income for paying bills, eating and things that are a part of everyday life.

Now, that was back in 2008 before President Obama led Congress in providing better relief for unemployed workers. America seems to be taking from the corporations and giving to the people. Is that a bad thing?

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Power Blogging with WordPress is a great way to earn a little extra money…and you can do it from anywhere!!!

For instance, Beth Jameson, co-author of Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide can update Beth’s Brain Injury Blog from a lounge chair in the Caribbean while on vacation. The Internet in 2010 and beyond makes Internet marketing accessible from just about any place on earth. No, you don’t need WordPress in order to do that. So let’s look at a few things you can do with WordPress to create a Power Blog.

Plug-ins and themes make blogging with WordPress stand out. Since WordPress is an open source application, computer-savvy people from all over the world can create add-ons that truly multiply the power of WordPress.

The purpose of this post is to introduce you to a new eBook that contains vital information about becoming a Power Blogger, and it’s free. It was written to be given away. All rights are reserved by the author, so you can’t turn around and sell it to others.

It tells about working with themes, using keywords and numerous plug-ins to more fully empower the blogging process. Plug-ins like Akismet, All-in-One-SEO and more.

Click here to free Power Blogging eBook

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

It’s being called the Race for the Ages, and it will take place at Oaklawn Race Track in Hot Springs, Arkansas on April 9, 2010. The $5,000,000 (FIVE MILLION DOLLAR) purse is unprecedented in the history of horse racing.

Rachel Alexander Pulls Out of the Race – March 15 Update

Rumor has it that Hot Springs may (or may not) be THE place to be this second weekend in April. People from all over the world are already making reservations. One report is that "someone" from the Middle East has paid $160,000 to rent a house in Hot Springs for four days. Another has paid $5,000 for a reserved box.

The Arkansas Derby has sent several horses on to Kentucky that won the more famous Kentucky Derby. But the Race for the Ages is not the Arkansas Derby. It’s the Apple Blossom Invitational that has been moved from it’s regular date of one week before the Arkansas Derby to the day before.

What’s so special about this race, you know, other than a purse of $5,000,000? How about a head-to-head faceoff between two of horseracing’s top horses: Rachel Alexander and Kenyatta?

Rachel Alexander carries the title Horse of the Year, and Zenyatta won last year’s Breeder’s Cup Classic. Consider this: On February 18 Zenyatta turned in a six furlong workout of 1:14; six days later Rachel Alexander turned in a six furlong workout of 1:14. Both horse has since run faster times in the six furlongs. The Apple Blossom Invitation 2010 is being extended from a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half.

If you think you might be traveling to Hot Springs for the first time in your life, there are a few things you should know. It’s been my personal experience that you will not find any better people in the United States. It’s the capital of "laid back" and that could be because of its history of being THE place to go to relax. The thermal baths have drawn people for over a century. My significant other says the best massage she’s ever had happened in Hot Springs.

Of course, you should know that traffic on a normal racing day is the pits. Throw in the Race for the Ages and, well, let me recommend you go a day or two early and stake out a spot. It will probably be plenty warm so a sleeping bag night is not out of the question. And always remember that when you’re in Hot Springs the Number One Rule is to have fun.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter is running for the United States Senate. His primary challenger is Blanche Lincoln, the current Senator who has become highly unpopular in her home state because of consistently waffling or not favoring issues of importance to her constituents.

Bill Halter can win. He was instrumental in helping set up a free health clinic for Arkansans in association with the initiative begun by Keith Olbermann. He led the fight for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery which is the only lottery in the United States that provides 100% of its funds to college scholarships.

Arkansas students with a 2.5 GPA who attend an Arkansas college can apply for $5,000 per year in scholarship funds.

Since his announcement on March 1, support has flowed to him from many directions, not the least of which are Arkansas supporters who have given an average $30 contribution. The number of these contributions generated over $1 million dollars in a short amount of time. The national media has taken notice (see below).

The Ed Show Interview

The Rachel Maddow Interview

Arkansas Free Health Care Clinic

Bill Halter Announcement

Learn More About Bill Halter

Bill Halter on Facebook

Bill Halter on Twitter

Bill Halter on MySpace

See more about the Arkansas Senate Election in 2010

Willard Mitt Romney is a Mormon who may very well be the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States in 2012. What does it mean to be a Mormon, and what does Mitt Romney believe?

Former President George W. Bush is but one example of how a political official’s religious beliefs influence how he or she acts to carry out reponsibilities. Can there be anything more revealing about a person than his or her religion? It is, perhaps, the most personal decision a person will make during this life.

A vast majority of Americans say they are religious, and the greatest number of that majority profess to be Christians, a religion based on what is commonly called The Holy Bible. There are several versions of that Bible, the most common being the Catholic version and the King James Version. The Mormons seem to make use of the King James Version (based on scripture quotations found on their website) in addition to their own Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon – Introduction

(Source: The Official Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © 2006 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/introduction)

The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. The book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Their words, written on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon. After Mormon completed his writings, he delivered the account to his son Moroni, who added a few words of his own and hid up the plates in the hill Cumorah around the year 421 A.D. About 1,400 years later, on September 21, 1823, the same Moroni, then a glorified, resurrected being, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and instructed him relative to the ancient record and its destined translation into the English language. Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."

The Story of Jesus Christ Continued

Basically, the Book of Mormon continues the story of Jesus Christ, and it’s a story that was not known by the Apostles and Writers of the New Testament. Nor was it known by Writers of the Old Testament even though the major events occurred during that time. You may remember the Tower of Babel account in the Bible. According to the Book of Mormon, a group of people known as the Jaredites came to America at that time. Then, about six hundred years before Jesus was born another civilization came to America comprised of the Nephites and Lamanites. Only one group remained after thousands of years, the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.

According to the Third Book of Nephi, chapters 11 through 26, Jesus Christ visited the Nephites in America. He chose twelve of the Nephites and gave them authority. (And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words unto Nephi, and to those who had been called, [now the number of them who had been called, and received power and authority to baptize, was twelve] and behold, he stretched forth his hand unto the multitude, and cried unto them, saying: Blessed are ye if ye shall give heed unto the words of these twelve whom I have chosen from among you to minister unto you, and to be your servants; and unto them I have given power that they may baptize you with water; and after that ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost; therefore blessed are ye if ye shall believe in me and be baptized, after that ye have seen me and know that I am. – Chapter 12, Verse 1).

The chosen twelve were Nephi, Timothy, Mathoni, Mathonihah, Kumen, Kumenonhi, Jeremiah, Shemnon, Jonas, Zedekiah, and Isaiah.

A New Priesthood

On May 15, 1829 John the Baptist visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and said "that he acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on us, and that I should be called the first Elder of the Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the second."

How the Book of Mormon was Interpreted

Emma Hale Smith, Joseph Smith’s wife told her son, Joseph Smith III, how his father translated the Book of Mormon, "In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us."

David Whitmer was one of the Three Witnesses, and much of the translating happened in his home. He said, "I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man."

Conclusions

It is not for me to claim whether or not there was a spiritual guide from heaven who came to America to establish a new church. I wasn’t there. I have no more firsthand knowledge of how the Book of Mormon came into existence as I do how the first five books of the Old Testament of the Bible were written. I’m talking about the first five books as approved by the Council of Laodicea in 364 A. D. There were many other scriptures but the Council approved five: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The question to be answered is this: Is Mitt Romney too far out of the mainstream in his religious belief? Does it matter?

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.