Friday, June 10, 2011

Three more Goslings.

Yesterday three more Goslings showed up. They were right outside on our lawn with their parents. So now we have two sets of "Families", one has just two babies - very small - and the other has three larger babies, we wonder where the older ones have been as they are quite a bit older than the two tiny ones.
Even now as I look out at The Lake I can see both sets of babies and their parents gliding by in a perfectly straight line. In the lead are the three older babies sandwiched between their parents and following directly behind are the two small goslings.
So it is a straight line, first a parent then three babies, another parent, another parent, two babies and then another parent, all in a line.
Across The Lake, well actually on the left side of The Lake is a group of about 15 adult Canada Geese. It is a bucolic scene indeed.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Late arrivals.

Two Canada Geese Goslings have just arrived. We usually get two or three batches of 8 to 10 goslings each, but this year nothing. They normaly arrive in the middle to the end of May, here it is June 7th, so we had long since given up when Julia saw these two tiny chicks just yesterday. They are out there again today, each with it's own 'guardian'. We have no ideas why they are so late this year, or if these two will be the only two. Julia is holding out hope that there are more waiting to be born. If this is to be all, we wonder what happened to the otheres - did the DNR oil the eggs because there are too many for The Lake to support? Did the Fox get the eggs, or the babies? Did a Pike or two get them as they were swimming? Do Osprey like Goslings for a meal? Or dogs? No doubt we will never know, but for now there are two babies for Julia to enjoy.

We also look forward to the annual Carp "run". This usually happens in early to mid June, but perhaps everything will be late this year? We will see. I keep looking anxiously for the Carp spawning in The Lake. These huge Carp thrash aorund in the shallows. It is unbelievable to me that there are three and four foot long - or longer - Carp swimming around in The Lake without us ever seeing them except in June. Or do they come into The Lake just to spawn in June and then leave?

Who knows?

That IS a question by the way, if you do know, please tell me.

Dave.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Jobs, and taxes.

Driving home the other day I noticed that the grass in the middle and sides of the roads was not cut. The road surfaces were poor and bridges in bad shape.

We were recently in Europe & the UK, and not so recently in Asia, New Zealand and Australia. Returning to the road system of the US was like going to a third world country!

There are millions of people out of work. The roads and bridges need fixing. The grass needs mowing. The Internet in Asia is 100 times faster than it is here. We need to "Go Green" to save our environment and our balance of payments - solar hot water, solar electric, insulation, electric and hybrid vehicles. We went to the Moon, we can surely develop efficient solar electric, efficient insulation, and efficient vehicles that can free us from our billions of dollars of payments to people who hate us, for oil that is polluting our country, our planet, our air, our water, our lungs and our bodies.

Millions need work, there is much to be done. But instead we have millions and millions of people getting richer and richer at the expense of millions and millions who are losing their jobs and their homes. We don't need more rich people, we don't need more tax cuts for the already filthy rich, we need jobs.

The CEO of Wells Fargo made $53 Million last year. If he were paid $1 million it would be more than he is worth. Way more. Tiger Woods makes $100 Million a year. If he made $1 million it would be way too much.

The extra $52 million more than he is worth that the CEO of Wells Fargo makes would pay for 1300 jobs paying $40,000 a year. The extra $99 million that Tiger Woods makes more than he is worth would pay for 2500 jobs paying $40,000 a year. And on and on, CEO after CEO, and crooked sports figure after crooked banker and crooked wall streeter and soon you would have people making closer to what they are worth, no unemployment, the infrastructure fixed, millions of people paying taxes and buying goods, a balanced budget and a positive balance of payments for our exports/imports.

The tax system in the USA is severely broken. The average American pays 30% of his income in taxes. The top 2% of "earners" in the USA pay 16% of their income in taxes. And yet we want to cut taxes to the wealthy!!! Are we insane? We need to tax the wealthy, not cut their taxes even further. Bring them back into the realm of the average American. They must be laughing their heads off when we vote to cut taxes to the rich even more!

The wealthy in America pay less in taxes now than they have ever paid in our history! The wage gap in the US is higher now than it has ever been in our history - and it is higher here than anywhere in the world!

Insanity, we are killing our economy to give a few wealthy individuals more wealth than most of us can even imagine. And somehow they - the rich - are convincing us - the poor - that they deserve even more!

Why? Is it because we think that one day we will be rich and when that day arrives we don't want to pay any taxes either? These people, most of them anyway, are greedy beyond belief. If you had billions of dollars, would you do what one multi BILLIONAIRE did recently, he did some insider trading (That's stealing) to make an extra 60 million dollars! Now think about that, he already had BILLIONS of dollars and he was prepared to steal in order to get another 60 million. Lets put that into perspective in the real world - our world - lets say you have $4,000, would you now risk stealing $60? Me neither.

Not all rich men are the same, Warren Buffet for example says that the US tax system is broken. He is incensed that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. But he and Bill Gates have put half of their wealth into a foundation and are looking for ways to do good with it. Finding cures for illnesses, treating illnesses like Malaria and AIDS, feeding the hungry and teaching them to feed themselves. They have both pledged to put virtually all of their wealth into this foundation and are actively trying to get other wealthy people to do the same.

Meanwhile, the tax system needs to be changed so that those fortunate enough to have been able to work the system to practically print money, pay at least their fair share, which should be way more than we pay. Not way less.