Ok now i know why.  The command is "sudo rfkill unblock all".  If this helps anybody let me know.

Ok so now i'm curious as to why i couldn't get permission when i typed "rfkill unblock all" in the terminal.  Anybody know offhand?

Woohoo i got the wireless working.  This is how i did it.  I decided to install a distro with a gnome desktop so i could make sure the wireless was enabled.   Then i went to the terminal and typed rfkill unblock all.  Nothing seemed to happen.  Then i typed rfkill list and found soft block no Hard block no.  So i rebooted and wala i had wireless.  For some reason the lxde desktop wouldn't give me permission to unblock anything.  I think i'm going to stick with the gnome desktops.  They're just soooo much easier for beginners like me.  I want to thank Biff and everyone that was trying to help.  I was getting ready to take my computer to the pawn shop.  Hopefully this can help somebody with the same type of problems.    

sageowl@sageowl-CQ60:~$ iwconfiglo        no wireless extensions.eth0      no wireless extensions.wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any            Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off             Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off          Power Management:off          sageowl@sageowl-CQ60:~$ sudo ifconfig wlan0 up password for sageowl: SIOCSIFFLAGS: Operation not possible due to RF-killsageowl@sageowl-CQ60:~$ rfkill unblock allCan't open RFKILL control device: Permission deniedsageowl@sageowl-CQ60:~$ rfkill list0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no1: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no     Ok i think i'm on to something here.  I tried sudo ifconfig wlan0 up but not possible due to rfkill.  Then i tried rfkill unblock all but permission was denied.  I think i'm soooo close.  Can anybody help?  

Biff - I'm ready to try any suggestions you have.