.....or more aptly titled: "Economics for Dummies".
Uhhh.....boys and girls......you all seem to have forgotten that in order to create wealth you need to manufacture goods, grow crops and livestock, and use natural resources to create raw materials for production.
No wealth is truly ever created in a service economy. Wealth is just shifted from one place to another.....and that has led us down the path to where we are now.
Who are the growing wealthy nations of the world? China, India, Russia, the collected countries of the middle east, and other nations who have the willingness to use natural resources to create goods for sale. Walk into any local retail business and look at the labels to see where their various products are made.....The vast majority are made outside of the U.S.
We've shipped vast numbers of manufacturing jobs overseas because we didn't have the stomach to support our manufacturers at home because their products cost a little more.....Never mind that when you buy a cheap Chinese stapler it will need to be replaced after a few years where if your parents had bought a good old American "Swingline" (when they still made them here) you could probably be using that same stapler today.....I know this because mine is an antique but still works better than any of the staplers we have at work.....
We cry because our standard of living is reduced, but we only have ourselves to blame because of our willingness to allow our government to be perverted by electing people who have no interest in doing the "people's business", just an interest in what they can do to have more power and influence and personal wealth.
This latest economic meltdown is a perfect example. Anyone with half a brain could solve the economic problems in about an hour. Yes it would take a year or two before the economy recovered and we started to become the economic powerhouse we were in the post WWII era, but it is easily accomplished.
The trade imbalance with China could be solved with a simple phone call and a responsive congress.....
"Hello China? America calling.....here's the deal, untie the Yuan from the Dollar today and allow it to float on it's own in the global currency markets, or tomorrow there will be a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods coming into the U.S."
Tell Iraq they have 90 days to figure it out.....period.....then we're leaving......half the troops to Afghanistan, the other half (with their armor) on the U.S. Mexican border......which of course leads to another phone call......
"Hello Mexico? America here.....Clean up your act, stop the drug trafficking and start policing your side of the border, and by the way, you have 20,000,000 citizens coming home. NAFTA wasn't about immigration it was about trade. The troops on our common border are there to protect our territorial integrity. Our soldiers have been instructed to shoot on sight anyone not coming across at a legal border crossing.....By the way we will be opening up special lanes for Mexican trucks coming into the U.S. they will be fully searched and their cargos reloaded onto American transportation to their final destinations. We will be adding 5,000 new employees at INS to facilitate faster VISA processing for those who wish to live and work in this country legally, and PAY taxes. We will get those folks from the IRS which has a number of people qualified to scrutinize dubious paperwork."
Simplify the Tax code.....On individuals.....$0 to$20,000 Tax Rate 5%, $20001 to $50,000 10%, $50001 to $100,000 15% $100,000 to $150,000 20% $150,000 and above 25%. Standard deduction $5,000 per dependent, no itemized deductions PERIOD......On Business.....NO MORE BULLSHIT ACCOUNTING. 25% tax on net profit period, no carry over of net loss to the following tax year. Capital gains treated as income for tax purposes, Capital loss treated the same, a simple line on the tax form and submission of required verification documents either way. With simple accounting rules this is a no-brainer.
Eliminate the Estate tax......The government has already taxed every dime of this once. They don't deserve a second piece of pie for doing nothing.
Get rid of all the stupid little hidden taxes.....There are 19 tax lines on my phone bill, that's ridiculous to the point of almost being comical.
Social Security, medicare, medicaid and all the other little doo-dads that fall under FICA.....7.5% on employers on the first $150,000 of wages, 7.5% on employees no limit. Max Benefit payout tied to inflation and qualifying quarters worked but absolutely NOT tied to total contributions. This would create the safety net that social security is about without creating a socialist economy by stealing the incentive to achieve. Quality of life during retirement would be predicated on the working person saving money and looking to the future, but knowing that they still would be able to survive even if they didn't plan particularly well......
Separate Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid from Income Taxes permanently and operate those budgets independently from each other.
THAT'S THE REVENUE SIDE......
Now I know there are LOT'S of you saying it's nuts.....the government can't run on that kind of money.....Well guess what......IT'S NOT THEIR MONEY......IT'S OURS. So the government should be required by Constitutional Amendment to work with the revenue they are provided.
90% of the income tax revenue can be used for operations and interest on the national debt. 10% of that same revenue should be used for debt retirement until we are again at a zero balance. At that time we should begin to build a NATIONAL CAPITAL RESERVE FUND. This money could be drawn upon to help with natural disasters, and for research and development into things beneficial to us as citizens (with full transparency) and legitimate foreign aid.
Speaking of foreign aid.....Until further notice all foreign aid that cannot be obviously seen by "joe Six-pack" as necessary to our national security should be suspended until we have our own house in order and have some cash in reserve.
On trade:
I'm all for free trade on a level playing field, but when other nations take advantage of our system to make that field a "slope" we need to protect our national interests, hence my stance with China and Mexico. The key to global economic growth is a balance in trade. This cannot occur if the competitive environment is artificially manipulated to give one nation an advantage over another.
We also have to rethink our policy in regard to how we handle events in the third world. Trusting thugs to distribute humanitarian aid is akin to trusting an unrepentent pedophile to babysit. The outcome will never be what you hope for.
Let the U.N. Blue Hats earn their money......If humanitarian aid is needed somewhere, let them go to that region in sufficient force to do the entire job, not just protect the cargo at the airport.....If the thug "leader" of the area doesn't agree to those terms.....Make them more famous than they ever wanted to be. I guarantee that many of them will learn very quickly that they should do what's right. Those who don't won't live long enough to be a concern.
The key to stopping unnecessary violence is to show people that there is a better way and empower people to make wise choices.....and let them live within their own cultures.....The carrot and the stick philosophy will work best if a nation's own citizens are the one's carrying the sticks and they hold their governments accountable for the carrots.
Our biggest problem here at home is that even though we still carry the sticks, our elected leaders are no longer afraid of them.....and they think a tax cut, or rebate check (which was our money to begin with) is a sufficient "carrot" to pacify the populace.
IN A PERFECT ELECTION WE WOULD VOTE OUT EVERY INCUMBENT REGARDLESS OF PARTY TO SEND A MESSAGE THAT WE ARE TAKING OUR COUNTRY BACK......
McCain isn't the solution, but to me Obama would be giving up everything that our Founding Fathers and all subsequent members of the military fought and died to protect.....
Given the imperfect nature of our elections......McCain/Palin '08......Our nation can survive that for 4 years, then in 2012 we need to get serious about starting fresh. If for no other reason than to extend this beautiful idea of freedom for a few more generations.
Good Day!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BANKING CRISIS
The TRUTH about who is at fault for the current financial mess......As stated in the following article the GSA was repealed in 1999.....The repeal was signed by CLINTON after a multi-million dollar lobbying effort in Congress and at the White House. Though the subsequent bill to replace GSA was sponsored by Republicans, it didn't take long for the lobbying groups to eat away at the regulatory features of the new act and we ended up with the typical result of a liberal philosphy. A free-wheeling sex, drugs, free love, "Damn the consequences, I want mine" attitude that collapsed two mortgage companies run by liberals and the investment banks that got stuck with all the worthless paper. And by looking at ALL campaign contributions by the major financial firms for the past 10 years you will find that the vast majority of those campaign donations went to Democrats.....NOT Republicans.
Chrsitopher Dodd and Barrack Obama are the top two recipients of political donations from Fanny Mae with about $400,000 each. McCain received $45,000. The Democrats were responsible for essentially "criminalizing" the practice of "redlining" which was the practice of banks to NOT give loans to people with little or marginal potential to be able to repay the money and were deemed high risk.
The elimination of this practice was at least partly to blame for real estate prices skyrocketing. Many homes were purchased just to take advantage of a real estate market gone insane and resold just months later at a substantial profit. Much like the Tech Bubble during the Clinton years this was not sustainable. Anyone with any understanding of markets in general and real estate in particular knows that purchasing a home is a LONG-TERM investment, not a short-term flip.
Because of the barriers that the GSA placed within the banking industry the exact scenario we are experiencing now would NOT have occured without the repeal. Mortgages would not have become a commodity, and high risk mortgages would not have been available, and the false housing boom we experienced would not have occured.
I don't care how you intend to vote in November, but the next time you hear Obama trying to blame this crisis on Bush.....You should know the facts.....Below is the article I was speaking of.....Below that is a link to the Treasury Department website and a working paper on the subsequent law passed to take the place of GSA......Obviously the outcome wasn't what they anticipated in their working paper since they didn't anticipate the sleaze factor of people like Tony Rezko, Franklin Raines, Richard Syron or any of the others who got rich at the ultimate expense of US; the TAXPAYERS OF THIS COUNTRY.
In 1933, in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and during a nationwide commercial bank failure and the Great Depression, two members of Congress put their names on what is known today as the Glass-Steagall Act (GSA). This act separated investment and commercial banking activities. At the time, "improper banking activity", or what was considered overzealous commercial bank involvement in stock market investment, was deemed the main culprit of the financial crash. According to that reasoning, commercial banks took on too much risk with depositors' money. Additional and sometimes non-related explanations for the Great Depression evolved over the years, and many questioned whether the GSA hindered the establishment of financial services firms that can equally compete against each other. We will take a look at why the GSA was established and what led to its final repeal in 1999.
Reasons for the Act - Commercial SpeculationCommercial banks were accused of being too speculative in the pre-Depression era, not only because they were investing their assets but also because they were buying new ssues for resale to the public. Thus, banks became greedy, taking on huge risks in the hope of even bigger rewards. Banking itself became sloppy and objectives became blurred. Unsound loans were issued to companies in which the bank had invested, and clients would be encouraged to invest in those same stocks.
Effects of the Act - Creating BarriersSenator Carter Glass, a former Treasury secretary and the founder of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, was the primary force behind the GSA. Henry Bascom Steagall was a House of Representatives member and chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee. Steagall agreed to support the act with Glass after an amendment was added permitting bank deposit insurance (this was the first time it was allowed).As a collective reaction to one of the worst financial crises at the time, the GSA set up a regulatory firewall between commercial and investment bank activities, both of which were curbed and controlled. Banks were given a year to decide on whether they would specialize in commercial or in investment banking. Only 10% of commercial banks' total income could stem from securities; however, an exception allowed commercial banks to underwrite government-issued bonds. Financial giants at the time such as JP Morgan and Company, which were seen as part of the problem, were directly targeted and forced to cut their services and, hence, a main source of their income. By creating this barrier, the GSA was aiming to prevent the banks' use of deposits in the case of a failed underwriting job. The GSA, however, was considered harsh by most in the financial community, and it was reported that even Glass himself moved to repeal the GSA shortly after it was passed, claiming it was an overreaction to the crisis.
Building More Walls.-Despite the lax implementation of the GSA by the Federal Reserve Board, which is the regulator of U.S. banks, in 1956, Congress made another decision to regulate the banking sector. In an effort to prevent financial conglomerates from amassing too much power, the new act focused on banks involved in the insurance sector. Congress agreed that bearing the high risks undertaken in underwriting insurance is not good banking practice. Thus, as an extension of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Bank Holding Company Act further separated financial activities by creating a wall between insurance and banking. Even though banks could, and can still can, sell insurance and insurance products, underwriting insurance was forbidden.
Were the Walls Necessary? - The New Rules of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley ActThe limitations of the GSA on the banking sector sparked a debate over how much restriction is healthy for the industry. Many argued that allowing banks to diversify in moderation offers the banking industry the potential to reduce risk, so the restrictions of the GSA could have actually had an adverse effect, making the banking industry riskier rather than safer. Furthermore, big banks of the post-Enron market are likely to be more transparent, lessening the possibility of assuming too much risk or masking unsound investment decisions. As such, reputation has come to mean everything in today's market, and that could be enough to motivate banks to regulate themselves.
Consequently, to the delight of many in the banking industry (not everyone, however, was happy), in November of 1999 Congress repealed the GSA with the establishment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which eliminated the GSA restrictions against affiliations between commercial and investment banks. Furthermore, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allows banking institutions to provide a broader range of services, including underwriting and other dealing activities.
Conclusion.-Although the barrier between commercial and investment banking aimed to prevent a loss of deposits in the event of investment failures, the reasons for the repeal of the GSA and the establishment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act show that even regulatory attempts for safety can have adverse effects.
by Reem Heakal
http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/workpaper/wp2000-5.pdf
Chrsitopher Dodd and Barrack Obama are the top two recipients of political donations from Fanny Mae with about $400,000 each. McCain received $45,000. The Democrats were responsible for essentially "criminalizing" the practice of "redlining" which was the practice of banks to NOT give loans to people with little or marginal potential to be able to repay the money and were deemed high risk.
The elimination of this practice was at least partly to blame for real estate prices skyrocketing. Many homes were purchased just to take advantage of a real estate market gone insane and resold just months later at a substantial profit. Much like the Tech Bubble during the Clinton years this was not sustainable. Anyone with any understanding of markets in general and real estate in particular knows that purchasing a home is a LONG-TERM investment, not a short-term flip.
Because of the barriers that the GSA placed within the banking industry the exact scenario we are experiencing now would NOT have occured without the repeal. Mortgages would not have become a commodity, and high risk mortgages would not have been available, and the false housing boom we experienced would not have occured.
I don't care how you intend to vote in November, but the next time you hear Obama trying to blame this crisis on Bush.....You should know the facts.....Below is the article I was speaking of.....Below that is a link to the Treasury Department website and a working paper on the subsequent law passed to take the place of GSA......Obviously the outcome wasn't what they anticipated in their working paper since they didn't anticipate the sleaze factor of people like Tony Rezko, Franklin Raines, Richard Syron or any of the others who got rich at the ultimate expense of US; the TAXPAYERS OF THIS COUNTRY.
In 1933, in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and during a nationwide commercial bank failure and the Great Depression, two members of Congress put their names on what is known today as the Glass-Steagall Act (GSA). This act separated investment and commercial banking activities. At the time, "improper banking activity", or what was considered overzealous commercial bank involvement in stock market investment, was deemed the main culprit of the financial crash. According to that reasoning, commercial banks took on too much risk with depositors' money. Additional and sometimes non-related explanations for the Great Depression evolved over the years, and many questioned whether the GSA hindered the establishment of financial services firms that can equally compete against each other. We will take a look at why the GSA was established and what led to its final repeal in 1999.
Reasons for the Act - Commercial SpeculationCommercial banks were accused of being too speculative in the pre-Depression era, not only because they were investing their assets but also because they were buying new ssues for resale to the public. Thus, banks became greedy, taking on huge risks in the hope of even bigger rewards. Banking itself became sloppy and objectives became blurred. Unsound loans were issued to companies in which the bank had invested, and clients would be encouraged to invest in those same stocks.
Effects of the Act - Creating BarriersSenator Carter Glass, a former Treasury secretary and the founder of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, was the primary force behind the GSA. Henry Bascom Steagall was a House of Representatives member and chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee. Steagall agreed to support the act with Glass after an amendment was added permitting bank deposit insurance (this was the first time it was allowed).As a collective reaction to one of the worst financial crises at the time, the GSA set up a regulatory firewall between commercial and investment bank activities, both of which were curbed and controlled. Banks were given a year to decide on whether they would specialize in commercial or in investment banking. Only 10% of commercial banks' total income could stem from securities; however, an exception allowed commercial banks to underwrite government-issued bonds. Financial giants at the time such as JP Morgan and Company, which were seen as part of the problem, were directly targeted and forced to cut their services and, hence, a main source of their income. By creating this barrier, the GSA was aiming to prevent the banks' use of deposits in the case of a failed underwriting job. The GSA, however, was considered harsh by most in the financial community, and it was reported that even Glass himself moved to repeal the GSA shortly after it was passed, claiming it was an overreaction to the crisis.
Building More Walls.-Despite the lax implementation of the GSA by the Federal Reserve Board, which is the regulator of U.S. banks, in 1956, Congress made another decision to regulate the banking sector. In an effort to prevent financial conglomerates from amassing too much power, the new act focused on banks involved in the insurance sector. Congress agreed that bearing the high risks undertaken in underwriting insurance is not good banking practice. Thus, as an extension of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Bank Holding Company Act further separated financial activities by creating a wall between insurance and banking. Even though banks could, and can still can, sell insurance and insurance products, underwriting insurance was forbidden.
Were the Walls Necessary? - The New Rules of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley ActThe limitations of the GSA on the banking sector sparked a debate over how much restriction is healthy for the industry. Many argued that allowing banks to diversify in moderation offers the banking industry the potential to reduce risk, so the restrictions of the GSA could have actually had an adverse effect, making the banking industry riskier rather than safer. Furthermore, big banks of the post-Enron market are likely to be more transparent, lessening the possibility of assuming too much risk or masking unsound investment decisions. As such, reputation has come to mean everything in today's market, and that could be enough to motivate banks to regulate themselves.
Consequently, to the delight of many in the banking industry (not everyone, however, was happy), in November of 1999 Congress repealed the GSA with the establishment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which eliminated the GSA restrictions against affiliations between commercial and investment banks. Furthermore, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allows banking institutions to provide a broader range of services, including underwriting and other dealing activities.
Conclusion.-Although the barrier between commercial and investment banking aimed to prevent a loss of deposits in the event of investment failures, the reasons for the repeal of the GSA and the establishment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act show that even regulatory attempts for safety can have adverse effects.
by Reem Heakal
http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/workpaper/wp2000-5.pdf
Saturday, August 23, 2008
So This Is Change??
This morning Obama announced his VP choice as senator Joe Biden.....and somehow this is the "change" we can all believe in.....
Let's see......Joe Biden is a career politician and Washington insider who has never held a real job in his adult working life......Yup......that's change alright.....
Hold on to your 401k and think about moving your savings off shore even if it's only a few hundred bucks.....The tax and spenders are trying to take back Washington.....
One other thing I found a little disturbing.....with Biden and an Obama win you could conceivably see a filibuster proof Senate. That, with coupled with a large majority in the House, and loony left socialists leading both houses will hasten the fall of this nation into a socialist/communist form of government that has failed every time it has been attempted.....
We need strong leaders who will stand up for "Americans" and work to rebuild our great nation. Not socialists who will trample on the Constitution, cripple us with taxes, and eliminate individual freedoms that don't fit into the "government" line of thought.
In order to salvage the chance at a great nation again we have to defeat the socialist onslaught yet again......Vote McCain, and give yourself another four years of relative freedom. Vote Obama and watch your freedoms.....AND your money......dissappear......For me it isn't a hard choice.
Besides......Obama joe Biden has a real unpleasant ring to it.....Doesn't it?
Good Day!
Let's see......Joe Biden is a career politician and Washington insider who has never held a real job in his adult working life......Yup......that's change alright.....
Hold on to your 401k and think about moving your savings off shore even if it's only a few hundred bucks.....The tax and spenders are trying to take back Washington.....
One other thing I found a little disturbing.....with Biden and an Obama win you could conceivably see a filibuster proof Senate. That, with coupled with a large majority in the House, and loony left socialists leading both houses will hasten the fall of this nation into a socialist/communist form of government that has failed every time it has been attempted.....
We need strong leaders who will stand up for "Americans" and work to rebuild our great nation. Not socialists who will trample on the Constitution, cripple us with taxes, and eliminate individual freedoms that don't fit into the "government" line of thought.
In order to salvage the chance at a great nation again we have to defeat the socialist onslaught yet again......Vote McCain, and give yourself another four years of relative freedom. Vote Obama and watch your freedoms.....AND your money......dissappear......For me it isn't a hard choice.
Besides......Obama joe Biden has a real unpleasant ring to it.....Doesn't it?
Good Day!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Russian arrogance
From an AP story.....
"A Russian military convoy defied a cease-fire agreement Wednesday and rolled through a strategically important city in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which claimed fresh looting and bombing by the Russians and their allies."
The Russians don't give a rats ass about all the "talk" coming from the West in regards to this situation.....Georgia miscalculated on a grand scale when they decided to attempt to retake these areas, and in truth (though it's unlikely anyone would admit it) Russia was just waiting for a reason to do exactly what they are doing. The pipelines through Georgia drive them insane because they disrupt Russia's potential monopoly on swift and easy energy transportation to Europe. With such a monopoly Russia would be capable of holding Europe hostage, politically, to a point, with the threat of closing the valves on petroleum shipments from oil rich areas.....Something that the European economies could not afford to have happen.
"President Bush said a massive U.S. aid package was on the way for tens of thousands uprooted in the conflict and demanded Russia 'keep its word and act to end this crisis.'
"'The United States stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia and insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected,' Bush said sternly in Washington."
Bush can speak "sternly" all he wants, but the short version is that it's all hot air and the Russians know it.....Inspite of the fact that we have 170,000 troops within a few hours flight of the conflict zone those folks are mighty busy where they are, and aren't likely to be dragged into a conflict that could conceivably trigger World War III if we were to react militarily. The situation would probably be different had Georgia not made the initial provocative attack.
What should we do? Well.....I think as Georgia's president stated we should assume control of Georgian civilian airports, military airfields and their ports, temporarily, to guarantee that humanitarian aid flows where it's supposed to. We could even put enough boots on the ground to do the transportation. Russia may be arrogant, but it's leaders are not stupid. I believe that they would keep their South Ossetian and Abkhazian comrades from getting frisky with American troops because of where that would lead. Inspite of our being engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan I cannot imagine a scenario where Russia's leadership would want to get into a shooting war with the U.S. at this point in time.....(If Obama wins the Presidential election in November and the Socialists like Pelosi, Boxer, Reid, Schumer, and the other far left democrats continue to control Congress and continue their fine work at crippling our economy then all bets are off.)
But the bottom line is that unless Russia gets a good old-fashioned bitch slap via "action" by the West instead of "rhetoric" they will not be inclined to leave Georgia any time soon, and they will continue to allow their "comrades" in Georgia to commit whatever acts of violence they choose, as evidenced by this little part of the story.....
"Georgian officials said the Russians had looted and bombed Gori before they left. Moscow denied the accusation, but it appeared to be on a technicality: A BBC reporter in Gori said Russian tanks were in the streets while their South Ossetian allies seized cars, looted homes, and set houses on fire.
The Russian bitch slap to us.....
"In a sharp response to Bush's speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Georgia's leadership 'a special project of the United States. And we understand that the United States is worried about its project'."
Apparently because the election wasn't rigged for Saakashvili and he won on his own merit and popularity the Georgian exercise in free democracy becomes our "project"?
"Russian news agencies quoted him saying the United States would have to choose 'support for a virtual project' and or 'real partnership' on issues such as U.S.-Russian cooperation on Iran and other world tension spots."
This is a no brainer......"WHAT FRIGGING COOPERATION???????" For Putin and Medvedev the Cold War is alive and well......and that is just the way they want it.....
And Finally......
"The border has been along this river for 1,000 years," separatist official Ruslan Kishmaria told AP on Wednesday. He said Georgia would have to accept the new border and taunted the departed Georgian forces by saying they had received "American training in running away."
I think that any one of those 170,000 troops I mentioned above would happily meet with him at any location, without weapons, or designation of nationality just for the pleasure of giving him a good old-fashioned American Ass Kicking.
Not politically Correct, never claimed to be, but to let that slide without comment would be unconscionable......It's very easy for Mr. Kishmaria to play the tough guy when he has the whole Russian Army to back him up.....Without that he's just a punk with an AK-47.
Good Day!
"A Russian military convoy defied a cease-fire agreement Wednesday and rolled through a strategically important city in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which claimed fresh looting and bombing by the Russians and their allies."
The Russians don't give a rats ass about all the "talk" coming from the West in regards to this situation.....Georgia miscalculated on a grand scale when they decided to attempt to retake these areas, and in truth (though it's unlikely anyone would admit it) Russia was just waiting for a reason to do exactly what they are doing. The pipelines through Georgia drive them insane because they disrupt Russia's potential monopoly on swift and easy energy transportation to Europe. With such a monopoly Russia would be capable of holding Europe hostage, politically, to a point, with the threat of closing the valves on petroleum shipments from oil rich areas.....Something that the European economies could not afford to have happen.
"President Bush said a massive U.S. aid package was on the way for tens of thousands uprooted in the conflict and demanded Russia 'keep its word and act to end this crisis.'
"'The United States stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia and insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected,' Bush said sternly in Washington."
Bush can speak "sternly" all he wants, but the short version is that it's all hot air and the Russians know it.....Inspite of the fact that we have 170,000 troops within a few hours flight of the conflict zone those folks are mighty busy where they are, and aren't likely to be dragged into a conflict that could conceivably trigger World War III if we were to react militarily. The situation would probably be different had Georgia not made the initial provocative attack.
What should we do? Well.....I think as Georgia's president stated we should assume control of Georgian civilian airports, military airfields and their ports, temporarily, to guarantee that humanitarian aid flows where it's supposed to. We could even put enough boots on the ground to do the transportation. Russia may be arrogant, but it's leaders are not stupid. I believe that they would keep their South Ossetian and Abkhazian comrades from getting frisky with American troops because of where that would lead. Inspite of our being engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan I cannot imagine a scenario where Russia's leadership would want to get into a shooting war with the U.S. at this point in time.....(If Obama wins the Presidential election in November and the Socialists like Pelosi, Boxer, Reid, Schumer, and the other far left democrats continue to control Congress and continue their fine work at crippling our economy then all bets are off.)
But the bottom line is that unless Russia gets a good old-fashioned bitch slap via "action" by the West instead of "rhetoric" they will not be inclined to leave Georgia any time soon, and they will continue to allow their "comrades" in Georgia to commit whatever acts of violence they choose, as evidenced by this little part of the story.....
"Georgian officials said the Russians had looted and bombed Gori before they left. Moscow denied the accusation, but it appeared to be on a technicality: A BBC reporter in Gori said Russian tanks were in the streets while their South Ossetian allies seized cars, looted homes, and set houses on fire.
The Russian bitch slap to us.....
"In a sharp response to Bush's speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Georgia's leadership 'a special project of the United States. And we understand that the United States is worried about its project'."
Apparently because the election wasn't rigged for Saakashvili and he won on his own merit and popularity the Georgian exercise in free democracy becomes our "project"?
"Russian news agencies quoted him saying the United States would have to choose 'support for a virtual project' and or 'real partnership' on issues such as U.S.-Russian cooperation on Iran and other world tension spots."
This is a no brainer......"WHAT FRIGGING COOPERATION???????" For Putin and Medvedev the Cold War is alive and well......and that is just the way they want it.....
And Finally......
"The border has been along this river for 1,000 years," separatist official Ruslan Kishmaria told AP on Wednesday. He said Georgia would have to accept the new border and taunted the departed Georgian forces by saying they had received "American training in running away."
I think that any one of those 170,000 troops I mentioned above would happily meet with him at any location, without weapons, or designation of nationality just for the pleasure of giving him a good old-fashioned American Ass Kicking.
Not politically Correct, never claimed to be, but to let that slide without comment would be unconscionable......It's very easy for Mr. Kishmaria to play the tough guy when he has the whole Russian Army to back him up.....Without that he's just a punk with an AK-47.
Good Day!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
A letter to the editor in a Philippine Newspaper.....
"Those critical of the communist ideology ignore the fact that the Chinese Communist Party engineered the economic miracle whose crowning glory is Beijing’s hosting of the Olympics. China before Mao was a sleeping giant, a euphemism for a backward country ran by inept and corrupt “democratic” government like ours." (From the Sun Star Cebu Newspaper, Cebu Philippines)
No Sir we do not ignore the Chinese communist party.....We deny that they are as benevolent as you would make them out to be.....
In response to the "Miracle of China" paragraph in the most recent online edition of Sun Star.....Let's clarify a few points. Communist China is the world's largest pollution generating nation. Yes, inspite of what their government may claim, The Chinese spew more pollutants into the atmosphere than even the U.S.....Beijing is drowning in a sea of smog every bit at as bad as the worst day in Manila.
800 million Chinese still live in abject poverty with no real help on the horizon, and a government that doesn't care.
The Communist leaders of China are every bit as corrupt as any government on the planet, but since they have virtually complete control over the media they are also very good at hiding it.....
And making a statement about the corruption in government even as a back-handed slap, (like was done in the editorial as a slap to the Arroyo administration) and no matter how accurate the statement was, would at the very least be censored and never printed, but more likely would also have resulted in the author being jailed or interred in a "reeducation" facility (political prison) like some other 500,000 people are now, at best guess by various international human rights organizations.
The Chinese have built their economy on currency manipulation, slave labor, and to a great extent by selling substandard products into the American market at ridiculous prices to people who are too stupid to know the difference between quality and junk. Products containing lead, mercury, and other poisons that have killed or injured hundreds of people and animals are reuglarly exported from China to points all over the globe. In every instance that an injury or death has occurred the Chinese have denied any culpability, and refuse to take any responsibility.
They have a callous disregard for human life whether it's their own people (as evidenced by the thousands who died in Sichuan province because of horrific construction techniques and using materials not suitable for building even a dog house) or others around the globe (as evidenced by their stand on the Genocide in Darfur.)
So before talking in such glowing terms about China, understand that the Chinese business presence in the Philippines isn't about them having any interest in helping the average Filipino have a better life....It is about manipulating the Filipino people for the enrichment of Chinese investors.
Compassionate the Chinese government is not. Self-serving and greedy they most unequivocally are, and they are unquestionably very good at what they do....
So beware of the "Miracle of China" it's next victim could be you.
Be proud of your culture, your faith, and your freedom.....Do not forget the lessons learned during world war II. A people who are willing to give up a little freedom to ensure security will end up with neither.....
Thank you and good day.....
No Sir we do not ignore the Chinese communist party.....We deny that they are as benevolent as you would make them out to be.....
In response to the "Miracle of China" paragraph in the most recent online edition of Sun Star.....Let's clarify a few points. Communist China is the world's largest pollution generating nation. Yes, inspite of what their government may claim, The Chinese spew more pollutants into the atmosphere than even the U.S.....Beijing is drowning in a sea of smog every bit at as bad as the worst day in Manila.
800 million Chinese still live in abject poverty with no real help on the horizon, and a government that doesn't care.
The Communist leaders of China are every bit as corrupt as any government on the planet, but since they have virtually complete control over the media they are also very good at hiding it.....
And making a statement about the corruption in government even as a back-handed slap, (like was done in the editorial as a slap to the Arroyo administration) and no matter how accurate the statement was, would at the very least be censored and never printed, but more likely would also have resulted in the author being jailed or interred in a "reeducation" facility (political prison) like some other 500,000 people are now, at best guess by various international human rights organizations.
The Chinese have built their economy on currency manipulation, slave labor, and to a great extent by selling substandard products into the American market at ridiculous prices to people who are too stupid to know the difference between quality and junk. Products containing lead, mercury, and other poisons that have killed or injured hundreds of people and animals are reuglarly exported from China to points all over the globe. In every instance that an injury or death has occurred the Chinese have denied any culpability, and refuse to take any responsibility.
They have a callous disregard for human life whether it's their own people (as evidenced by the thousands who died in Sichuan province because of horrific construction techniques and using materials not suitable for building even a dog house) or others around the globe (as evidenced by their stand on the Genocide in Darfur.)
So before talking in such glowing terms about China, understand that the Chinese business presence in the Philippines isn't about them having any interest in helping the average Filipino have a better life....It is about manipulating the Filipino people for the enrichment of Chinese investors.
Compassionate the Chinese government is not. Self-serving and greedy they most unequivocally are, and they are unquestionably very good at what they do....
So beware of the "Miracle of China" it's next victim could be you.
Be proud of your culture, your faith, and your freedom.....Do not forget the lessons learned during world war II. A people who are willing to give up a little freedom to ensure security will end up with neither.....
Thank you and good day.....
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The Fire Sale of America.....
Doesn't anyone else find it disappointing that so many of our distinctly American companies are being sold to foreign buyers? It's bad enough that we don't manufacture much of anything here anymore. Much of what we do make is for our consumer market yet the profits from those enterprises do not stay in America, they go to their foreign owners. Now we can add to a list that already includes Milwaukee Power Tool (now owned by the Chinese). Several formerly U.S. owned furniture manufacturers whose Chinese buyers closed the U.S. factories and kept just the names of those businesses to try to maintain some credibility in our market. Countless other small corporations who have been absorbed by foreign conglomerates.....and now perhaps the most iconic and distinctly American brand out there.....Budwieser.
InBev, the new owner of Bud, is a Belgian company run primarily by Brazilians.....Okay, the Belgians can make a good beer. Brazil? I have my doubts.....At any rate, other than stock dividends all the profit from Anheuser Busch will now be flowing like a smooth cold Bud into Belgian bank accounts.....
To InBev I have just one thing to say.....
A toast to celebrate your purchase of my formerly favorite beverage.....This MGD is for you!
Unless you buy Miller Brewing too.....
Good day!
InBev, the new owner of Bud, is a Belgian company run primarily by Brazilians.....Okay, the Belgians can make a good beer. Brazil? I have my doubts.....At any rate, other than stock dividends all the profit from Anheuser Busch will now be flowing like a smooth cold Bud into Belgian bank accounts.....
To InBev I have just one thing to say.....
A toast to celebrate your purchase of my formerly favorite beverage.....This MGD is for you!
Unless you buy Miller Brewing too.....
Good day!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Margasak on Helms.....
I read with much disdain Larry Margasak's brief "story" about the political life of the late Senator Jesse Helms.....I'll confess to not know for certain Mr. Margasak's political leanings, but I would suspect everything on his left gets far more use than anything on his right.
This was a hack job pure and simple, and one that he dared not write while Helms was alive because there would have been repercussions.
I found a number of things disturbing about the way the article was spun.....Using numbers from Larry Sabato to present an image of Helms facing tight elections without telling us the numbers for the person or persons running against him.....Oh and by the way Margasak, a 56% winning vote still translates into a 12 point margin of victory no matter how you try to spin it.
A polarizer not a compromiser.....the GOP is too far to the right.....Sheesh.....What about all your left wing buddies who have no intention of compromising on ANYTHING.....Reid, Pelosi, Schumer, Boxer and the rest of their ilk are just a bunch of goose stepping morons who would gladly walk our nation right into third world status just to prove a point about political power!
......but that's another story unto itself.....
Let's look at a few of Helms positions.....
"No" to Civil Rights......Hmmm......How soon we forget the realities of THAT era.....The Democrat's own George Wallace stood on the steps of a school and gave a speech about keeping segregation. Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" was probably the single most important causitive factor in the destruction of minority families, particularly in the African American community.....Oh, and in case you've forgotten.....LBJ was a Democrat.
"No" to the National Endowment for the Arts over nudity.....I would think that even you could admit that he was at least partially right on this one......Last time I thought about it there was no artistic merit to a crucifix in a bucket of piss.
"No" to abortion.....I guess I don't understand how staying true to your faith is a bad thing. I personally know a woman who is an unashamed athiest, and proud supporter of abortion rights, and who had absolutely NO interest in having children.....yet when she became pregnant out-of-wedlock.....she chose to keep the child.....Ironic don't you think? We just never know how we are going to react until we are in a situation ourselves, and if a person believes that every child should have a chance at life I can't find fault with that.
"No" to Communism......uh......this is a bad thing?
"No" to Medicinal Marijuana.....You can't convince me that there aren't legal medicines that reduce pain as well as rolling up a big ol' Bob Marley and smoking yourself stupid.
Blocking Renewal of a health care for AIDS victims here at home.....Okay he missed on this one, because they are American citizens, but you can't fault the logic even if you disagree with the position.....We know that the two most widely recognized methods of transmission are illegal IV drug users sharing needles, and homosexual anal sex.....which even in freewheeling Rome was considered decadent and odd.
"No" to the U.N.....The U.N. is a joke, plain and simple......unless of course you were getting kick-backs from the oil-for-food program in Iraq.
"No" to giving up the Panama Canal.....uh......The Chinese control that now.....somehow that's a good thing?
"No" school bussing.....pretty much everyone has admitted that bussing for the most part has been a dismal failure.....Get on THAT bus.
and SaltII was flawed.....which is why START came shortly there after.....
Buy a map Mr. Margasak......it might help you find the middle of the road.....or at least help you to present the WHOLE picture.....
Except.....you work for AP, they NEVER WANT the whole picture. Just what will suit the puppetmasters.....
This was a hack job pure and simple, and one that he dared not write while Helms was alive because there would have been repercussions.
I found a number of things disturbing about the way the article was spun.....Using numbers from Larry Sabato to present an image of Helms facing tight elections without telling us the numbers for the person or persons running against him.....Oh and by the way Margasak, a 56% winning vote still translates into a 12 point margin of victory no matter how you try to spin it.
A polarizer not a compromiser.....the GOP is too far to the right.....Sheesh.....What about all your left wing buddies who have no intention of compromising on ANYTHING.....Reid, Pelosi, Schumer, Boxer and the rest of their ilk are just a bunch of goose stepping morons who would gladly walk our nation right into third world status just to prove a point about political power!
......but that's another story unto itself.....
Let's look at a few of Helms positions.....
"No" to Civil Rights......Hmmm......How soon we forget the realities of THAT era.....The Democrat's own George Wallace stood on the steps of a school and gave a speech about keeping segregation. Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" was probably the single most important causitive factor in the destruction of minority families, particularly in the African American community.....Oh, and in case you've forgotten.....LBJ was a Democrat.
"No" to the National Endowment for the Arts over nudity.....I would think that even you could admit that he was at least partially right on this one......Last time I thought about it there was no artistic merit to a crucifix in a bucket of piss.
"No" to abortion.....I guess I don't understand how staying true to your faith is a bad thing. I personally know a woman who is an unashamed athiest, and proud supporter of abortion rights, and who had absolutely NO interest in having children.....yet when she became pregnant out-of-wedlock.....she chose to keep the child.....Ironic don't you think? We just never know how we are going to react until we are in a situation ourselves, and if a person believes that every child should have a chance at life I can't find fault with that.
"No" to Communism......uh......this is a bad thing?
"No" to Medicinal Marijuana.....You can't convince me that there aren't legal medicines that reduce pain as well as rolling up a big ol' Bob Marley and smoking yourself stupid.
Blocking Renewal of a health care for AIDS victims here at home.....Okay he missed on this one, because they are American citizens, but you can't fault the logic even if you disagree with the position.....We know that the two most widely recognized methods of transmission are illegal IV drug users sharing needles, and homosexual anal sex.....which even in freewheeling Rome was considered decadent and odd.
"No" to the U.N.....The U.N. is a joke, plain and simple......unless of course you were getting kick-backs from the oil-for-food program in Iraq.
"No" to giving up the Panama Canal.....uh......The Chinese control that now.....somehow that's a good thing?
"No" school bussing.....pretty much everyone has admitted that bussing for the most part has been a dismal failure.....Get on THAT bus.
and SaltII was flawed.....which is why START came shortly there after.....
Buy a map Mr. Margasak......it might help you find the middle of the road.....or at least help you to present the WHOLE picture.....
Except.....you work for AP, they NEVER WANT the whole picture. Just what will suit the puppetmasters.....
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Obama the fraud.....
Today I was reading a media story about Obama trying to reach out to the right wing evangelicals.....Now.....isn't this the same group of people (at least from a faith standpoint) that he was calling bitter, clinging to guns and religion when times get tough? Somehow this strikes me as being a little disingenuous.....okay ALOT disingenuous.
The half-hearted dismissal of Wesley Clark's comments about McCain's service in the military not being of the proper "level of experience" to qualify McCain to be commander-in-chief is nothing more than a deflection to try to stop people (who would actually take time to think about it) from remembering that Obama has NO MILITARY EXPERIENCE what-so-ever.....And didn't Clinton FIRE Clark because he was so inept as a commander? Yeah.....that makes him a credible spokesperson.
Campaign finance, income taxes, capital gains taxes, medicare, goverment funded health care, hell, pick an issue that is meaningful to US; the average citizen that is just trying to make a life for ourselves and our families, and you won't be able to pin him down on a position that he won't flip-flop on to suit the desires of the crowd to which he is speaking.....
To me that constitutes the worst kind of fraud. Trying to get elected at any cost, by saying anything, to anybody, when it fits into his goal of achieving the presidency.
It's either this or he HAS no real position on any of the important issues confronting us today.
Either way he's extremely dangerous to our way of life in this country. I find it extremely frightening that we could elect someone without knowing what his real stand is on an issue until after the election......It's equally as frightening that we may elect someone who has no spine to choose a side on an issue and stick to that position whether it's popular or not.
I would find it much easier to respect the man even if I disagreed with his position, but he hasn't given a consistent position to agree or disagree with!
The only thing that I've been able to form an opinion on is that in an Obama presidency we would see higher taxes, a lower standard of living, bigger government and a continued erosion of our personal freedoms.....at an even faster pace.....Because there is no conceivable way to fund even half the things he's talked about without a massive redistribution of money from OUR pockets to the Government's.
Liberalism today is anything but liberal.....It's evolved into the belief that none of us are capable of making decisions without the ever watchful eye of government.....
Even the first amendment is fair game if the speaker has a viewpoint that is in opposition to the current liberal mantra.....ie. Pelosi's attacks on conservative talk radio shows hosted by Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and others.....While I don't agree with some of their positions I certainly believe they have a RIGHT, guaranteed by our Constitution, to present that point of view. They also have the forum because they have an audience large enough for the free market to dictate the sale of advertising that supports their programs.
I firmly believe that if the vast majority of American citizens held a "liberal" point of view then liberal talk radio wouldn't be relegated to NPR. Popularity dictates value in the market place, and the reality is that the constant vitriolic hatred for anyone with an "R" after their name doesn't sell. Oh there is alot of left leaning press, but if one were to study why many newspapers are failing I think they would find that most of those failures have something to do with the political leanings of the editors and publishers.....Look at the Seattle Times.....It leans a little left, but was far more centrist than the Seattle Post Intelligencer.....The P-I was losing money hand over fist, and it's owner (Hearst Publications) had to sue the owners of the Times to try to enforce a patently unfair contract and force the Times to continue to provide Hearst with financial support for the P-I so it didn't collapse under the weight of it's completely unbalanced reporting.....
I left Seattle before this was resolved, but the bottom line is that even in a city like Seattle that leans so far left it should fall over, a "liberal" newspaper like the P-I couldn't survive on it's own because people just get sick of listening to hatred.....
In that regard I don't see much difference between "Liberals" of this day and age and the Muslim whack-jobs that would kill us all if they had the chance.....They both believe that their way is the only way, and if you aren't in lock step agreement with everything they say then you are somehow less than human, or stupid.....or.....let's just say it.....an infidel.
Don't ever forget that if a political party controls the media and has the balance of power in the judiciary, then they effectively have control of the nation.....Because any thinking person knows that if you hear the same lie often enough alot of people are going to start to believe it is truth.....It worked for Hitler, It worked for Stalin, Castro, Mussolini, Amin, Chavez etc.....Don't think for a hot minute that Pelosi, Reid, and other far left members of Congress don't have those same dillusions of grandeur.
Modern Liberalism is trying to move us down that lovely road to Communism and/or facism. It could go either way at this point. One thing is certain, if we allow it to continue then the nation that our Founding Fathers envisioned, fought and died to create, and did their best to protect with probably the most perfectly written document ever, will cease to exist.....
How our nation survives is our choice to make.....Choose wisely......
Good day!
The half-hearted dismissal of Wesley Clark's comments about McCain's service in the military not being of the proper "level of experience" to qualify McCain to be commander-in-chief is nothing more than a deflection to try to stop people (who would actually take time to think about it) from remembering that Obama has NO MILITARY EXPERIENCE what-so-ever.....And didn't Clinton FIRE Clark because he was so inept as a commander? Yeah.....that makes him a credible spokesperson.
Campaign finance, income taxes, capital gains taxes, medicare, goverment funded health care, hell, pick an issue that is meaningful to US; the average citizen that is just trying to make a life for ourselves and our families, and you won't be able to pin him down on a position that he won't flip-flop on to suit the desires of the crowd to which he is speaking.....
To me that constitutes the worst kind of fraud. Trying to get elected at any cost, by saying anything, to anybody, when it fits into his goal of achieving the presidency.
It's either this or he HAS no real position on any of the important issues confronting us today.
Either way he's extremely dangerous to our way of life in this country. I find it extremely frightening that we could elect someone without knowing what his real stand is on an issue until after the election......It's equally as frightening that we may elect someone who has no spine to choose a side on an issue and stick to that position whether it's popular or not.
I would find it much easier to respect the man even if I disagreed with his position, but he hasn't given a consistent position to agree or disagree with!
The only thing that I've been able to form an opinion on is that in an Obama presidency we would see higher taxes, a lower standard of living, bigger government and a continued erosion of our personal freedoms.....at an even faster pace.....Because there is no conceivable way to fund even half the things he's talked about without a massive redistribution of money from OUR pockets to the Government's.
Liberalism today is anything but liberal.....It's evolved into the belief that none of us are capable of making decisions without the ever watchful eye of government.....
Even the first amendment is fair game if the speaker has a viewpoint that is in opposition to the current liberal mantra.....ie. Pelosi's attacks on conservative talk radio shows hosted by Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and others.....While I don't agree with some of their positions I certainly believe they have a RIGHT, guaranteed by our Constitution, to present that point of view. They also have the forum because they have an audience large enough for the free market to dictate the sale of advertising that supports their programs.
I firmly believe that if the vast majority of American citizens held a "liberal" point of view then liberal talk radio wouldn't be relegated to NPR. Popularity dictates value in the market place, and the reality is that the constant vitriolic hatred for anyone with an "R" after their name doesn't sell. Oh there is alot of left leaning press, but if one were to study why many newspapers are failing I think they would find that most of those failures have something to do with the political leanings of the editors and publishers.....Look at the Seattle Times.....It leans a little left, but was far more centrist than the Seattle Post Intelligencer.....The P-I was losing money hand over fist, and it's owner (Hearst Publications) had to sue the owners of the Times to try to enforce a patently unfair contract and force the Times to continue to provide Hearst with financial support for the P-I so it didn't collapse under the weight of it's completely unbalanced reporting.....
I left Seattle before this was resolved, but the bottom line is that even in a city like Seattle that leans so far left it should fall over, a "liberal" newspaper like the P-I couldn't survive on it's own because people just get sick of listening to hatred.....
In that regard I don't see much difference between "Liberals" of this day and age and the Muslim whack-jobs that would kill us all if they had the chance.....They both believe that their way is the only way, and if you aren't in lock step agreement with everything they say then you are somehow less than human, or stupid.....or.....let's just say it.....an infidel.
Don't ever forget that if a political party controls the media and has the balance of power in the judiciary, then they effectively have control of the nation.....Because any thinking person knows that if you hear the same lie often enough alot of people are going to start to believe it is truth.....It worked for Hitler, It worked for Stalin, Castro, Mussolini, Amin, Chavez etc.....Don't think for a hot minute that Pelosi, Reid, and other far left members of Congress don't have those same dillusions of grandeur.
Modern Liberalism is trying to move us down that lovely road to Communism and/or facism. It could go either way at this point. One thing is certain, if we allow it to continue then the nation that our Founding Fathers envisioned, fought and died to create, and did their best to protect with probably the most perfectly written document ever, will cease to exist.....
How our nation survives is our choice to make.....Choose wisely......
Good day!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Celtics win the title.....
Tonight I witnessed one of the greatest displays of true team basketball that I have seen in the NBA in quite some time. A team led by three guys who could have thrown away a beautiful regular season and it's potential storybook ending by letting their egos get in the way of their success.....Oh but wait.....I forgot......these three guys don't have egos.....They have humility and a willingness to sacrifice individual glory for the greater goal.....
No one who watches basketball needs me to mention their names but I will anyway. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. Tonight we saw a glaring example of why there is no "I" in team.....and why a person who some consider the best player in the game proved that he is not.....I don't need to mention his name either, but I will.....Kobe Bryant.
Tonight Boston played flawlessly in embarrassing the Lakers by 39 points in the decisive game 6 of the NBA finals. Kobe's line? 22 points on 31.8% shooting, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 4 turnovers. Kobe was the only guy with more than 8 shots for the Lakers, while Boston had 4 players with 12 or more shots. The Celtics had 19 more rebounds, and nearly double the number of assists of the Lakers. The Celts also had 4 blocked shots and 18 steals.
They proved that they were the better team, and in the process showed Kobe Bryant to be what I've always thought he was.....A good scorer, but not a person to lead a team. Put Chris Paul in a Laker uniform instead of Bryant and the Lakers might be hanging that banner.....or.....Deron Williams.....Andre Miller.....maybe even Brandon Roy or Raymond Felton.
Give the Lakers a true UNSELFISH point guard who understands that the key to success is to be good enough to make everyone around you better and the Lakers will hang a banner. Keep Kobe as the focal point of that team and they will continue to fall short. Michael Jordan got it. Larry Bird and Magic too.....They all understood the concept of being a team. Kobe understands nothing more than being Kobe.
The Lakers are a good team, and the Zen Master is a good coach. Kobe is as good as there is at one-on-one basketball, but too often he lets his ego get in the way of remembering that there are 4 other guys on the floor. Jordan has 6 rings because he made everyone around him better. Without Kobe we would finally find out how good the Lakers really are.....Lamar Odom should be a perennial all-star, as should Pau Gasol, but as long as they are wearing Laker uniforms we will never know how good they could be because Kobe will NEVER share the spotlight. In typical Tinsel-Town fashion there can be only one star on the stage.....One Headliner.....One person with top billing.....and in Kobe's eyes that should be Kobe......and that is why the Lakers will never be able to beat a team like the Celtics.....A team with THREE superstars, each of whom recognizes that success is predicated on supplanting individual accolades for the good of the whole unit. THREE tremendous talents who have humility above all else.....THREE true gentlemen and class acts who understand that though they play a kids game, it's still work, and that to achieve success they have to work together.....
Congratulations to Doc Rivers and the boys for a job well done.....Hope to see you back again next year.....Thanks for a great season!
Yes amazingly enough I do have other interests than complaining about the ineffectiveness of our government in taking care fo the REAL needs of the citizenry of our nation.....
Good Day!
No one who watches basketball needs me to mention their names but I will anyway. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. Tonight we saw a glaring example of why there is no "I" in team.....and why a person who some consider the best player in the game proved that he is not.....I don't need to mention his name either, but I will.....Kobe Bryant.
Tonight Boston played flawlessly in embarrassing the Lakers by 39 points in the decisive game 6 of the NBA finals. Kobe's line? 22 points on 31.8% shooting, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 4 turnovers. Kobe was the only guy with more than 8 shots for the Lakers, while Boston had 4 players with 12 or more shots. The Celtics had 19 more rebounds, and nearly double the number of assists of the Lakers. The Celts also had 4 blocked shots and 18 steals.
They proved that they were the better team, and in the process showed Kobe Bryant to be what I've always thought he was.....A good scorer, but not a person to lead a team. Put Chris Paul in a Laker uniform instead of Bryant and the Lakers might be hanging that banner.....or.....Deron Williams.....Andre Miller.....maybe even Brandon Roy or Raymond Felton.
Give the Lakers a true UNSELFISH point guard who understands that the key to success is to be good enough to make everyone around you better and the Lakers will hang a banner. Keep Kobe as the focal point of that team and they will continue to fall short. Michael Jordan got it. Larry Bird and Magic too.....They all understood the concept of being a team. Kobe understands nothing more than being Kobe.
The Lakers are a good team, and the Zen Master is a good coach. Kobe is as good as there is at one-on-one basketball, but too often he lets his ego get in the way of remembering that there are 4 other guys on the floor. Jordan has 6 rings because he made everyone around him better. Without Kobe we would finally find out how good the Lakers really are.....Lamar Odom should be a perennial all-star, as should Pau Gasol, but as long as they are wearing Laker uniforms we will never know how good they could be because Kobe will NEVER share the spotlight. In typical Tinsel-Town fashion there can be only one star on the stage.....One Headliner.....One person with top billing.....and in Kobe's eyes that should be Kobe......and that is why the Lakers will never be able to beat a team like the Celtics.....A team with THREE superstars, each of whom recognizes that success is predicated on supplanting individual accolades for the good of the whole unit. THREE tremendous talents who have humility above all else.....THREE true gentlemen and class acts who understand that though they play a kids game, it's still work, and that to achieve success they have to work together.....
Congratulations to Doc Rivers and the boys for a job well done.....Hope to see you back again next year.....Thanks for a great season!
Yes amazingly enough I do have other interests than complaining about the ineffectiveness of our government in taking care fo the REAL needs of the citizenry of our nation.....
Good Day!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tomatoes.....This shouldn't be that hard.
As we continue to get alarmist reporting from the various media about the Salmonella infected tomatoes something is truly lacking.....
We get reports about what "States" have been cleared, but we continue to hear virtually NOTHING about imported tomatoes from Mexico.....I "finally" found mention today in one article, about 6 paragraphs down that Mexican imported tomatoes have "not been ruled out" as the culprit.....
Why the abnormal "sensitivity" and political correctness about this? I don't understand that when we are talking about OUR citizen's health!
Tomatoes, like most of our produce, have little stickers on them that tell you where they were grown, or at least who the company is that's selling them to the grocer. They are identifiable by lot number, and it's not that hard to figure out where each lot came from. The distributor has records and those can then be used to back trace to the grower. IT AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE!!!
You can't tell me that all 167 people who have an illness that can be attributed to these tomatoes only bought ONE frigging tomato and that the stickers are gone so they have no way to back trace them.....That's absurd, and patently under-estimates the intelligence (or over-estimates the stupidity and gullibility....your choice) of the people of this country.
The FDA seems to be working much harder to protect political sensitivities of some at the expense of a quick and thorough investigation to protect the people that it is charged to protect.
If indeed Mexican tomatoes are responsible I think we need to re-examine our trade rules with that nation to make sure that what we import from there is in compliance with the same standards that manufacturers and commercial growers in this country are held to.
And while we're at it.....HEY CHINA! PAY ATTENTION! YOU'RE NEXT! So keep the lead out of the toys and dental porcelain and anything else you send over here.....Oh and keep the poisoned pet food over there as well.....Some of us like our dogs and cats.....
I don't want a Ford built in Mexico, I'll never be convinced it's as good as a Ford made here. I know that "Stanley" hammers made in Mexico aren't even in the same universe as a "Vaughn" hammer made right here at home.....and like many people who buy and use hand tools I'll spend the extra money on quality when I know I'll only need to buy it ONCE, instead of buying a cheap one and replacing it every couple of years.....
I'm all for free trade as long as it's a level playing field, but when price compromises safety and/or durability I draw the line.
I know that most consumers in the U.S. are price shoppers and consider too many of their purchases to be "disposable" instead of durable. That IS a problem, but when I go to Office Max and I can't find a hole punch NOT made in China regardless of price, something is wrong......Same thing when I go to the grocery store and need a kitchen gadget.....all made in China regardless of price.....It's truly sad.....
About the only thing that I saw at the grocers that was not made in China was a wok.....Which I found really funny in an ironic sort of way.....but perhaps they think that we just like hole punches, kitchen gadgets, and any number of other "disposable" things.....but not Asian food.....
Of all the things that the Chinese make for the consumer market in the U.S. one would think that the one item they could make flawlessly would be a wok.....I would think that they probably make a few of those each year for domestic sale in China......Wouldn't you?
Good day!
We get reports about what "States" have been cleared, but we continue to hear virtually NOTHING about imported tomatoes from Mexico.....I "finally" found mention today in one article, about 6 paragraphs down that Mexican imported tomatoes have "not been ruled out" as the culprit.....
Why the abnormal "sensitivity" and political correctness about this? I don't understand that when we are talking about OUR citizen's health!
Tomatoes, like most of our produce, have little stickers on them that tell you where they were grown, or at least who the company is that's selling them to the grocer. They are identifiable by lot number, and it's not that hard to figure out where each lot came from. The distributor has records and those can then be used to back trace to the grower. IT AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE!!!
You can't tell me that all 167 people who have an illness that can be attributed to these tomatoes only bought ONE frigging tomato and that the stickers are gone so they have no way to back trace them.....That's absurd, and patently under-estimates the intelligence (or over-estimates the stupidity and gullibility....your choice) of the people of this country.
The FDA seems to be working much harder to protect political sensitivities of some at the expense of a quick and thorough investigation to protect the people that it is charged to protect.
If indeed Mexican tomatoes are responsible I think we need to re-examine our trade rules with that nation to make sure that what we import from there is in compliance with the same standards that manufacturers and commercial growers in this country are held to.
And while we're at it.....HEY CHINA! PAY ATTENTION! YOU'RE NEXT! So keep the lead out of the toys and dental porcelain and anything else you send over here.....Oh and keep the poisoned pet food over there as well.....Some of us like our dogs and cats.....
I don't want a Ford built in Mexico, I'll never be convinced it's as good as a Ford made here. I know that "Stanley" hammers made in Mexico aren't even in the same universe as a "Vaughn" hammer made right here at home.....and like many people who buy and use hand tools I'll spend the extra money on quality when I know I'll only need to buy it ONCE, instead of buying a cheap one and replacing it every couple of years.....
I'm all for free trade as long as it's a level playing field, but when price compromises safety and/or durability I draw the line.
I know that most consumers in the U.S. are price shoppers and consider too many of their purchases to be "disposable" instead of durable. That IS a problem, but when I go to Office Max and I can't find a hole punch NOT made in China regardless of price, something is wrong......Same thing when I go to the grocery store and need a kitchen gadget.....all made in China regardless of price.....It's truly sad.....
About the only thing that I saw at the grocers that was not made in China was a wok.....Which I found really funny in an ironic sort of way.....but perhaps they think that we just like hole punches, kitchen gadgets, and any number of other "disposable" things.....but not Asian food.....
Of all the things that the Chinese make for the consumer market in the U.S. one would think that the one item they could make flawlessly would be a wok.....I would think that they probably make a few of those each year for domestic sale in China......Wouldn't you?
Good day!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Economic Crisis in the United States.....It's time for something new.
I keep reading these stories of economic growth all over the industrial world. Yet we are stagnant at best, and continue to ship our national wealth abroad.....For petroleum products.....For cheap goods made overseas.......For foreign aid that is of no benefit to us either economically or politically, since many of the courtries receiving it hate us, will contiue to hate us, and have no interest in "not" hating us because we are a convenient target for all that is wrong with the world.
What do these growing economies have in common? A willingness to use their natural resources to generate wealth, and a willingness to produce goods that the rest of the world needs, and wants.
The biggest problems we have in this country are an industrial base incapable of thinking beyond the current fiscal quarter, a government with absolutely no spine to make decisions that would be beneficial to the "people" rather than the special interests, and a consumer base that won't pay a few more pennies for a better quality product made right here at home.
Russia is getting fat on revenue from Oil and Natural Gas. China is getting fat on making household goods that every one of us uses every day. The collected nations of the middle east are getting just plain obese on their natural resource revenues, as would be Nigeria and Venezuela if their respective governments weren't controlled by whack-a-doos.
No one will ever be able to convince me that we can't make a pizza cutter or a can opener better than the Chinese. No one can convince me that we can't make those products and be competitive in the market against the Chinese if we really wanted to. Yet why isn't it done? Because outsourcing the production looks better on the bottom line for the BIG investors. The bigger the profits the more attractive the Stock.
NAFTA encouraged outsourcing. Other "Free Trade" agreements encouraged the importation of cheap products, and more outsourcing. Government policy pandering to special interests handcuffs our few remaining sources of industry and resource acquisition. Even much of our mining is now done by companies outside of the United States. Canadian companies are mining our copper, silver, and gold for their benefit, not ours.
Yet we remain complacent even as our oil and gas prices skyrocket, our food prices are rising, and we become poorer as a nation.....
What can WE do?.....or more appropriately.....What we CAN do!
Lobby your congress-people to stop this current fiasco with ethanol for starters.....The technology hasn't changed in 100 years, and isn't ready. We need to EAT corn, not BURN it. Our government needs to suspend ethanol requirements immediately and indefinitely. Food crops should be just that......FOOD!
Drive less.....Easy to do.....but not convenient sometimes.....Stop at the store on the way home from work instead of making a special trip. Many of us live fairly close to a grocery store. If you need a bag of chips on saturday ride your bike, because you might need the exercise as much as you need the chips.
Be creative about your recreational use of fuel. Do you really need to tow the boat to the lake each time you want to use it? Is there a friend who lives on the lake who has a dock? Is there a boat dock that will allow you to tie up for a small fee? When you think about the gas you will save by "not" towing the thing the cost might be a wash.....
If your teenagers don't have their own cars.....hmmmm would it kill them to ride their bikes? It's bad enough they are spoiled with their own computers, cell phones, iPods etc. They should be EARNING the money to buy those luxuries.....If they do have their own cars.....Make them EARN the money for gas.....You won't have to pay a landscaping outfit if your kid mows the yard.....Hmmmm and you might just be doing something to discourage illegal immigration in the process.
Lobby your congress-persons to stop the global warming unilateralism talk.....Ultimately this will cripple whats left of our economy. Don't think for one hot second that China, India, and Russia have any intentions of slowing their economies because of the "threat" of global warming. The science just isn't there to support the theory that WE are causing most of it. I find it ironic that most of the statistics around global warming mention Carbon Dioxide as the chief culprit..... Carbon Dioxide is.......wait for it......think 5th grade earth science.....yep you guessed it! Carbon Dioxide is.....what plants breathe to create oxygen!......
Lobby your congress-persons to get serious about our oil and gas needs. Our first refinery in 30 years is being constructed in South Dakota......we only need about 10 more.....but! This refinery will be refining CANADIAN oil......Lobby your congress-persons to open the outer continental shelf and the arctic sea to production. In the Arctic sea.....If we don't produce it, the Russians will. This is a situation where you need to think in three dimensions.....Russia isn't some faraway land. It's just a short hop over the ice.....a few hours by plane. Ideally the postage stamp sized piece of ANWR would be nice too, but Nobody in our government has the balls to do what's right for the citizenry in that arena.....
The financial markets are weak, but they aren't going to get any stronger by using gimmickery to show profits. Banks need to stay in the BANKING business.....Mortgages shouldn't be traded like stocks. I'm not saying there should be more regulation. I'm saying that the executives of these financial institutions NEED to think more clearly for the long term growth in their businesses, rather than trying to find the next best way to make a quick buck.
Our Government needs to be more proactive in dong what is necessary to protect what's left of our economy, starting with making the hard choices about energy. In previous posts I've talked about energy independence.....Now for a few of the other hard choices.
The Fed needs to raise interest rates by a full 50 basis points on Monday. Yes in the short term that will cause some turmoil in the banking industry, but it will show we are serious in taking action to protect the value of the dollar. That in conjunction with some REAL leadership on the development of our natural resources would cut the price of oil by 20% or more in a week. We saw the price drop for $135 a barrel to $122 a barrel when we sent a weak signal that we "might" consider doing something about taking care of the potential inflationary cycle. When this proved to be false hope oil prices rocketed back up to another record.
Double the tax-credits for Solar research and development, and offer a 10 year tax exemption to the first company to develop and bring to market a solar panel that meets certain requirements in terms of energy creation.....Maybe 750 watts of usable electricity out of a panel the same size that produces 150 watts now.....and will be sold for about the same price.
Unilaterally declare a 100% tariff on Chinese goods imported to the United States until they untie the value of their currency (the Yuan) from ours. Chinese goods are cheap here in great part due to the fact that the Chinese artificially keep the value of their currency tied to ours. We are their largest trading partner, and it is to their benefit, not ours, that their currency be valued as a constant to ours so they can maintain their competitive advantage in our market.
Anyone care to explain to me how this helps keep manufacturing here at home?
These are just a few of the many options we have to stabilize our economy. It's time that we remember that we are a NATION of people with common interests and not just a loose collection of people with the freedom to do whatever we wish. Living in a Constitutional Republic provides us with freedoms not enjoyed in many other places in the world, but we need to be mindful that keeping those freedoms requires that WE, as citizens have a level of responsibilty to PROTECT our ability to have those FREEDOMS that is unequaled by the responsibilities of the citizenry of any other nation.
Good day!
What do these growing economies have in common? A willingness to use their natural resources to generate wealth, and a willingness to produce goods that the rest of the world needs, and wants.
The biggest problems we have in this country are an industrial base incapable of thinking beyond the current fiscal quarter, a government with absolutely no spine to make decisions that would be beneficial to the "people" rather than the special interests, and a consumer base that won't pay a few more pennies for a better quality product made right here at home.
Russia is getting fat on revenue from Oil and Natural Gas. China is getting fat on making household goods that every one of us uses every day. The collected nations of the middle east are getting just plain obese on their natural resource revenues, as would be Nigeria and Venezuela if their respective governments weren't controlled by whack-a-doos.
No one will ever be able to convince me that we can't make a pizza cutter or a can opener better than the Chinese. No one can convince me that we can't make those products and be competitive in the market against the Chinese if we really wanted to. Yet why isn't it done? Because outsourcing the production looks better on the bottom line for the BIG investors. The bigger the profits the more attractive the Stock.
NAFTA encouraged outsourcing. Other "Free Trade" agreements encouraged the importation of cheap products, and more outsourcing. Government policy pandering to special interests handcuffs our few remaining sources of industry and resource acquisition. Even much of our mining is now done by companies outside of the United States. Canadian companies are mining our copper, silver, and gold for their benefit, not ours.
Yet we remain complacent even as our oil and gas prices skyrocket, our food prices are rising, and we become poorer as a nation.....
What can WE do?.....or more appropriately.....What we CAN do!
Lobby your congress-people to stop this current fiasco with ethanol for starters.....The technology hasn't changed in 100 years, and isn't ready. We need to EAT corn, not BURN it. Our government needs to suspend ethanol requirements immediately and indefinitely. Food crops should be just that......FOOD!
Drive less.....Easy to do.....but not convenient sometimes.....Stop at the store on the way home from work instead of making a special trip. Many of us live fairly close to a grocery store. If you need a bag of chips on saturday ride your bike, because you might need the exercise as much as you need the chips.
Be creative about your recreational use of fuel. Do you really need to tow the boat to the lake each time you want to use it? Is there a friend who lives on the lake who has a dock? Is there a boat dock that will allow you to tie up for a small fee? When you think about the gas you will save by "not" towing the thing the cost might be a wash.....
If your teenagers don't have their own cars.....hmmmm would it kill them to ride their bikes? It's bad enough they are spoiled with their own computers, cell phones, iPods etc. They should be EARNING the money to buy those luxuries.....If they do have their own cars.....Make them EARN the money for gas.....You won't have to pay a landscaping outfit if your kid mows the yard.....Hmmmm and you might just be doing something to discourage illegal immigration in the process.
Lobby your congress-persons to stop the global warming unilateralism talk.....Ultimately this will cripple whats left of our economy. Don't think for one hot second that China, India, and Russia have any intentions of slowing their economies because of the "threat" of global warming. The science just isn't there to support the theory that WE are causing most of it. I find it ironic that most of the statistics around global warming mention Carbon Dioxide as the chief culprit..... Carbon Dioxide is.......wait for it......think 5th grade earth science.....yep you guessed it! Carbon Dioxide is.....what plants breathe to create oxygen!......
Lobby your congress-persons to get serious about our oil and gas needs. Our first refinery in 30 years is being constructed in South Dakota......we only need about 10 more.....but! This refinery will be refining CANADIAN oil......Lobby your congress-persons to open the outer continental shelf and the arctic sea to production. In the Arctic sea.....If we don't produce it, the Russians will. This is a situation where you need to think in three dimensions.....Russia isn't some faraway land. It's just a short hop over the ice.....a few hours by plane. Ideally the postage stamp sized piece of ANWR would be nice too, but Nobody in our government has the balls to do what's right for the citizenry in that arena.....
The financial markets are weak, but they aren't going to get any stronger by using gimmickery to show profits. Banks need to stay in the BANKING business.....Mortgages shouldn't be traded like stocks. I'm not saying there should be more regulation. I'm saying that the executives of these financial institutions NEED to think more clearly for the long term growth in their businesses, rather than trying to find the next best way to make a quick buck.
Our Government needs to be more proactive in dong what is necessary to protect what's left of our economy, starting with making the hard choices about energy. In previous posts I've talked about energy independence.....Now for a few of the other hard choices.
The Fed needs to raise interest rates by a full 50 basis points on Monday. Yes in the short term that will cause some turmoil in the banking industry, but it will show we are serious in taking action to protect the value of the dollar. That in conjunction with some REAL leadership on the development of our natural resources would cut the price of oil by 20% or more in a week. We saw the price drop for $135 a barrel to $122 a barrel when we sent a weak signal that we "might" consider doing something about taking care of the potential inflationary cycle. When this proved to be false hope oil prices rocketed back up to another record.
Double the tax-credits for Solar research and development, and offer a 10 year tax exemption to the first company to develop and bring to market a solar panel that meets certain requirements in terms of energy creation.....Maybe 750 watts of usable electricity out of a panel the same size that produces 150 watts now.....and will be sold for about the same price.
Unilaterally declare a 100% tariff on Chinese goods imported to the United States until they untie the value of their currency (the Yuan) from ours. Chinese goods are cheap here in great part due to the fact that the Chinese artificially keep the value of their currency tied to ours. We are their largest trading partner, and it is to their benefit, not ours, that their currency be valued as a constant to ours so they can maintain their competitive advantage in our market.
Anyone care to explain to me how this helps keep manufacturing here at home?
These are just a few of the many options we have to stabilize our economy. It's time that we remember that we are a NATION of people with common interests and not just a loose collection of people with the freedom to do whatever we wish. Living in a Constitutional Republic provides us with freedoms not enjoyed in many other places in the world, but we need to be mindful that keeping those freedoms requires that WE, as citizens have a level of responsibilty to PROTECT our ability to have those FREEDOMS that is unequaled by the responsibilities of the citizenry of any other nation.
Good day!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Does anyone else find it a little.....
.....disturbing that the Democrats are manipulating the outcome of their primaries to get the result the party insiders want?
Does anyone else find it a little disturbing that party insiders can decide who the nominee is regardless of how the public votes?
To me this is VERY disturbing.....in moves us a little farther down the path to socialism and the division between the "Party" (i.e. the Government) and the proletariat.....(the rest of us).....
I'm also quite concerned about the direction of our court system.....
Last time I checked the Judicial branch of our government served to uphold the law, not write new law from the bench......
.......and according to the founding fathers wasn't the Judicial Branch SUPPOSED to be completely non-partisan?
.....well that sure went down the toilet.....
Times are a-changing folks.....We need to wake up!
Does anyone else find it a little disturbing that party insiders can decide who the nominee is regardless of how the public votes?
To me this is VERY disturbing.....in moves us a little farther down the path to socialism and the division between the "Party" (i.e. the Government) and the proletariat.....(the rest of us).....
I'm also quite concerned about the direction of our court system.....
Last time I checked the Judicial branch of our government served to uphold the law, not write new law from the bench......
.......and according to the founding fathers wasn't the Judicial Branch SUPPOSED to be completely non-partisan?
.....well that sure went down the toilet.....
Times are a-changing folks.....We need to wake up!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
So what is the REAL Agenda of the Left Wing Environmentalists?
I'm more inclined to believe with each passing day that it's going back to hunting and gathering and living in mud huts.....
I was reading a little earlier that South Korea has 9 new Nuclear power plants either under construction or in the planning process which will supply 55% of that country's electricity needs when they come all come online by 2030. These are in addition to the 20 or so plants that are already in operation.
Clean power with no green house gas emissions to speak of.....yet.....we can't build those here because of the environmentalists......
The Three Gorges Hydro project in China is capable of supplying 3% of China's total electricity needs based on latest estimates, down from an original estimate of 10% due to China's huge growth in manufacturing for the global marketplace. Still 3% for a country of well over a BILLION people from just ONE Hydro project is amazing.....
Here the environmentalists sue to stop any new Hydro projects, and want existing dams removed.....for fish migration.....
We have the largest coal reserves of any nation on Earth and the technology to produce clean burning 2nd generation coal fired plants.....
You guessed it.....can't build those either.....
We are all feeling the pinch at the pump, and the liberals would have you blame the oil companies for the high prices.....yet we have approximately 115 BILLION barrels of proven oil reserves (when you include the outer continental shelf and the gulf of Alaska) and over 240 TRILLION Cubic feet of natural gas reserves.....
85% of which are off limits because of legislation sponsored by or lobbied for by the environmental movement.....
We haven't built a new petroleum refinery in the U.S. in 30 years.....The environmentalists fight against them every time they are proposed.....
On average we consume 21,000,000 barrels of oil per DAY in this country. The equivalent of 882 MLLION gallons of gasoline. Over the course of a fiscal quarter that is about 80.5 BILLION Gallons of fuel.....do you see where I'm going yet????
Okay.....stay with me here.....Let's assume for a moment that Exxon Mobil was the sole provider in the United States. I know this isn't the case, but since they show the largest profits in terms of pure dollars and in Gross Profit percentage it SHOULD really drive home my point about these "so-called" windfall profits. In the first quarter Exxon Mobil profits were about $11 Billion. Sounds like alot of money until you do the math......It works out to a WHOPPING 13.66 CENTS per gallon.....or.....a mere 3% of the pump price.....
Much of which they reinvest into exploration and production, and much of which is distributed to your 401K in the form of increased stock value and dividends.....Don't forget that 100 Million people in this country own stock in one form or another, and most mutual funds have at least some of their money invested in the energy sector.
I will freely admit that our country is the largest consumer of energy on the planet, but we didn't get to be where we are in terms of comfort and standard of living by a willingness to compromise our economic viability.
This is precisely what the Environmental movement is about.....Though they will never admit it. Much of the money behind these organizations is NOT from the U.S. and much of what is, is supplied by people with alternate agendas.....These folks have far more money than they could ever spend so if you and I take an economic hit they don't much care.
What's unfortunate is that there are many idealistic young people who get caught up in this. Kids who really don't understand that they are just pawns in a much larger chess game. We have far too many politicians who talk a good game, but let's see who is paying THEIR bills when they are out of office.....That taxpayer funded pension is just pocket change for many of them.
If we are to continue to enjoy the standard of living to which we have become accustomed we need to open our eyes to the realities of the global energy situation and do our best you use the resources that are available to us. Oil, natural gas, coal, hydro, geothermal, nuclear, wind, solar, tidal.....They all have a place at the table, and as the renewables become more efficient we can phase out fossil fuel usage.....
What we cannot do under ANY circumstances is compromise our economy in a rush to embrace the currently inefficient alternatives to Fossil fuels. If we do then it is our own fault if we end up watching our nation be set back 100 years while expanding economies like China and India laugh at our foolishness.....
You will note that I did not mention Ethanol at all.....Personally I believe that using the breadbasket of our nation and our REAL source of security....(FOOD) to produce an alternative to gasoline is hopelessly short-sighted and pathetically naive.
And for those of you who think this is a "new" technology.....Ethanol has been around for 100 years.....and it's no more efficient now than it was then. That's why we EAT corn.....Because that is the most efficient use of a FOOD product.....
Below is a link to a government website on U.S. and Global Oil usage.....it's a good reference guide to what is really going on with supply and demand for oil world wide.....
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quickoil.html
Good day!
I was reading a little earlier that South Korea has 9 new Nuclear power plants either under construction or in the planning process which will supply 55% of that country's electricity needs when they come all come online by 2030. These are in addition to the 20 or so plants that are already in operation.
Clean power with no green house gas emissions to speak of.....yet.....we can't build those here because of the environmentalists......
The Three Gorges Hydro project in China is capable of supplying 3% of China's total electricity needs based on latest estimates, down from an original estimate of 10% due to China's huge growth in manufacturing for the global marketplace. Still 3% for a country of well over a BILLION people from just ONE Hydro project is amazing.....
Here the environmentalists sue to stop any new Hydro projects, and want existing dams removed.....for fish migration.....
We have the largest coal reserves of any nation on Earth and the technology to produce clean burning 2nd generation coal fired plants.....
You guessed it.....can't build those either.....
We are all feeling the pinch at the pump, and the liberals would have you blame the oil companies for the high prices.....yet we have approximately 115 BILLION barrels of proven oil reserves (when you include the outer continental shelf and the gulf of Alaska) and over 240 TRILLION Cubic feet of natural gas reserves.....
85% of which are off limits because of legislation sponsored by or lobbied for by the environmental movement.....
We haven't built a new petroleum refinery in the U.S. in 30 years.....The environmentalists fight against them every time they are proposed.....
On average we consume 21,000,000 barrels of oil per DAY in this country. The equivalent of 882 MLLION gallons of gasoline. Over the course of a fiscal quarter that is about 80.5 BILLION Gallons of fuel.....do you see where I'm going yet????
Okay.....stay with me here.....Let's assume for a moment that Exxon Mobil was the sole provider in the United States. I know this isn't the case, but since they show the largest profits in terms of pure dollars and in Gross Profit percentage it SHOULD really drive home my point about these "so-called" windfall profits. In the first quarter Exxon Mobil profits were about $11 Billion. Sounds like alot of money until you do the math......It works out to a WHOPPING 13.66 CENTS per gallon.....or.....a mere 3% of the pump price.....
Much of which they reinvest into exploration and production, and much of which is distributed to your 401K in the form of increased stock value and dividends.....Don't forget that 100 Million people in this country own stock in one form or another, and most mutual funds have at least some of their money invested in the energy sector.
I will freely admit that our country is the largest consumer of energy on the planet, but we didn't get to be where we are in terms of comfort and standard of living by a willingness to compromise our economic viability.
This is precisely what the Environmental movement is about.....Though they will never admit it. Much of the money behind these organizations is NOT from the U.S. and much of what is, is supplied by people with alternate agendas.....These folks have far more money than they could ever spend so if you and I take an economic hit they don't much care.
What's unfortunate is that there are many idealistic young people who get caught up in this. Kids who really don't understand that they are just pawns in a much larger chess game. We have far too many politicians who talk a good game, but let's see who is paying THEIR bills when they are out of office.....That taxpayer funded pension is just pocket change for many of them.
If we are to continue to enjoy the standard of living to which we have become accustomed we need to open our eyes to the realities of the global energy situation and do our best you use the resources that are available to us. Oil, natural gas, coal, hydro, geothermal, nuclear, wind, solar, tidal.....They all have a place at the table, and as the renewables become more efficient we can phase out fossil fuel usage.....
What we cannot do under ANY circumstances is compromise our economy in a rush to embrace the currently inefficient alternatives to Fossil fuels. If we do then it is our own fault if we end up watching our nation be set back 100 years while expanding economies like China and India laugh at our foolishness.....
You will note that I did not mention Ethanol at all.....Personally I believe that using the breadbasket of our nation and our REAL source of security....(FOOD) to produce an alternative to gasoline is hopelessly short-sighted and pathetically naive.
And for those of you who think this is a "new" technology.....Ethanol has been around for 100 years.....and it's no more efficient now than it was then. That's why we EAT corn.....Because that is the most efficient use of a FOOD product.....
Below is a link to a government website on U.S. and Global Oil usage.....it's a good reference guide to what is really going on with supply and demand for oil world wide.....
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quickoil.html
Good day!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Obama......A patriot? Not likely......
Courtesy of Reuters.....
"Democrat Barack Obama admitted on Tuesday he was wrong to say his uncle helped liberate the Nazis' Auschwitz concentration camp after Republicans said Soviet troops freed the camp.
Obama's campaign said the candidate meant to say that his great-uncle, Charlie Payne, had helped liberate a part of the Buchenwald camp, not Auschwitz. "Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
Burton said in the statement that Obama's great uncle served in the 89th Infantry Division that entered Germany in 1945 and on April 4 overran Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp."
I'm assuming this was his "typical White Woman" grandmother's brother......Which I guess probably makes him a "Typical White Man"......except when it's politically convenient to have ties to someone who served in the military during World War II, however remote those ties may be.....I find it more than a little disturbing that Obama embraces his African American ancestry and denigrates his caucasian ancestry when he approaches African American voters, yet flips completely the other direction to embrace the white side of his family when he can find something appealing to use as a talking point.
Regardless of who Charlie Payne was.....A private, a captain, a colonel.....it simply has NO bearing on whether Obama is fit to be the President of our country. My great-great-great uncle was Grover Cleveland. Does that somehow make me any more fit to be our President than other people who have those aspirations? Of course not......This media "love fest" with Obama completely escapes me. The Democrat "love fest" with Obama is equally as puzzling. I have yet to hear him say one single thing that I find remotely praise worthy.
I do however find many of the things he has said or done a little frightening for someone who would lead our country.....No lapel pin......The Dem's say "not a big deal".....My response.....Then why not wear it? If wearing the lapel pin is a minor detail to them then it wouldn't hurt the guy to take 10 seconds out of his day to put the damn thing on.....Oh, but there is something a little telling in that.....especially when you have his wife saying "this is the first time I've been proud of my country" when hubby Barack is making some political headway. Even if he's not wearing it because he doesn't like where our country is now one would think that he would wear it to show that he at least believes in the vision of our founding fathers, and believes in his own vision for our nation.
No hand over the heart during the National Anthem.....A simple gesture of allegiance to the "idea" of the United States and to the Constitution.....Is somehow beneath his dignity. I think his Uncle Charlie would be appalled at this if he is still living, having served and fought for that flag that Obama refuses to wear, embrace or salute.....
The lack of knowedge on simple U.S. Geography.....A question that would have ended his stay on "are you smarter than a 5th grader".....not realizing that Kentucky BORDERS Illinois after getting his ass handed to him in the Kentucky primary......
The "bitter clingers" debacle.....bashing white middle class Americans.....Basically saying that having religious faith is akin to having a disease, and owning a firearm makes a person somehow less intelligent, less able to understand the situation in our country, and less adept at making good decisions.....
On this he has no room to cast aspersions......This is a man that "clings" to ANYTHING that he thinks will make him more electible.....His blackness......his whiteness......he's everyman.....he's elite.....he's against the Iraq war.....he's for a strong military.....he says we can "ALL" afford to pay a little more.....but wants to keep the tax cuts.....He's against global warming, but he wants manufacturing to come home......
The only thing consistent about the man is his inconsistency.....and THAT, to me, makes him weak, unqualified, and far too malleable to EVER be considered for this job that he seeks.
Some quotes to think about......
"I regret that I have but one life to give for my country" Nathan Hale
"Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." Adlai Stevenson
" that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of Liberty." John F. Kennedy Innaugural Address 1961
"...That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863
"In a chariot of light from the region of the day,The Goddess of Liberty came. She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, the plant she named Liberty Tree." Thomas Paine July, 1775
"A great man, tender of heart, strong of nerve, boundless patience and broadest sympathy, with no motive apart from his country." Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln
"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it."
John F. Kennedy
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
Strong words from all......
.....and Obama gives us gems like......
"I've been in about 57 states so far...." Barack Obama
"We stand here to honor our unbroken line of fallen heroes.....many of whom I see in the audience today" Barack Obama
"I see dead people" Haley Joel Osmett.....in "The Sixth Sense"
Thrown in for comparison......
For the sake of our Nation please have some common sense.....do not vote to put this neophyte in the White House. We cannot, as a nation, afford to make that blunder.....
"Democrat Barack Obama admitted on Tuesday he was wrong to say his uncle helped liberate the Nazis' Auschwitz concentration camp after Republicans said Soviet troops freed the camp.
Obama's campaign said the candidate meant to say that his great-uncle, Charlie Payne, had helped liberate a part of the Buchenwald camp, not Auschwitz. "Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
Burton said in the statement that Obama's great uncle served in the 89th Infantry Division that entered Germany in 1945 and on April 4 overran Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp."
I'm assuming this was his "typical White Woman" grandmother's brother......Which I guess probably makes him a "Typical White Man"......except when it's politically convenient to have ties to someone who served in the military during World War II, however remote those ties may be.....I find it more than a little disturbing that Obama embraces his African American ancestry and denigrates his caucasian ancestry when he approaches African American voters, yet flips completely the other direction to embrace the white side of his family when he can find something appealing to use as a talking point.
Regardless of who Charlie Payne was.....A private, a captain, a colonel.....it simply has NO bearing on whether Obama is fit to be the President of our country. My great-great-great uncle was Grover Cleveland. Does that somehow make me any more fit to be our President than other people who have those aspirations? Of course not......This media "love fest" with Obama completely escapes me. The Democrat "love fest" with Obama is equally as puzzling. I have yet to hear him say one single thing that I find remotely praise worthy.
I do however find many of the things he has said or done a little frightening for someone who would lead our country.....No lapel pin......The Dem's say "not a big deal".....My response.....Then why not wear it? If wearing the lapel pin is a minor detail to them then it wouldn't hurt the guy to take 10 seconds out of his day to put the damn thing on.....Oh, but there is something a little telling in that.....especially when you have his wife saying "this is the first time I've been proud of my country" when hubby Barack is making some political headway. Even if he's not wearing it because he doesn't like where our country is now one would think that he would wear it to show that he at least believes in the vision of our founding fathers, and believes in his own vision for our nation.
No hand over the heart during the National Anthem.....A simple gesture of allegiance to the "idea" of the United States and to the Constitution.....Is somehow beneath his dignity. I think his Uncle Charlie would be appalled at this if he is still living, having served and fought for that flag that Obama refuses to wear, embrace or salute.....
The lack of knowedge on simple U.S. Geography.....A question that would have ended his stay on "are you smarter than a 5th grader".....not realizing that Kentucky BORDERS Illinois after getting his ass handed to him in the Kentucky primary......
The "bitter clingers" debacle.....bashing white middle class Americans.....Basically saying that having religious faith is akin to having a disease, and owning a firearm makes a person somehow less intelligent, less able to understand the situation in our country, and less adept at making good decisions.....
On this he has no room to cast aspersions......This is a man that "clings" to ANYTHING that he thinks will make him more electible.....His blackness......his whiteness......he's everyman.....he's elite.....he's against the Iraq war.....he's for a strong military.....he says we can "ALL" afford to pay a little more.....but wants to keep the tax cuts.....He's against global warming, but he wants manufacturing to come home......
The only thing consistent about the man is his inconsistency.....and THAT, to me, makes him weak, unqualified, and far too malleable to EVER be considered for this job that he seeks.
Some quotes to think about......
"I regret that I have but one life to give for my country" Nathan Hale
"Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." Adlai Stevenson
" that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of Liberty." John F. Kennedy Innaugural Address 1961
"...That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863
"In a chariot of light from the region of the day,The Goddess of Liberty came. She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, the plant she named Liberty Tree." Thomas Paine July, 1775
"A great man, tender of heart, strong of nerve, boundless patience and broadest sympathy, with no motive apart from his country." Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln
"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it."
John F. Kennedy
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
Strong words from all......
.....and Obama gives us gems like......
"I've been in about 57 states so far...." Barack Obama
"We stand here to honor our unbroken line of fallen heroes.....many of whom I see in the audience today" Barack Obama
"I see dead people" Haley Joel Osmett.....in "The Sixth Sense"
Thrown in for comparison......
For the sake of our Nation please have some common sense.....do not vote to put this neophyte in the White House. We cannot, as a nation, afford to make that blunder.....
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Congress should be ashamed of itself.....
IDIOTS!!!!!!
Every single one of them.....IDIOTS!!!!!
Study simple economics for a minute and stop feeding your egos with a bunch of CO2 emitting speeches.....I AM SICK TO DEATH OF ALL THE TALKING THAT GOES ON IN WASHINGTON WITH NOTHING PRODUCTIVE EVER GETTING DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PATRICK LEAHY, NANCY PELOSI, BARBARA BOXER et al.......SHUT THE HELL UP AND THINK! Even if it's for the first time in your lives.....When the hell are you going to wise up?
SUE OPEC?????????? What's that going to accomplish except to piss them off so they won't sell us ANY oil. Allow the development of some resources at home. I drive a 21 year-old Mustang that gets 35 MPG and passes emissions testing every year and I still hate $4.00 a gallon gas.
You WILL NOT SEE a break in the speculative price spiral upwards until there is a reason for that break to happen. PANDERING TO EVERY LOONY ENVIRONMENTALIST WHACK-JOB ISN'T GOING TO GIVE THE SPECULATORS ANY REASON TO THINK THERE WILL BE MORE PRODUCTION WHICH WOULD LOWER PRICES......
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HOW STOPPING THE FILLING OF THE PETROLEUM RESERVE WORKED OUT.....OIL IS UP $7.00 A BARREL SINCE THAT LITTLE MARVY. AND GAS PRICES JUMPED ANOTHER 15 CENTS. THANKS NANCY, BARBARA AND PATRICK..... THAT WAS A TRUE LEADERSHIP STATEMENT!!!!! (BUT ONLY OF GIMMICKS, GRANDSTANDING, AND EGO FEEDING.....THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO PRACTICAL VALUE)
BITCHING AT OIL COMPANY EXECUTIVES IS POINTLESS. THEY DIDN'T CREATE THE PROBLEM!!!! BAD GOVERNMENT POLICY CAUSED THE PROBLEM!!!! ARE YOU SO NAIVE AS TO THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE THE BIG BAD UNITED STATES of AMERICA WANTS SAUDI ARABIA TO PUMP MORE OIL THEY WILL ROLL OVER AND SAY "YES MASSA' WE GET'S TO PUMPIN' RIGHT AWAY"? THAT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.
If you want to HAVE A DECENT AMERICA FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GRAND CHILDREN YOU NEED TO SPEAK UP TO YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AND STOP THIS MADNESS.....WE NEED TO PROTECT WHAT ECONOMY WE HAVE LEFT AND STOP SHIPPING OUR NATIONAL WEALTH OVER SEAS.....
THE DOLLAR IS WEAK BECAUSE OUR LEADERSHIP IS RUDDERLESS FROM THE TOP DOWN. OTHER WORLD GOVERNMENTS NO LONGER HAVE FAITH IN OUR ECONOMY. THEY UNDERSTAND THAT TO HAVE A VIABLE, DYNAMIC, GROWING ECONOMY IT CANNOT BE SADDLED WITH DEBT, AND IT CANNOT BE RUN BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO CONCEPT OF LIVING WITHIN A BUDGET (PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS)
WE ABSOLUTELY MUST RETURN TO FISCAL SANITY.....LEAN AND MEAN.....I would hope also that every day "Joe Sixpack" like me would understand that you can improve your standard of living by eliminating debt.....It's the credit card payments that are killing you.....Pay them off and cut them up.....and most of all......If you can't afford to pay cash.....you probably don't need it.
If every credit card in this country was cut up tomorrow there would be a short term hitch in the retail sector......but ultimately (AND THE BANKS DON'T WANT YOU TO FIGURE THIS OUT BECAUSE THEY LOVE THOSE INTEREST PAYMENTS) you would have far MORE DISPOSABLE INCOME OVER THE LONG TERM IF YOU PAY CASH!!!!.....Which Ultimately means you could have a better quality of life.....
The best thing that could happen would be for consumers to rediscover the joy of delayed gratification. You appreciate those big purchases alot more when you have to save money to buy them......
HMMMMMM.......and it's high time the POLITICIANS figure that out too.....you can do more with less......Balance the budget, pay down the national debt.....Reduce taxes to stimulate the economy and guess what? TAX REVENUES GO UP!!!! Imagine that.....and without all that pesky interest on the national debt maybe we could pay for some new roads or water infrastructure.....AND INVEST in some of those alternative energy technologies to make them viable, REALISTIC alternatives.....Not just gimmicks to satisfy the loony left.
Every single one of them.....IDIOTS!!!!!
Study simple economics for a minute and stop feeding your egos with a bunch of CO2 emitting speeches.....I AM SICK TO DEATH OF ALL THE TALKING THAT GOES ON IN WASHINGTON WITH NOTHING PRODUCTIVE EVER GETTING DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PATRICK LEAHY, NANCY PELOSI, BARBARA BOXER et al.......SHUT THE HELL UP AND THINK! Even if it's for the first time in your lives.....When the hell are you going to wise up?
SUE OPEC?????????? What's that going to accomplish except to piss them off so they won't sell us ANY oil. Allow the development of some resources at home. I drive a 21 year-old Mustang that gets 35 MPG and passes emissions testing every year and I still hate $4.00 a gallon gas.
You WILL NOT SEE a break in the speculative price spiral upwards until there is a reason for that break to happen. PANDERING TO EVERY LOONY ENVIRONMENTALIST WHACK-JOB ISN'T GOING TO GIVE THE SPECULATORS ANY REASON TO THINK THERE WILL BE MORE PRODUCTION WHICH WOULD LOWER PRICES......
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HOW STOPPING THE FILLING OF THE PETROLEUM RESERVE WORKED OUT.....OIL IS UP $7.00 A BARREL SINCE THAT LITTLE MARVY. AND GAS PRICES JUMPED ANOTHER 15 CENTS. THANKS NANCY, BARBARA AND PATRICK..... THAT WAS A TRUE LEADERSHIP STATEMENT!!!!! (BUT ONLY OF GIMMICKS, GRANDSTANDING, AND EGO FEEDING.....THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO PRACTICAL VALUE)
BITCHING AT OIL COMPANY EXECUTIVES IS POINTLESS. THEY DIDN'T CREATE THE PROBLEM!!!! BAD GOVERNMENT POLICY CAUSED THE PROBLEM!!!! ARE YOU SO NAIVE AS TO THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE THE BIG BAD UNITED STATES of AMERICA WANTS SAUDI ARABIA TO PUMP MORE OIL THEY WILL ROLL OVER AND SAY "YES MASSA' WE GET'S TO PUMPIN' RIGHT AWAY"? THAT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN.
If you want to HAVE A DECENT AMERICA FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GRAND CHILDREN YOU NEED TO SPEAK UP TO YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AND STOP THIS MADNESS.....WE NEED TO PROTECT WHAT ECONOMY WE HAVE LEFT AND STOP SHIPPING OUR NATIONAL WEALTH OVER SEAS.....
THE DOLLAR IS WEAK BECAUSE OUR LEADERSHIP IS RUDDERLESS FROM THE TOP DOWN. OTHER WORLD GOVERNMENTS NO LONGER HAVE FAITH IN OUR ECONOMY. THEY UNDERSTAND THAT TO HAVE A VIABLE, DYNAMIC, GROWING ECONOMY IT CANNOT BE SADDLED WITH DEBT, AND IT CANNOT BE RUN BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO CONCEPT OF LIVING WITHIN A BUDGET (PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS)
WE ABSOLUTELY MUST RETURN TO FISCAL SANITY.....LEAN AND MEAN.....I would hope also that every day "Joe Sixpack" like me would understand that you can improve your standard of living by eliminating debt.....It's the credit card payments that are killing you.....Pay them off and cut them up.....and most of all......If you can't afford to pay cash.....you probably don't need it.
If every credit card in this country was cut up tomorrow there would be a short term hitch in the retail sector......but ultimately (AND THE BANKS DON'T WANT YOU TO FIGURE THIS OUT BECAUSE THEY LOVE THOSE INTEREST PAYMENTS) you would have far MORE DISPOSABLE INCOME OVER THE LONG TERM IF YOU PAY CASH!!!!.....Which Ultimately means you could have a better quality of life.....
The best thing that could happen would be for consumers to rediscover the joy of delayed gratification. You appreciate those big purchases alot more when you have to save money to buy them......
HMMMMMM.......and it's high time the POLITICIANS figure that out too.....you can do more with less......Balance the budget, pay down the national debt.....Reduce taxes to stimulate the economy and guess what? TAX REVENUES GO UP!!!! Imagine that.....and without all that pesky interest on the national debt maybe we could pay for some new roads or water infrastructure.....AND INVEST in some of those alternative energy technologies to make them viable, REALISTIC alternatives.....Not just gimmicks to satisfy the loony left.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
This month's "Big Cup of Dumbass" award.....
And the winner is......The un-named U.S. soldier serving in Iraq who thought it would be a good idea to shoot up a copy of the Koran during target practice.....Come on boys and girls, you're in a part of the world that has been inherently violent for over 6,000 years.....The vast majority of their laws are tied directly to their religion, and they are still fighting "The Crusades" 800 years after the original events. USE SOME COMMON SENSE!!!!!
and while I'm at it.....HEY OBAMA, grow some thicker skin.....not everything is about you. While Bush's comments about "appeasement" were far more likely being directed at Jimmy Carter, it wouldn't hurt you to remember (or study) some history. Probably the best (and one of the more recent) example of the failure in negotiating with single minded whack-jobs is Neville Chamberlain negotiating with Hitler.....We all know how that turned out.....Ask the Russians how thrilled they were to have 40,000,000 people die during WWII.....Or ask the next Jewish person you run into. And don't EVER give me that "hindsight is 20/20" crap.....If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.....it ain't no damn horse.
What I can't understand with Liberals in general is how on God's Green Earth they can think that if we are all warm and fuzzy with people that hate us everything will be okay.....Their tunnel-visioned, high-minded view of the world is stunning to me in it's naivete'. Good, bad, or indifferent most other cultures do NOT share our world view and to think that they would or should is hopelessly arrogant. In our own country there are many issues that divide us so deeply that the chasm cannot not be breached. The problem with many who hold a liberal philosphy is that they are so convinced of their own superiority they are blind to other points of view, and to disagree with them is to be looked down upon as somehow inferior, not as intellectual, and in many cases less than a person.
I was appalled by Obama's "Guns and Religion" comments. I don't own any firearms, and I do not attend church, but I am very conservative when it comes to fiscal issues, and I understand (which he seems not to) that if we do not limit the role of government then the tax burden will be borne by the very people he claims to want to help.....This blindness leads us further down the path towards Socialism and the further separation of classes.....
All of these people in politics need to re-read Orwell's "1984".....And make sure they understand what they are doing to our nation, because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that we are moving towards a nation not so different from Oceania in "1984", or Soviet Russia in our real world where you had "the elite class" of party members, and the rest of us.....the proletariat.....
I don't believe that most liberals care since they seem convinced that their intellectual superiority will guarantee party membership, but most guys like me just want to work for a living to try to provide a good life for their families and have the government hold to the promises of the Constitution.....
It's easy to be Liberal if you are rich.....or young with few expenses and an ideology that out-weighs your common sense. Try being working middle class for awhile and see if that changes how you look at things.....I know for alot of people it does, we just never get any press coverage because we are too busy working to pay the taxes that run the country.....and.....there's not enough blood or glamour in that to make good copy.
Good day!
and while I'm at it.....HEY OBAMA, grow some thicker skin.....not everything is about you. While Bush's comments about "appeasement" were far more likely being directed at Jimmy Carter, it wouldn't hurt you to remember (or study) some history. Probably the best (and one of the more recent) example of the failure in negotiating with single minded whack-jobs is Neville Chamberlain negotiating with Hitler.....We all know how that turned out.....Ask the Russians how thrilled they were to have 40,000,000 people die during WWII.....Or ask the next Jewish person you run into. And don't EVER give me that "hindsight is 20/20" crap.....If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.....it ain't no damn horse.
What I can't understand with Liberals in general is how on God's Green Earth they can think that if we are all warm and fuzzy with people that hate us everything will be okay.....Their tunnel-visioned, high-minded view of the world is stunning to me in it's naivete'. Good, bad, or indifferent most other cultures do NOT share our world view and to think that they would or should is hopelessly arrogant. In our own country there are many issues that divide us so deeply that the chasm cannot not be breached. The problem with many who hold a liberal philosphy is that they are so convinced of their own superiority they are blind to other points of view, and to disagree with them is to be looked down upon as somehow inferior, not as intellectual, and in many cases less than a person.
I was appalled by Obama's "Guns and Religion" comments. I don't own any firearms, and I do not attend church, but I am very conservative when it comes to fiscal issues, and I understand (which he seems not to) that if we do not limit the role of government then the tax burden will be borne by the very people he claims to want to help.....This blindness leads us further down the path towards Socialism and the further separation of classes.....
All of these people in politics need to re-read Orwell's "1984".....And make sure they understand what they are doing to our nation, because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that we are moving towards a nation not so different from Oceania in "1984", or Soviet Russia in our real world where you had "the elite class" of party members, and the rest of us.....the proletariat.....
I don't believe that most liberals care since they seem convinced that their intellectual superiority will guarantee party membership, but most guys like me just want to work for a living to try to provide a good life for their families and have the government hold to the promises of the Constitution.....
It's easy to be Liberal if you are rich.....or young with few expenses and an ideology that out-weighs your common sense. Try being working middle class for awhile and see if that changes how you look at things.....I know for alot of people it does, we just never get any press coverage because we are too busy working to pay the taxes that run the country.....and.....there's not enough blood or glamour in that to make good copy.
Good day!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
A little common sense would be nice.....
HELLO WASHINGTON D.C.!!!!
Is anyone working there that has a brain functioning above the level of Broccoli???? Just checking because I'm becoming more and more convinced every day that there isn't.
Fuel....Gasoline.....Diesel.....Natural Gas.....Heating Oil.....All of us are acutely aware of how expensive these basic necessities are becoming. What I can't understand is "WHY" the wackadoos in D.C. simply cannot acknowledge that we need to be more proactive in finding a solution.....
Oh wait.....Yes I do understand, we'll call it the "Gore Syndrome". Even most mainstream scientists are now forced to admit that their climate models are flawed as they relate to global warming theory since there isn't a sufficiently large enough data set to truly validate the concept. This "winter from hell" that we are just coming out of should be enough for most of us to understand that.....
So what we have are Gore's disciples still telling us that the sky is falling and we need to unilaterally do something about it.....Hmmmm like become a third world country.
Not on my watch.....
If we continue down the path we are on that's exactly where we are headed......We need to quit being the little frog in the pot of water, happily sitting there thinking everything is fine until he starts to boil.
The simple truth is that oil prices have no business being as high as they are.....There is a huge speculative boom right now.....True, the Chinese are using more oil than they ever have before in their history, as are the folks in India. Also true that there are some supply difficulties in certain producing nations, but they have little or nothing to do with the availablility of product. There are other factors why OUR prices are so high.....
This is largely a problem of our own making. We have huge reserves of oil and natural gas, but the politicians are so busy catering to the wants of the environmental movement that we cannot access much of it. We haven't built a refinery in 30 years. We refuse to use clean, affordable nuclear power. Conservation will NOT work on it's own, and the technology of Solar is still too inefficient to be a viable alternative, except in limited residential use, and even then the cost to benefit ratio is skewed too far in the wrong direction. Figure a $20,000 for a solar system to supplement grid power.....If that saves you $50 a month it would still take almost 32 years to pay back the inital investment.....and somehow I don't think the system will last that long.
Short term we need to drill to extract what we have and build more refineries. I'm sick to death of hearing about ANWR.....3000 acres in an area so vast is like a postage stamp on a football field. I have a friend who works up on the north slope and he's sent me pictures of the area where BP wants to drill.....It's a dead, desolate wasteland. forget the warm and fuzzy pictures that the Sierra Club shows off.....That ain't the way it is.....
Yes I live in a state that benefits greatly from the extractive industries. It's irrelevant now since we have the highest average gas prices in the nation, and we also have winter 7 months a year. I know many people who had heating oil bills on the order of $500-600 per MONTH. It doesn't matter how well built your house is.....when it's -40 to -50 for months at a time it's damn expensive to heat a house. It all balances out in our pocket books.
The bottom line is that we NEED to take advantage of the resources we have while we wait for the newer energy technologies to develop into reasonable alternatives.....
A few things to think about......
If the science that Gore rails about was so accurate then why was his a Nobel PEACE prize and not a Nobel for Chemistry which would be more appropriate given that we are talking about chemical reactions that are supposedly altering the climate.
That wonderful little electric car you just bought.....You plug it in at night and the power comes from a natural gas or oil fired power plant.....You can feel all warm and fuzzy about that but you're still using fossil fuels for that vehicle. And what about the hazardous waste disposal when the batteries wear out......
Environmentalists want to REMOVE clean hydro-electric projects for fish migration.....
115 BILLION barrels of proven oil reserves, 85% of which are not accessible because of the environmental lobby. Same goes for the 242 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas.....
Solar panels at this time are only 19% efficient.
Ethanol is only about 75% as efficient in running your car as gasoline. It's also a major contributing factor to the inflation we are seeing in food prices.
Nancy Pelosi's wonderful idea about halting the filling of our strategic oil reserve would only remove 1/3 of 1% from our daily usage in the US.....The resulting savings at the pump? Right now less than a penny per gallon.....Thanks Nancy that really helps.....NOT!
When I was living in Seattle I saw a sign in a vehicle that said "NO WAR FOR OIL".....The vehicle was a Ford Expedition.....at about 9 miles per gallon.....Hypocrasy on a GRAND scale!
The Seattle Post Intelligencer did a puff piece on a liberal conservationist who had managed to limit his family's driving to 300 miles per week.....he lived in Bellevue and took the bus into Seattle for work, his wife drove a minivan those 300 miles each and every week.....I lived in Everett at the time, had a 30 mile commute each way and I only drove about 320 miles a week.....and I was getting 36 miles per gallon.....Their minivan was getting 21 and they were excited about that.....
WAKE UP WASHINGTON!!!!
You have a golden opportunity to prove that this is STILL a constitutional republic of, by and for the PEOPLE, not a bunch of self-interested hypocrites selling out the citizenry to help further the agenda of the environmental lobby and stuff the coffers of your campaign fund for re-election.
You can't have it both ways right now.....The technology isn't good enough to warrant it, and it's every day Joe-Sixpack who is paying the price.
Is anyone working there that has a brain functioning above the level of Broccoli???? Just checking because I'm becoming more and more convinced every day that there isn't.
Fuel....Gasoline.....Diesel.....Natural Gas.....Heating Oil.....All of us are acutely aware of how expensive these basic necessities are becoming. What I can't understand is "WHY" the wackadoos in D.C. simply cannot acknowledge that we need to be more proactive in finding a solution.....
Oh wait.....Yes I do understand, we'll call it the "Gore Syndrome". Even most mainstream scientists are now forced to admit that their climate models are flawed as they relate to global warming theory since there isn't a sufficiently large enough data set to truly validate the concept. This "winter from hell" that we are just coming out of should be enough for most of us to understand that.....
So what we have are Gore's disciples still telling us that the sky is falling and we need to unilaterally do something about it.....Hmmmm like become a third world country.
Not on my watch.....
If we continue down the path we are on that's exactly where we are headed......We need to quit being the little frog in the pot of water, happily sitting there thinking everything is fine until he starts to boil.
The simple truth is that oil prices have no business being as high as they are.....There is a huge speculative boom right now.....True, the Chinese are using more oil than they ever have before in their history, as are the folks in India. Also true that there are some supply difficulties in certain producing nations, but they have little or nothing to do with the availablility of product. There are other factors why OUR prices are so high.....
This is largely a problem of our own making. We have huge reserves of oil and natural gas, but the politicians are so busy catering to the wants of the environmental movement that we cannot access much of it. We haven't built a refinery in 30 years. We refuse to use clean, affordable nuclear power. Conservation will NOT work on it's own, and the technology of Solar is still too inefficient to be a viable alternative, except in limited residential use, and even then the cost to benefit ratio is skewed too far in the wrong direction. Figure a $20,000 for a solar system to supplement grid power.....If that saves you $50 a month it would still take almost 32 years to pay back the inital investment.....and somehow I don't think the system will last that long.
Short term we need to drill to extract what we have and build more refineries. I'm sick to death of hearing about ANWR.....3000 acres in an area so vast is like a postage stamp on a football field. I have a friend who works up on the north slope and he's sent me pictures of the area where BP wants to drill.....It's a dead, desolate wasteland. forget the warm and fuzzy pictures that the Sierra Club shows off.....That ain't the way it is.....
Yes I live in a state that benefits greatly from the extractive industries. It's irrelevant now since we have the highest average gas prices in the nation, and we also have winter 7 months a year. I know many people who had heating oil bills on the order of $500-600 per MONTH. It doesn't matter how well built your house is.....when it's -40 to -50 for months at a time it's damn expensive to heat a house. It all balances out in our pocket books.
The bottom line is that we NEED to take advantage of the resources we have while we wait for the newer energy technologies to develop into reasonable alternatives.....
A few things to think about......
If the science that Gore rails about was so accurate then why was his a Nobel PEACE prize and not a Nobel for Chemistry which would be more appropriate given that we are talking about chemical reactions that are supposedly altering the climate.
That wonderful little electric car you just bought.....You plug it in at night and the power comes from a natural gas or oil fired power plant.....You can feel all warm and fuzzy about that but you're still using fossil fuels for that vehicle. And what about the hazardous waste disposal when the batteries wear out......
Environmentalists want to REMOVE clean hydro-electric projects for fish migration.....
115 BILLION barrels of proven oil reserves, 85% of which are not accessible because of the environmental lobby. Same goes for the 242 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas.....
Solar panels at this time are only 19% efficient.
Ethanol is only about 75% as efficient in running your car as gasoline. It's also a major contributing factor to the inflation we are seeing in food prices.
Nancy Pelosi's wonderful idea about halting the filling of our strategic oil reserve would only remove 1/3 of 1% from our daily usage in the US.....The resulting savings at the pump? Right now less than a penny per gallon.....Thanks Nancy that really helps.....NOT!
When I was living in Seattle I saw a sign in a vehicle that said "NO WAR FOR OIL".....The vehicle was a Ford Expedition.....at about 9 miles per gallon.....Hypocrasy on a GRAND scale!
The Seattle Post Intelligencer did a puff piece on a liberal conservationist who had managed to limit his family's driving to 300 miles per week.....he lived in Bellevue and took the bus into Seattle for work, his wife drove a minivan those 300 miles each and every week.....I lived in Everett at the time, had a 30 mile commute each way and I only drove about 320 miles a week.....and I was getting 36 miles per gallon.....Their minivan was getting 21 and they were excited about that.....
WAKE UP WASHINGTON!!!!
You have a golden opportunity to prove that this is STILL a constitutional republic of, by and for the PEOPLE, not a bunch of self-interested hypocrites selling out the citizenry to help further the agenda of the environmental lobby and stuff the coffers of your campaign fund for re-election.
You can't have it both ways right now.....The technology isn't good enough to warrant it, and it's every day Joe-Sixpack who is paying the price.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Beware of misleading advertising.....
This is something that seems to happen every time that precious metals experience a renewed sense of interest by the general public due to increasing prices in gold and silver.....Shysters trying to take advantage of the uneducated and/or the elderly by making offers to buy or sell that seem to good to be true.
The old adage is too often accurate.....If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.....
I cringe every time I'm flipping through the channels and catch a glimpse of the "coin shows" on QVC and the Home Shopping Network. Too often what they are selling will never have any real numismatic value....it's all hype. And on those rare occasions when they do offer something that has some value the items are hopelessly over-priced.....I end up thinking of that old Kurt Russell movie where he is selling used cars with the bumpers held on with chewing gum.....
Unfortunately the victims of this deceptive selling are often our elderly, who are generally trying to do one of two things.....A. Provide themselves with an added measure of security in their golden years, albeit a small one.....or B. To provide a gift to their loved ones (children/grandchildren etc.) that will grow in value as the years go by.....
The sad truth is that when it comes time to sell these items and they are taken to the local coin dealer he ends up being "the bad guy" because he is the one who has to tell these people that what they purchased is junk.....The REAL culprit is the disingenuous seller.....
I've been involved in coins for 35 years and I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen this happen.....
Then we have the dishonest buyers.....usually advertising on the internet and on TV.....Telling you how they can make you money on all that old jewelry and loose dental gold you have laying around.....
I went to one of these websites not too long ago just to check it out.....I had to hunt for about 20 minutes to actually get to the page that told me what their buying prices were. On every click before that they were trying very hard to get me to "send for their free mailing kit" without investigating further.....It was easy to see why, since they were offering about 40 cents on the dollar for 24 karat .999 fine gold, and THAT price was only if you had ALOT of it. The buying price for that same gold in small quantities was about 20 cents on the dollar. The prices on silver and platinum were worse, and they had final say as to the quality of what you sent in.
The most disturbing part to me is that you had to REQUEST that any gem stones be returned.....So first they want to steal your gold for 20 cents on the dollar, and then they want to keep your diamonds, sapphires, and rubies as a gift for stealing your gold!
Personally, I know very little about jewelry, but I have an extensive knowledge of U.S. coins and I have a decent library to back me up if I need to do research. So if anyone reading this would like to know if a particular coin has any value send me a note in my comments section or send me an email with a photograph and I will try to give you an idea of what you have. In some instances I can steer you to a REPUTABLE dealer in your area who would give you an honest appraisal of what your coin or coins are worth.
If you are buying....do a little research and find out if you would be paying too much.....and remember caveat emptor.....let the buyer beware.....
If you are selling....always try to get more than one opinion, and NEVER send anything through the mail until you have an idea of what it is worth and are sure you can trust the person you are sending it to.....
And one last tip.....when you take something in to get it appraised.....Tell the person that you want an appraisal for INSURANCE purposes.....this way you will get the most honest answer. Generally the buying price will still be a little lower than the appraisal, but not 20 cents on the dollar like the thief I mentioned above.....
Have a great day!
The old adage is too often accurate.....If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.....
I cringe every time I'm flipping through the channels and catch a glimpse of the "coin shows" on QVC and the Home Shopping Network. Too often what they are selling will never have any real numismatic value....it's all hype. And on those rare occasions when they do offer something that has some value the items are hopelessly over-priced.....I end up thinking of that old Kurt Russell movie where he is selling used cars with the bumpers held on with chewing gum.....
Unfortunately the victims of this deceptive selling are often our elderly, who are generally trying to do one of two things.....A. Provide themselves with an added measure of security in their golden years, albeit a small one.....or B. To provide a gift to their loved ones (children/grandchildren etc.) that will grow in value as the years go by.....
The sad truth is that when it comes time to sell these items and they are taken to the local coin dealer he ends up being "the bad guy" because he is the one who has to tell these people that what they purchased is junk.....The REAL culprit is the disingenuous seller.....
I've been involved in coins for 35 years and I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen this happen.....
Then we have the dishonest buyers.....usually advertising on the internet and on TV.....Telling you how they can make you money on all that old jewelry and loose dental gold you have laying around.....
I went to one of these websites not too long ago just to check it out.....I had to hunt for about 20 minutes to actually get to the page that told me what their buying prices were. On every click before that they were trying very hard to get me to "send for their free mailing kit" without investigating further.....It was easy to see why, since they were offering about 40 cents on the dollar for 24 karat .999 fine gold, and THAT price was only if you had ALOT of it. The buying price for that same gold in small quantities was about 20 cents on the dollar. The prices on silver and platinum were worse, and they had final say as to the quality of what you sent in.
The most disturbing part to me is that you had to REQUEST that any gem stones be returned.....So first they want to steal your gold for 20 cents on the dollar, and then they want to keep your diamonds, sapphires, and rubies as a gift for stealing your gold!
Personally, I know very little about jewelry, but I have an extensive knowledge of U.S. coins and I have a decent library to back me up if I need to do research. So if anyone reading this would like to know if a particular coin has any value send me a note in my comments section or send me an email with a photograph and I will try to give you an idea of what you have. In some instances I can steer you to a REPUTABLE dealer in your area who would give you an honest appraisal of what your coin or coins are worth.
If you are buying....do a little research and find out if you would be paying too much.....and remember caveat emptor.....let the buyer beware.....
If you are selling....always try to get more than one opinion, and NEVER send anything through the mail until you have an idea of what it is worth and are sure you can trust the person you are sending it to.....
And one last tip.....when you take something in to get it appraised.....Tell the person that you want an appraisal for INSURANCE purposes.....this way you will get the most honest answer. Generally the buying price will still be a little lower than the appraisal, but not 20 cents on the dollar like the thief I mentioned above.....
Have a great day!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
A Few Inconvenient Truths.....
.....For the environmentalist skier...... A ski run is still a clear cut......
.....For everyone who has forgotten 5th grade environmental science in it's most simple terms..... Plants "breathe" Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as part of the growth cycle and Oxygen (O2) is a by-product......
.....For Politicians promising to bring manufacturing jobs back home..... There will need to be a fundamental change in the way the average consumer thinks before there is even the most remote possibility of this happening.....
.....For those with short term memory problems..... Clinton gave us NAFTA not Bush.....
.....For GW.....NAFTA is an inherently flawed concept.....
.....For those who complain about "Foreign Cars"......It's a good possibility that your neighbor's Honda or Toyota was built in the United States, while your Ford was built in Canada or Mexico.
.....For ALL POLITICIANS running in the next election..... The quickest way to completely cripple the economy is to raise taxes.
.....For everyone who has forgotten 5th grade environmental science in it's most simple terms..... Plants "breathe" Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as part of the growth cycle and Oxygen (O2) is a by-product......
.....For Politicians promising to bring manufacturing jobs back home..... There will need to be a fundamental change in the way the average consumer thinks before there is even the most remote possibility of this happening.....
.....For those with short term memory problems..... Clinton gave us NAFTA not Bush.....
.....For GW.....NAFTA is an inherently flawed concept.....
.....For those who complain about "Foreign Cars"......It's a good possibility that your neighbor's Honda or Toyota was built in the United States, while your Ford was built in Canada or Mexico.
.....For ALL POLITICIANS running in the next election..... The quickest way to completely cripple the economy is to raise taxes.
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