Jude’s Eclectic Resources

Americans are the most charitable people in the world. Documented studies have shown without a doubt that Americans give far more to charity and help out their fellow man in times of trouble than any other private citizenry in the world. Look at these statistics.

* When the tragic tsunami hit Asia and devastated so many countries, American private citizens gave 1.78 billion dollars in relief above and beyond what the U.S. Government gave to help bring relief to the suffering. This size of donations just on the private sector side dwarfed even the best of what other developed nations could contribute.

* Only a few months later when a terrible earthquake devastated Pakistan, Americans rallied again giving 78 million dollars to aid the suffering there.

* When hurricane Katrina and Rita devastated the US coast states, Americans from all over the nation responded with 3.12 billion dollars and relief efforts are still underway to reach out to those displaced by that terrible storm.

These are only a few of the hundreds of examples of charity that Americans willingly give to every year whenever the need is great. Americans donate an estimated one quarter of a trillion dollars to charities such as the American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and The American Cancer Society. The amount that Americans give through their places of worship exceeds the gross national product of all but the most prosperous of nations.

A lot of sources like to maintain the idea that Americans are selfish and spoiled, but the statistics above prove otherwise. The belief in giving to others in need is deeply ingrained in the American psyche and the reasons are diverse and a very important part of the American dream and how this country came to be.

Part of the reason lies in the immigrant heritage which virtually everybody who makes up this great country can call their linage. When we go back to our roots, we all started out with a dream and this great country to grow that dream in. And all along the way, we helped each other. So we have a generational debt to pay back to all who pitched in and helped our ancestors establish this great country.

Our eagerness to help others doesn’t stop at our shores. Americans give more than any other nation to help out others in need around the world. Our instinct to give is stronger than even our national politics. We always give generously even if an enemy of America is hurt by storm or disease. When it comes to helping out our fellow man, we put aside national animosities and reach out. We Americans have a deep empathy for others. That is what it means to be “an American”.

That empathy for people of all races and colors, nationalities and countries of origin is very natural for Americans to feel. We are a people made up of the immigrants from all lands. And so when we reach out and aid others who are suffering, we all feel like we are touching our own family that way. That is the heart of what makes American charity so amazing and so generous.

Even if the countries we reach out to don’t always appreciate what we do, Americans will always be a people who will not sit by and let others suffer. We have that deeply held national conviction that we are all going to get through this life together. And that is just one of the many reasons why America is the greatest country in the world.

This is a sponsored post about insurance and it is a UK based insurance company by the name of Thrifty Scot and this is how they describe themselves on their site. “The no nonsense, plain speaking-money saving advice site.” I checked out their site and if I lived in the UK I would definitely consider it.

They have information that will be of interest to you concerning home insurance, car insurance, and life insurance. There is a lot of articles and tips and hints that you will find useful regardless of where you live.

They have independent comparison tools so you can see if they can save you money with your insurance. I know lots of people are looking for good coverage with low rates. I wanted to try the tool, but I’m not in the UK so it wouldn’t have been able to help me or maybe it could have, but I didn’t try it because I didn’t want to waste their time, but they say it searches over 90% of home insures in 2 minutes. Perhaps you nice UK visitors here would check it for me.

Point is we all need insurance in case of accidents and damage. If your very lucky you might be able to go through life without the need of protection, but I’m not that lucky. When I lived in Tennessee I couldn’t afford car insurance at the time and it wasn’t a state requirement so I didn’t have it.

It started snowing and they closed my son’s school early and I had to go pick him up. Needless to say cars were sliding everywhere and mine was no exception. I slid right into another car and I was creeping along, but I still did 1,000 dollars worth of damage and guess what since I didn’t have insurance I had to find someone to co-sign for me to get a loan which I couldn’t afford either and that started my life of debt up until 6 years ago. Thanks for reading and check and see if you can get lower insurance through these people.

I can actually use my Kontera links now and they don’t bother me. I think only around 6 shows up and I like that much better than the 14 or so that use to pop up every where. You can find the link to this plugin on that post or scroll to the bottom and click on the link there.

I learned something simple today that I didn’t know at the time I was trying the plugin the other night. I had no clue that I was suppose to click on options to find the nice interface that a newbie can understand and put my info for controlling this plugin there.. Duh, how silly I felt, but you really have to explain so we beginners understand. There is a post explaining everything that we need to know on her blog. Like I said before either scroll to the bottom to find her link or click the plugin post above.

I like the fact that the Wordpress upgrade moved the categories list up to the top and don’t automatically have the default checked for you when your writing a post. At least this way I am reminded to choose. I haven’t tried publishing with out picking yet, but I assume it would go to the default.

I am having a small issue with my hosting and this only started when I upgraded my Wordpress. It tells me I am using too many PHP resources at once. So I might have to do away with some of my plugins hopefully it will level out. They are using a new script themselves to make everything run faster so I’m pretty sure that is where it’s coming from. I have been with them almost a year now and I do like their service. I think I have only had one down time and that didn’t last very long.

A while back I kept getting emails with the following in the subject line: Fantastico De Luxe Outdated Installations Notification for judesmultiinfo.com and being a newbie about certain things I had no clue where they were coming from because my host’s name wasn’t on them and I wasn’t sure what I was suppose to be doing if anything.

I finally decided to check my C panel and check the Fantastico image there and sure enough it was telling me to upgrade my Wordpress. I had to do that anyways because the other night I couldn’t get back into my blog. So another small mystery solved for me.

It’s been raining all night and morning here in York. I hope it’s nice tomorrow so Bill and I can ride. I really look forward to the weekends.

I am really tired right now. I was up most of the night trying to put this blog back together. I’m sure everyone knows how it feels for something to crash on them. I also had to upgrade to the 2.2 in order to get back into my administration area in order to repair some of my damage. I have my own site and I have this blog in a sub directory so at least I could work on it.
So long as you make mistakes and can learn from them, then that’s a good thing. Other than looking for a new template and changing it to the colors I can stand I actually got nothing done today, sometimes it gets frustrating when you feel like your spinning your wheels. Okay that’s enough of my sniveling. I think I am going to bed now and give the old mind a rest. Have a great one. I don’t think I like this upgrade, but I’ll see.

Well guess how stupid I feel? Don’t bother I’ll tell you. When I first found out about the dofollow plugin I was told to set it at 365 so I did and today a nice young lady stopped by and told me about a new plugin she has and it’s in beta it control’s your Kontera links and keeps them out of your sponsored post and will limit the amount that shows up. I took my Kontera off because all those link ins bothered me.

I tried the plugin and liked it, but I don’t understand how to work on it so I have it off right now till I get the help I need with it. Okay back to what I was getting at. I visited her site and found lots of useful information plus in the comments section of the link thieves post. I found another useful extension called Search Status and it’s for Firefox so I added that to my growing collection of addon”s for Firefox.

After I restarted my browser boy was I shocked when I looked at my blog and the comments showed up pink. Because I had installed the dofollow and I had set it as I was told. I can excuse stupidity, but on the Internet with so many scammers I felt horrible. I claim stupidity on my part because I’m not very technical. I immediately looked at the dofollow plugin and changed it to 0 to see what would happen and lo and behold the pink went away. Okay great now I feel better!

The good part is I found another great tool to use and now any site that is pink I will know they have the nofollow enabled. I have to read up on this one because it has a lot of great functions. I had downloaded the Greasemonkey because someone had said something about it, but I have absolutely no idea what to do with it. I’ll figure that one out later.