Once upon a time, those who decided to go to war, were the same people who led the charge into battle. Now, the people “at the helm” are highly protected and would never dream of being in harm’s way. The heads of state and nobles of today are happy to let the poor and disenfranchised of their population fight their wars for them. What’s a casualty here and there to get to a “greater good?.

What has the world come to when those who are brave enough to shout the gospel of peace to the masses are treated as radicals and, at times, even criminals? What’s so radical about wanting people to stop killing each other? And, speaking of gospel. Although Jesus preached peace, it’s astounding how many supposedly Christian followers find a way to justify crimes against humanity in His name. How they can live with that kind of contradiction goes beyond reason.

People around the world generally cope with hardship by turning to religion and they also use their religion to guide their moral choices. More and more, religious leaders need use their influence to encourage their followers to have understanding and compassion towards others who are not like them. This is the only way that humanity can hope to join people of all faiths together to achieve their loftiest goal yet… Peace.

Store bought premade sauces can be expensive. It can be more cost effective to create your own sauce using simple ingredients like tomato paste, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and an onion. You can add other spices you might have around the house, like nutmeg, basil, or oregano. An advantage of creating your own pasta sauce is being able to season it to taste. You can also incorporate other vegetables you might have in your refrigerator, like mushrooms, spinach, peppers, asparagus, or broccoli.

When choosing a type of noodle, don’t be afraid to be adventurous. If a certain shape is on sale, try it. Cavatappi or capellini might be the noodles of your dreams. When you are making your pasta, an easy and inexpensive way to add a punch of flavor is to add a bullion cube to your boiling water. A drop of olive oil will keep the noodles separated, and taking them off the heat a few minutes early will ensure that nice chewiness of restaurant Italian cooking.

Whether you are cooking for a date, your loved ones, or just yourself, you do not need to sacrifice on flavor because of your tight budget. You are capable of creating restaurant quality food in your own home for a fraction of the price. Pasta is a good example of how you can impress your guests by cooking on a budget.

Giovanni Coratolo, director of Small Business Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has backed Obama’s actions, saying it will be a huge benefit to small businesses, as it will reduce the risk to banks and make it more enticing for them to give loans. So what will this mean?  

The Small Business Administration guarantees loans up to $20 billion a year in the U.S. economy and yet is projected to approve less than $10 billion in 2009.  This means that many companies seeking an SBA loan will not get approved.  Additional funding to the SBA will not do anything if we are currently using less than 50% of available funding.  How can this possibly assist the economy?

The new administration plans to temporarily eliminate some of the upfront fees on certain SBA loans and increase the guarantee caps to the lenders for these Business Loans, in order to offset administrative costs and reduce risks for lenders.  So the question then becomes: Is this enough?  Will additional funding to the SBA pay off in the long run?  

Loans are now defaulting at approximately twenty percent – an estimate which is somewhat conservative. The anticipated default rate on business loans that traditional lenders will accept is five percent.  Obama’s new plan offers an additional five percent guarantee on the defaults.  So, where does that leave you? Ten percent above the acceptable allotment! The point is that restrictions will not change much because we are still over the five percent default rate.  That’s the bad news.  

But there is significant good news here too.  Additional funding to the SBA means that something is finally being done to help small companies – not just big corporations. Including funding for small businesses in the economic stimulus package will hopefully help unfreeze the credit market and get the economy flowing freely again.  While it may take more than this to change our bleak economic situation, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.