Silver Fox

Correcting false e-mails, posts, sites etc

2012-02-07T07:13:00.003-06:00

Obviously this would be a virtually impossible task. Because almost ALL posts and e-mails on the Internet are false, incorrect, blatant lies or in some other way wrong.
As it is impossible to correct them all, the best we can do is say - remember, whatever you read on the Internet is most likely incorrect, untrue or wrong AT LEAST 95% of the time.
However I am going to take a few minutes to give just three examples of e-mails that are either blatant lies or at best mistakes or untruths.
First - The D.C. story that its Animal Control people are required to capture Rats and Their Families without hurting them and relocate them to new quarters in Maryland or Virginia. This story I read on the Internet with Rush Limpburger ranting on about Liberals wanting to treat Rats with care and to relocate them and their entire family etc etc. This is obviously not true, but unfortunately the damage has already been done when he spends hours going on and on on his radio show lambasting the DEMOCRATIC councilwoman who sponsored the law. Now it was obvious to me that it could not be true, but to the millions of extreme Conservatives who listen to, and believe, Rush Limpbugger it MUST be true.
So I checked out the law, and sure enough it refers to catching ANIMALS such as Raccoons and SPECIFICALLY excludes rats and mice on the very first page of the law. The reason for the law was that they wanted to remove Raccoons from D.C. because there are a large number of them and they are causing problems. Also they wanted the animals to be treated humanely. If they were to be destroyed they should be destroyed humanely - instead of being beated to death for example. If they were to be relocated it was to be some distance from D.C. and only with the permission of the landowner where they were placed. They did want the whole family to be removed together if possible, because if the young are left behind a parent will go to great lengths to return to retrieve them and could do a lot of damage to the house where their babies are.
Seemed like a perfectly reasonable law to me.
You would not believe the vile e-mails that the councilwoman received, including death threats to her and her family. Over a reasonable law that was deliberately misinterpreted.
Next one was an e-mail that gave a list of items that were supposedly in the Affordable Health Care Act (Called Obamacare by some)The list was supposed to be written by a judge. Again, as I read it, it was almost impossible to believe that anyone could think that even a Democrat would put such things into a bill. But there it was being forwarded eagerly, to me, and all of his friends, by a Republican who apparently thought and was horrified by its contents (Had any of them been true) Even a few seconds of thought on the part of any reasonably intelligent person would have them question it. But that is not the way of these disgusting political forwards. It seems that the more outrageous and unlikely they are the quicker they are forwarded.
A few minutes of research brought out that it started 3 or 4 years ago by a letter from the Judge to his local newspaper making some points about the Affordable Health Care Act that he disagreed with. (I even found a post from him saying that he wished he hadn't written the letter)Some nut then picked up the letter added a bunch of things to it that he said was in the letter and forwarded it out to millions of Conservatives, who eagerly grabbed it and forwarded it on without bothering to check it out. Now it is gospel to the likes of Rush and all of his Fox "News" buddies. A check to Snopes found that they read the Act through completely and sent it to a Health Care Company to read. Both came to the conclusion that it was "Flat out blatant lies" and "Absolutely false." But again it had already gone out to millions of people to whom anything that contains anything that has hate and lies about any Democrat has to be true. Any reasonable person reading the e-mail would have come to the conclusion that it could not be true. One statement was that everyone would be required to carry a national ID card. This apparently reffered to the goal of putting everyone's medical records on computer. Most of us already have this. If you have a Doctor or been to hospital at some time your records are on computers. The idea here is to centralize those records so if you are in an accident for example and are taken to a hospital they could access those records and find out your blood type, any allergies, previous operations etc.
Another one said that once you reach 60 or 65 you must visit your doctor every 5 years to discuss end of life. (Death panel) It turns out what it said was when you reach 60 or 65 you should visit your doctor every 5 years for a medical check up. Other statements did not even have those slight references, they were mostly just made up. Having done that the author - nameless of course - sent it out under the Judges name, to all his contacts, who doubtless eagerly forwarded it as The Truth.

Crazy Weather.

2012-01-27T06:20:00.004-06:00

When I woke up at 6.00 o'clock this morning it was already 57 degrees! Hello, is this JANUARY?

The Wild Ones don't know what to do - the animals that is, the Canada Geese never left this year, we have a flock of perhaps 50 that just stayed with us!

The two Swans are still here, even though they went away for about a month from mid December to mid January. Vacation perhaps? And the male has started his annual, "Chase everything larger than a blackbird away from our nesting area" campaign, already. There is no way that starts before they are ready to set up nest and the female sits on her eggs in the spring - which is still a couple of months off.

I am still picking Roses! The bulbs are coming up! The Lawn is still green!

Is this The New January?

Meanwhile I am hearing that Texas - the driest one or two years ever - was almost washed away by rains yesterday, and there have been more Tornados in January all over, but not here, yet! Last year we had a Tornado, an Earthquake, a Hurricane and Floods, all within the space of one week! I sure hope that does not become The Norm! We escaped that week with minimal damage right here, but I would hate to have to endure that week over and over!

Well, onward we go, and I go back to work today , gotta go.

More "Interesting" figures.

2012-01-26T17:08:00.003-06:00

Mitt Romney's income in 2011 was $22 Million dollars.

That doesn't mean much to most of us, but what MAY be of interest to you is that if you worked, and earned $60,000 in 2011, a figure way above what the average American earns - you made WORKING, less than Romney made NOT WORKING, in ONE DAY!!

Did you get that? He makes more than $60,000 A DAY, NOT WORKING. (The median Americans income is $26,000.)

Now if you WORKED and EARNED $60,000 you will pay about 30% of those earnings in taxes. Mr Romney made (not earned) $22 Million NOT WORKING, and paid, are you ready for this? 13.9% in taxes!!!!

So if you are rich and wealthy, you pay a tax rate LESS THAN HALF of what the average WORKING American pays!!!

What is wrong with this picture? Why are we happy with this? Why do Republicans want the rich and wealthy to pay LESS taxes? Yes that's right they are fighting tooth and nail to have the "top" 1% of Americans pay even LESS tax!!

And yet 50% of Americans vote Republican! Why would ANYONE vote for that kind of abuse? There is no interest from ANY Republicans to do anything other than cut the taxes of the rich. Other than trying to CUT Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to the poor and the middle classes.

It seems to me, but what do I know? that everyone should pay AT LEAST the same tax rates. In fact I would think that it would be fair for the tax`rate on UNEARNED INCOME to be higher than the tax rate on EARNED income, wouldn't you?

I mean wouldn't that make perfect sense? If you sit and do nothing and the money comes rolling in, or you go out and work for your money, who should pay the higher rate? It is just common sense that the person who is making no contribution to the well being of the country - just sitting doing nothing - should pay a higher rate.

But that is not the way that it is. The rich pay less! Please explain that to me. Could it possibly be that the rich and the wealthy OWN Congress, the very bunch who pass laws that say "The rich shall pay less tax." Is it possible that they, Congress, are Bribed to pass such laws?

Leaping Clams?

2012-01-26T07:41:00.003-06:00

I went down to my pier yesterday and there were about 40 broken clam shells laying on it. Maybe a year ago I watched a Gull dropping something that turned out to be a clam, onto the pier. It then picked it up again, flew up into the air and dropped it back onto the pier.

I have been very busy lately so had not seen this happening again although Julia, who spends time on her couch in the bedroom reading, has observed it.

Judging by the number of empty Clam shells on the pier, there must be a lot of that going on. There must also be a lot of Clams in The Lake.

Anyway, as I said to Julia, the Clams spend their lives buried in the sand at the bottom of The Lake, so how do the Sea Gulls get a hold of them? That is the question. In order to extract the Clams from their home under the sand the Gulls would have to dive down under the water and dig into the sand. It is true that the water around the pier is not very deep, often six to 12 inches, but I have trouble imagining a Sea Gull diving under water even that shallow. And how would they know where to dig? Perhaps they see "Air" coming up from where the Clam is?

I have watched to find the secret, but am unable to even see the Gulls dropping the Clams, let alone digging for them!

My only answer is that there may be a new breed of Leaping Clams. They launch themselves into the air, and the Sea Gulls snatch them out of the air!

Yes that must be the answer.

Another comment on the Tax Farce in America.

2012-01-25T17:56:00.003-06:00

Just a couple of quick facts : -

The average American pays 30% of his/her income in taxes.

OK, the average American in the "bottom" 99% of earners.

The "top" 1% of Americans pay about HALF of that! Or 15%. We just heard today that Mitt Romney, one of the "top" 1% with an income in the $20 million plus area paid 13.9% last year!

Now I don't know how that makes YOU feel, but it makes me feel VERY frustrated. If you are a Republican apparently you not only AGREE with that but you want those very rich, very wealthy 1% to pay even LESS!!! Some Republicans are calling for the rich to pay NO tax! I guess they would be the 1%?

So lets get this straight, if you work and EARN your money you pay 30% tax. If you don't work and get UNEARNED income, you pay 15% tax. Now I may be missing something here but it seems to me that it should be the other way around. Surely if you WORK you should get a better tax break than if you DON'T work, and instead just sit back and collect money for doing nothing. Tell me how does that help the country?

Just asking.

It was a gray, gray day!

2012-01-24T17:44:00.005-06:00

Monday dawned GREY, or is it Gray? Who knows. But it sure was Grey, or Gray, here. Actually I think it was Gray, for some reason or other Gray sounds more like the way the day looked.

As I struggled up in bed and looked out of the window at The Lake, it was a Gray, Gray day that met my eyes. A thick fog or mist covered everything. The far side of The Lake was completely out of sight.

Later that day, it lasted all day long, Julia and I discussed whether it was a fog or just some mist. I talked about how I could remember, in England, driving along with my door open to enable me to see the curb! It was actually IMPOSSIBLE to see more than a few feet. There could have been a car 2 feet in front of me and I would not have been able to see it. The car's hood (bonnet in England) was about 6 to 8 feet long. (My car was a 1933 Singer Le Mans sports car.) Now THAT was fog! In London they talked about "Pea Soupers", the air was so thick in those fogs that if you held your hand stretched out in front of you you could not see it. "You could not see your hand in front of your face." was the saying. Both Julia and I experienced it. It was scary to say the least.

This was just a mist. Driving across the Bay bridge we could see halfway across the bridge.

Anyway, the mist was very thick on The Lake and we could hear fog horns on The Bay.

The next day was very clear and much warmer. The temperature went from the upper 20's and low 30's up to the mid 50's. There were a lot of Canada Geese on The Lake and also on our lawn and the neighbors lawn. Here we are in late January and have yet to have a cold spell of more than a couple of days.

Mitt Romney and Taxes.

2012-01-17T16:32:00.003-06:00

Mitt Romney is set to release his tax returns in April 2012. This gives him time to show us a "clean" return. I'd sure like to see his previous returns!

How about some predictions? I predict it will show an income in the millions, and a tax rate of around 14% or 15%. Less than HALF of what the average American pays!

His tax will be so low BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WORK! In other words UNEARNED income is taxed at less than half of what you pay if you WORK! Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture? If you work for your income you pay MORE (a lot more) than if you don't work for it. If that is not the wrong way around I don't know what is.

How did that happen? No prizes for an answer! The wealthy OWN our Congress, and Congress passes the tax laws.

Q.E.D. (Quod Erat Demonstradum - Which was to be proved.)

Cutting Taxes On The Rich.

2012-01-17T07:35:00.003-06:00

We have a huge National Debt. This is due in part because of tax cuts to the wealthy and to two wars, that were not paid for.

A Trillion Dollar war, with no provision to pay for it. (For those who don't know, when you go to war you raise taxes on everyone to pay for it. That is how it should be, everyone should feel the hurt, not just our children who get maimed and killed.)

A Trillion Dollars a year in tax cuts for the rich - at the same time as we go to war!! (Yes we are a rich country, but not that rich!)

Result a bigger National Debt, which is ongoing because the Republicans - George W Bush in particular - left us a legacy of two unfunded wars and a huge tax cut for those who least need it!

The wealthy can take care of themselves - isn't that pretty obvious? Duh! That is how and why they got rich, because they are able to take care of themselves. They don't need any help from us - and yet we INSIST on trying to get their taxes cut, again and again!! How dumb is that? Here we have one of the two strongest political parties (do I need to say the Republican Party?) using all their effort and influence to cut taxes to the wealthy! They seem to have no interest in anything else. They barely mention the deficit, the illegal immigrants, our crumbling roads and bridges, lack of health insurance and care for our citizens, even the "missing" birth certificate is hardly mentioned any more! No, they are instead concentrating all their efforts on reducing taxes for the wealthy. And even more amazingly, 50% of the population goes along with this! People who have been ruined by mortgage scams after credit default swaps disgrace, after hedge fund outrage, after - well you name it - and they still want to give these criminals even bigger tax cuts! (Most of whom already pay tax at a rate of HALF what the average American pays!)

Who can figure?

Sales Tax Or Gas Tax?

2012-01-16T08:14:00.013-06:00

I'm sure you have all heard that our Govenor has proposed an increase in the gas tax or the sales tax.

Well I for one favor a gas tax. Why? Well, you can't fully avoid either one, but you can avoid the gas tax more than you can a sales tax.

How? The way I see it, you need to spend whatever you spend for items that carry a sales tax, and you have very little way to avoid it.

But with gas, there are many ways to cut your use of gas. And, by using less gas you not only save yourself money, you also help to save the Planet! You help our health - less pollutants - as well as our environment, our air and our water. We also send less money to those who hate us, which in turn reduces our balance of payments and reduces our National Debt.

Who can argue with that? It is a win/win/win situation for us, the USA, and the West.

How to reduce gas use? Here is a list of ways to do that, most of them are easy and require little or no outlay or effort by you but could be World changing! A few of the ideas would involve expenditures, but these could be expenditures that you would need to make one day anyway. If you just make different decisions at that time, you can make a difference to us and the USA and The World!

Use your smaller more efficient car. Sell your SUV and buy a Prius. (They make a seven seater now!) Drive less - hard to do, but possible - combine trips, share rides.

Keep your car(s) efficient, tire pressure up, tune ups, do less hard accelerating and braking, (that is a BIG one) Accelerating hard can use 10 times as much gas. And every time you brake, you have just completely wasted the gas you used to get up to that speed!

The biggest way of saving gas available to everyone is to only run the engine when you are driving. To set your mind straight on this one - a small car idling uses about 3 or 4 ounces of gas a MINUTE! A large Pick Up Truck or SUV uses 8 ounces OR MORE PER MINUTE, when just idling! It uses less gas to shut off your engine and restart it if you will be stopped for more than 10 SECONDS!

For example, you don't need to "warm up" your engine. If you are really hot on this gas waster, at least keep it down to 10 seconds or so.(A neighbor that I had once, let her HUGE Pick Up Truck idle for a half an hour or more before she left for work every day! She'd go out and start it, go back into the house and come out again a half hour later! At 8 ounces per minute that was 240 ounces of gas, or more than 1 1/2 gallons a day! I'm sure she also left it running when she stopped at the 7-11 to get her morning cup of coffee, cigarettes and a chat.)

In contrast when I get into my car I wait until everyone is in and their seat belts done up before I start the car. Think about that for a minute, I expect you, like I used to do, get into the car and start it up right away. Then you wait for your spouse and children to get in, maybe you even get out and clean the windshield or go and get the mail, pick up the newspaper from the driveway etc. That could easily be 5 minutes or more of idling. Even in a small car that's 5x4oz=20oz of gas, and let's face it most people are driving large SUVs nowadays - 5x8oz=40oz of gas! Do that just a few times with an SUV - it could be in one day - and you just wasted a whole gallon of gas!

Next you stop at the bank and go through the drive through. When I do my transaction I shut off my engine as soon as I stop at the container that zooms my deposit to the teller. THEN I get the container, put in my deposit, write anything if I need to, send it off. The teller then takes her time doing the work. Asks me if I want anything else, etc, etc, I get the container back, remove my paperwork, replace the container, check my paperwork, put it away AND THEN restart my car. Rarely does this take less than 5 minutes. 5x8=40 ounces of gas SAVED!! Imagine if everyone did that! 100 million car owners, twice a week, for 52 weeks = 3.25 Billion gallons of gas = 77 million barrels of oil! A barrel of oil sells for around $100 now, or $7.7 Billion. Just for shutting off the engine when going through your bank drive through!

Imagine the savings in oil use if you don't leave your engine idling while you go into the 7-11 for coffee, while waiting for your kids outside the school, while waiting for your spouse while he/she goes into the store, while sitting in your car reading and waiting, leaving it running to keep it warm/cool - while you do your grocery shopping or whatever. And I don't mean just the savings to you, I mean to the country. To our air, to our children with asthma, to global climate change, to our balance of payments, National Debt, and on and on, I'm sure that you can think of other reasons to not waste a resource like the World's limited supply of oil which can be used for such a myriad of uses other than burning it up. (Just in case you didn't know, although I think everyone does nowadays, it is used to make plastic - at least a million different things are made of plastic, maybe a billion different things - it is used in perfume, make up, shampoo, toothpaste, soap, man made fibres, vitamins, detergents, film, CDs, clothing, shoes, wax, fertilizer, cleaning products, oil for engines of all kinds, for lubrication, etc, etc ,etc, the list is endless.) and yet we are burning up this resource that our modern world could not exist without.

We should be conserving it while we find a way to replace it with something that does not dirty our air and water and is not so irreplaceable.

Another reason to use less oil, perhaps the best one is to preserve our children's arms, legs and lives. To maintain our wasteful lifestyles (every American uses, on average, more than twice as much energy as every European. Per person.) we regularly go to war, sending our most precious resource, our children, to fight, and die, so that we can live "The Good Life". Or as one friend says, and insists, that it is his right to choose. He should not be forced to use less of oil or electricity or anything. He thinks he should be allowed to use incandescent light bulbs instead of CFLs or LEDs if he chooses. He is an intelligent man but thinks that his, "right to choose", is more important than anything! Surely not more important than our children's lives?

Where was I? Oh yes saving gas. It's so easy, and SO important, please just DO IT, for all our sakes, and for the Planets sake.

Oh, and as I said at the start, I would favor an increased gas tax over an increased sales tax. Now you know why. Wy not just expand the sales tax to cover gasoline?

Good night, sleep tight.

Brrrr.

2012-01-16T07:34:00.004-06:00

Yes siree, it is cold today, 25 degrees at 7.00am and The Lake is almost frozen over. I got the fire going, let the chickens out - they just shook their feathers out and got on with their business, whatever that is, I guess clearing up any bugs, insects and wayward seeds laying around in their pen.

Muffey the cat went out for a brief walk, but was soon back, scratching at the door to be let back in. By this time the fire was well under way, my coffee almost finished, the cat's food was down and the paper was in. The sun was also well up, but the temperature was still down. Eight o'clock and it is still a mean 26 degrees!

OK, I have checked my e-mails, sent some answers, shaved, showered and dressed and it is almost 9.00 and still only 27 degrees. But the sun is well up and the sky a nice bright shade of blue, I am hopeful that it will soon warm up. At least there is no sign of rain or snow.

My Grandson Bradley and I built a walkway out of composite "Wood" on Saturday on one of the coldest windiest days of the year. It was surprisingly successful. I have to go out, probably today, to pick up a couple more pieces of wood to finish it. He will be back on Wednesday to help me wrap up yet another project, on this new, still unfinished, house. But I am not going to go into that today, you will doubtless be glad to hear!

The walkway, which goes from our driveway to the bottom of the steps that go up to our front door, a distance of 22 feet, replaces a "Crazy Paving Walkway", that while attractive, was also a hazard. The stone walkway was uneven, so that I was always afraid that our increasingly elderly friends were going to fall. Being stone, there was also the danger of it being slippery in the presence of rain, snow or ice. We had planted a few sprigs of Thyme in the gaps between the stones, this had thrived and almost half of the path was now covered in the Thyme.

I think the new path/walkway will be a success. Bradley says he will set the stones, which he pulled up prior to our work, alongside the driveway as a way of separating the drive from the lawn and also giving me a hard surface to walk on when going to the mailbox. I would have liked to have continued the composite walkway all the way to the mailbox, but at some 75 feet further that will have to wait for a lottery win, the death of some, as yet unknown rich uncle, some other windfall or a better job offer.

Well time to move on, it looks like it is going to be a cold day for sure.

Reduce/increase spending, taxes.

2012-01-05T11:20:00.002-06:00

I see now that we have withdrawn our troops from Iraq and are reducing our troops in Afghanistan that President Obama has proposed reducing military spending. Seems reasonable to me. As we are no longer at war, except for the one in Afghanistan that is being drawn down, it would seem reasonable that we don't need such a large military budget. Usually when you finish a war you are going to be spending less on war! When World War two ended, we spent less on war.

But no, immediately that he made the proposal the Republicans objected! They objected to us spending LESS money! For months now they have been up in arms about spending less. When Obama says we will spend less they object. I noticed that they objected to him spending more too. They also objected to him raising taxes (Which he has NOT done, not ONCE since coming into office.) But the Republicans objected anyway. They also objected when he wanted to CUT taxes!

So what does that mean to you? They object to the President increasing OR decreasing spending. They object to the President increasing OR decreasing taxes.

What does it mean? It is a mystery to be sure.

First snow of the season.

2012-01-05T07:39:00.002-06:00

Here we are in January and we have just had our first snowfall, not only of 2012 but of the season. Except of course for the "Snow" of October the 30th last year - the worst October snowfall on record - which just missed us. We had a few small flurries, nothing that laid, but everywhere north of us got hammered. I think in New England they got something like 30 inches. Even Philadelphia got 6" or so and New York got a foot or something.

Last night we got a scant 1/4 inch, or less, probably less. I might not have even noticed it except that I was driving home from a Networking meeting in Bethesda at 10 o'clock last night and it was "snowing" all the way home. Well not really snowing, just flurrying. But it was right at 32 degrees and the bridges were icy, I skidded a couple of times crossing some bridges and saw two accidents. It got heavier as I approached home, but was still very light.

This morning I might have forgotten about it and thought there had been a heavy frost had I not been out in it. But what made it really noticeable was The Lake, which was covered with snow. You see, the night before we had our first cold night of the season when it went down to 17 degrees here, and The Lake froze. It was almost completely frozen over except for a couple of small areas that did not close in.

Of course when The Lake is snow covered things really look like winter. And sure enough it is winter. The temperature is still right at freezing and the bewildered birds are sitting out on the snow and ice covered Lake.

And to think that I only just picked the last of my lettuce on Tuesday! Lettuce in January. Amazing. The last of the sweet potatoes I had dug the day before that.

Science, Religion and Politics.

2012-01-02T08:00:00.007-06:00

As time goes by, ideas coalesce in my mind. One such idea that is taking root - and scaring the heck out of me - is the idea of what will happen to America if the "Religious Right" gets into power. The changes that I can see gradually taking place would, I am sure, upset our founding fathers who advocated a "Separation of Church and State". Perhaps the "Born Again Christians" of the "New Religion" don't see this as a problem. But I do.

I see Science being relegated to a back seat in our classrooms at best and eliminated altogether at worst.

The Religious Right seems to be ignoring and denigrating science completely. They appear to be trying to push Creationism, and to ban Evolution teaching from our schools. I'm afraid if these radical, extreme views are allowed to continue to proliferate, the teaching of Science and Evolution and a host of other teachings that have been the basic tenets of America since its inception will be banned.

Why do they feel we have to have Science OR God? Why can we not have both?

I see statements like "God said it, I believe it, that settles it."! Rational thought is being pushed out in favor of blind obedience or even superstition.

Our education system seems be deliberately dumbing down our kids! What possible reason can there be to do that? I don't know, do you? But I'm sure I see it happening.

Beginning in the Bush Administration we saw suppression of science. Only accepting "good" results from scientific studies. if the administration did not like the results, they were sent back to be "redone" until they matched what the administration felt was the "right" result!

Many will not remember this, but I do, because I remember being horrified by it. They actually refused to accept results that they did not like. And of course the scientists were put in an untenable position. If they did not produce the "right" results they could lose their research funds and maybe even their jobs!

And things are getting worse, science is being ridiculed or ignored or called wrong by The Religious Right, Born Again Christians, Creationists and other extreme Zealots and Fanatics. Schools are being forced to change their curriculum's by teachers and parents who want their beliefs taught. Children are being indoctrinated in these irrational, radical theories and are spouting "their own" theories about Religion, Politics etc. There is no room in these religions it seems for respecting the beliefs of others.

In case you have not already caught on, I think that the Bible, and all other religious books from other faiths, were all written by human beings. In other words they are fables, and I do not want to base my life on a fable.

For the record;:-

Peace is Good.
Ethical behaviour is Good.
God is Good.
Science is Good.

I am a Humanitarian. I believe in treating others the way that I would like to be treated.

Just some of my beliefs and opinions - and as everyone knows - Dave is ALWAYS Right (As in, correct!)

The Environment.

2011-12-30T20:29:00.011-06:00

Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I am a big fan of protecting the Environment.

I make no excuses. I think it is important, really important. My health and the health and well being of everyone that I love and care about depends upon our environment. That would include my lovely wife Julia, our equally beautiful daughter Sarah and maybe even more importantly, the future of our planet, our wonderful, brilliant, Grandchildren.

No, I did not forget my parents, my sister and all of my nephews, nieces, cousins etc etc. And of course all of our friends.

But to get back to our Environment, which we cannot afford to forget for even a minute.

Lets get to it. Climate change is real. The vast majority of scientists are agreed that it is happening, and it is accelerating. But the US remains the lone deny er. The Republican Presidential candidates are not just denying it they are not even mentioning it. Even President Obama, "champion of the environment" fails to refer to it.

But what is happening in the rest of the industrialized world? Rather than going into a lot of detail I will make a simple list of the % cut of emissions agreed to by each of the Developed counties by 2020 from 1990 levels as agreed in the Copenhagen meeting this year. I'll follow this with a second list of the Developing countries. The US is now the world's second biggest polluter - after China.

Developed Countries. (Cuts agreed to.)

The USA........4%
Europe........20% (Offer to go to 30% if others will)
Russia........20% to 25%
Japan.........25%
Canada.........3% (Non binding agreement to 25%)
(Ottawa said it will follow Europe)
Australia.....20% (about!)
New Zealand...10% to 20% (depending on others)
Norway........30% (willing to go to 40%)

Developing Countries. (Cuts agreed to.)

China.........40% to 50% by 2020 from 2005 levels
Brazil........38%
India..........?
Indonesia.....26% (or 41% if other countries support them)
South Korea...30%
Mexico..........8%

Germany expects to get 80% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050. Denmark plans for 100% by 2050. China has more power from windmills than any other country.

How is the US doing? You may well ask! Our reluctance to even acknowledge man made climate change is scary. We seem to be actually attacking the environment and anyone who makes any attempt to protect it. Efforts to protect are being thwarted for economic gains. We continue to give big tax breaks to coal and oil companies. Even as we say we are trying to cut our federal spending we are pumping Big money out to Big Oil and Big Coal. No mention of trying to cut that expense!

How about if we cut subsidies to oil and coal companies (I think they will do just fine, even without that) and use those billions of dollars to develop renewable energy sources? Solar, Wind, Wave, Geo Thermal. Even just reducing our use of energy. The average person in America uses more than twice as much energy per person as the average European! A country with at least our standard of living uses less than half the amount of energy per person than we do! So we could cut in half how much energy we use per person and we would still be using more than every European uses! That would cut our emissions by 50% right there - more than any other country!

Instead we deny climate change and subsidize pollution with payments to oil and coal companies.

Worse we have a line up of clowns who want to close down the EPA (I can remember their name even if Rick Perry can't!) The Chamber of Commerce wants companies to regulate themselves! (Companies that do that have been caught out by the EPA. They checked one company that reported 3 to 5 tons of dangerous cancer causing chemical emissions per year and when the EPA tested them they found 91 tons per year! So much for self regulation.) If we relax pollution standards, as most Republicans want to do, we will do so at our peril. We hear that the companies will prosper more and hire more people. Guess what, companies have plenty of money, their coffers are flush with money (Our money) but they are not hiring. I think they are waiting for the Republicans to get in next year to cut regulations so they can make even more money. They won't hire any more people. If we relax pollution standards all we will have will be dirtier air and water and more cancer, asthma and other illnesses. Which will doubtless please the Health Industry no end! So all we will have will be more pollution and nothing to show for it. No jobs, just more dirt, and more climate change.

I could probably go on for hours, but will let you go. You get the idea. We`are all in dire danger - especially our children. All in the name of Greed. When it comes to money we count for nothing.

Dumb ideas.

2011-12-28T14:59:00.002-06:00

Has there EVER been a dumber idea than flat roofs? HELLO! Even blondes can see that a flat roof WON"T WORK! Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.

Let me explain, in case the highly retarded inventor of The Flat Roof is reading. If you put a slope on a roof, even a slight slope, it allows water - rain for example -to run off. This means the roof is not exposed to water (rain) laying on the roof 24/7/365 which deteriorates the roof. DUH!

Eventually, sooner or later, the roof WILL leak. Maybe that is the answer - it was invented by a roof repair company. Silly me. That must be the answer.

If you can think of dumber ideas I would be happy to hear them.

(War is out, that doesn't count.) (Ooh another one, US politicians, Congress people and such like, definitely out of the running .)

Continuation of my comments on Congress from a few days ago.

2011-12-24T14:29:00.002-06:00

As Mark Twain once said, "America is a nation without a distinct criminal class - with the possible exception of Congress."

And it is worse now than it was then!

"All men are created equal." - unless they are Congressmen.

"Do as I say, not as I do." was probably first said by a Congressman.

For example : -
The IRS reports the non-payment of taxes by 7.5% of Senators and 8.4% of Representatives.
39 Senators and 178 Representatives have criminal records.

We have in Congress a disturbing group of elected officials who routinely avoid paying their debts, write bad checks, abuse their spouses, assault people, and openly violate the law.

Recently; -
29 Members of Congress accused of spousal abuse.
3 arrested for fraud.
19 wrote bad checks.
117 bankrupted at least 2 businesses.
3 arrested for fraud.
71 have credit so bad they don't qualify for credit cards.
14 arrested on drug charges.
8 arrested for shoplifting.
21 are defendants in lawsuits.
84 stopped for drunk driving.

In a typical year 3,000 parking tickets are issued to Members of Congress. None are paid. Also as many as a hundred are stopped for drunk diving. "Some are so drunk they can't remember their names." said one police officer. But they cannot be charged. Why? because by law they cannot be charged.

These are the same people that make our laws. Notice that they have different laws for themselves.

What is important in politics?

2011-12-20T08:03:00.004-06:00

Apparently to many it is not The Economy - how to turn it around, how to Balance the Budget, whether to Cut or Increase Taxes, how to reduce Unemployment, fix our failing roads, bridges and airports, make College and University affordable for our best and brightest, or even the Pledge of Allegiance. No it is none of things, not one of them gets even a mention in the list of 14 things that the Evangelical group Family Leader wants the Republican candidates to sign.

Instead our politicians are told to sign a list of things that include denouncing same sex marriage, Sharia law and adultery. If they don't sign they will not be endorsed.

Other parts of the pledge include "Robust Reproduction", forswearing adultery, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, men and women in the military must not sleep under the same roof, candidates must agree to uphold the First Amendment (the right of free speech) - apparently the rest of the Bill of Rights doesn't count?

So there is nothing in there asking the candidates to pledge help to any citizens suffering in today's economy. No mention of forgiveness. Nothing at all to help the economy recover. Apparently all that matters in the USA today is a bunch of stuff about gays and marriage.

Sign, or else.

I seem to remember something about a lot of people coming here to escape religious persecution! Where are those people going to have to go now? The Moon? Mars? Certainly Religious Persecution is raising its ugly head now here in the United States of America.

What is important in politics?

2011-12-20T08:03:00.001-06:00

Corruption.

2011-12-18T15:23:00.007-06:00

When most of us think of corruption we almost certainly think of the leaders of countries in Africa, like Zimbabwe, or the Middle East, like Iran, or even such diverse countries as Venezuela or Uzbeckistan or Pakistan or Haiti. Plenty of corrution there and elsewhere. In fact on a scale of 1 to 10 half of the countries in the world rate a 5 or less. Well they would wouldn't they!

Of 180 countries the USA rates a surprising 24th (#1 is the least corrupt, and # 180 the most corrupt.) Surprising to me anyway, as I would rate the USA as MUCH more corrupt. Even as one of the most corrupt contries in the world!

I can imagine the indignation! How could I possibly rate the USA as corrupt, compared to countries where, "under the table" bribes are "normal".

Well here is my reasoning: -

Congress, that is the Senate and The House of Representatives, don't just take bribes like politicians do in many, if not most, countries of the world. They actually voted to make it legal! Yes they drafted and voted in laws that make it legal for them to take bribes. It is called Lobbying. Lobbyists bribe members of Congress, give them money or goods, to do their bidding.

How corrupt is that?

At least in most countries that take bribes, they do it "Honestly", by taking cash "Under the Table." In the USA they do it "Honestly" by making it legal! That to me is MORE corrupt.

The Health Industry for example spends One Million Dollars a DAY to bribe Congress to do what they - the Health Industry want. And it is not just the Health Industry. There is Big Oil, Big Business, Big Agriculture, Big Banks, Wall Street and countless others that spend millions of dollars to bribe Congress to do their bidding.

These Mega Crooks in Congress are so blatant in their criminality that they didn't even stop there. They also voted to give themselves a 100% pension every year for the rest of their lives after just one term in office. (Wouldn't you like to get a 100% pension for life after working at your job for just a couple of years? I'm sure you would!) And they receive free Health Insurance for life too. Not just the pitiful Insurance that we, the rabble, get. Oh no, they get a real good one. And they don't even pay for it! We do. Yep, they gave us that privilege too - to pay for not only our own Health Insurance but theirs too.

That is why I say that the USA is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. But maybe I should have just said that the Congress of the USA is.

Sobriety, wisdom and judgement - really?

2011-12-18T11:26:00.004-06:00

A recent article in a newspaper credited Mitt Romney with Sobriety, Wisdom and Judgement.

Using MY good judgement I have considered each one of these verdicts and come to my own opinions. These are : -

Sobriety - I give him a 'good' on this as I have not heard otherwise from any authorities, and I am sure that if he committed any improprieties while "Under the influence" we would have heard about them.

Wisdom - a sound 'F' on all counts here. His failure on ANY showing of Wisdom is awesomely apparent every day! Just watch any news program (except Fox "news") or read almost any newspaper to learn of his latest inconsistency, extravagance or non-sensical half baked idea.

Judgement - here I must question the judgement of anyone who would say that he has judgement! I can't think of a single instance when he has shown any sign of good judgement. Can you?

I await your answer with bated breath.

Just a bit of fun.

2011-12-17T12:27:00.003-06:00

Thinking back over the last few weeks I am struck by the "mistakes" made by the Republican line up for President.

Lets hope that if one of them gets elected to that post (Horror of horrors!) they don't make even more mistakes. Mistakes made when you have the kind of power that the President of the United States has, could end in the demise of us all!

I will begin my list with those gaffs of Michelle Bachman - ladies first.
"If elected I will close the Iranian Embassy in Tehran." It was closed, by President Carter, in 1980.
"Hurricane Irene was a divine message from God because we are not balancing our budget." No comment from me here!
"The HPV vaccine (to prevent sexually transmitted diseases) causes mental retardation." Here I wonder if she had the vaccine! (It does not cause mental retardation - in case you are wondering.)

To continue, let's move on to Rick Perry.
He got the date of the election in 2012 wrong - it is on November 6th 2012 not November 12th 2012. (To be fair to him, it has only been since 1845 that the date has been set as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.)
He is apparently also ignorant about when our youth is first allowed to vote - it is at age 18, not age 21 as he seems to think! Age 21 is when they are first legally allowed to drink alcohol. To set the record straight, they can drive at 16 (Too young in my opinion.) Serve in the armed forces at 18 (Way too young for anyone - I would make it 65 years of age for that privilege. Better yet make it MANDATORY for ANY politician of ANY age to serve in the front line if we get into a war!. That ought to drastically cut down on the number of wars we get into!)
He forgot the name of one of the three agencies that he wants to close down.
Here I must give him credit for saying that he is not good at debates! After all those blunders perhaps he should avoid speeches too? Certainly I would be EXTREMELY NERVOUS about letting him loose in The White House!

Lets move on to Mr Cain, although as he is out of the race it seems pointless to poke fun at him too. But I just can't resist!
He mistakenly thought that China was "developing" nuclear weapons! Hey don't laugh, who can keep up with all those countries that have nuclear weapons nowadays?
He thinks the US recognises the government of Taiwan. (We stopped recognising it 32 years ago!) I don't suppose China minds if the US President thinks we still recognise them. A minor mistake? Whats a little mistake between friends?
He asked some reporters interviewing him what Obama's policy was on Libya! I mean there was hardly anything about Libya on the news. Was there?
But he made up for all his errors with his strong character!

I'd start on Newt now, but I might run out of space.

And I have to pause to have a good laugh. Or perhaps I should have a nervous breakdown?

Once upon a time . . .

2011-12-16T07:44:00.003-06:00

. . . . there were millions of Bison, Passenger Pigeons, Ducks, small furry animals, fish and other animals - and just a few people. "Harvesting" some of these creatures was not a problem, you went out and got a duck for dinner and fed the family, or a deer and fed the community and your family for several days. A fishing trip brought about a change of diet, fish, crabs and shellfish. No problem. The population of "Food animals", was large, seemingly inexhaustible.

But now we are no longer few, we number in the millions, indeed the hundreds of millions. We know now that the "Wild food", is not inexhaustible and in fact many have become extinct - like the Passenger Pigeon that once numbered in the billions - or almost extinct like the Bison, and many fish and birds.

But do we change our habits? Of course not, we continue to hunt our "Inexhaustible" wild food to the point of extinction. And as we are many, inexorably growing in numbers and becoming increasingly clever in ways of catching our wild heritage, the pressure on them increases daily.

Also we now not only use these creatures for our food we use them for pet food, fertilizer, animal feed, any use that will bring in a profit, with no thought to what it is doing to us and our environment.

Some of the worst slaughter happens to animals we cannot even see, such as Oysters and Menhaden. Clean water is necessary for the survival not just of the country's animal, bird and fish populations but also for us. We too need clean water and air. Our greed for more money blinds us to this need. Oysters and Menhaden spend their whole lives, 24 hours a day, cleaning the waters of the Chesapeake Bay for example. So what do we do? We remove them. We eat the Oysters, and as we cannot eat all that are caught we ship the rest to other parts of the world. We can't eat the Menhaden, so we feed them to our animals, and to our pets, and to fish that we can eat, and for fertilizer.

So a miracle of efficiency is removed from the Bay and the Bay dies. Now we have to spend Billions of dollars to clean the Bay!! We had the worlds most efficient cleaners working at doing just that 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for free! Now we have removed them and will have to spend, probably more money than they brought in in the form of taxes to the State treasury, to clean the Bay.

Of course I should not ignore the fact that the removal of almost all of the Menhaden and Oysters has made a few people very rich and the attempts to clean the Bay will make more people rich. (This will never happen because more rich people will bribe the politicians to remove the teeth from any attempts to clean the Bay.) They want to continue to dump chicken manure into the Bay - because that is a cheaper way to dispose of it. And to pour billions of gallons of fertilizer, weedkiller and insecticide into the Bay - in pursuit of the "perfect" lawn - as millions of homeowners continue to do, because it is their "Right" to have a better lawn than their neighbors, even though they can see the dead fish floating off of their beaches, killed by their poisons washed into the water, and by the poisoned insects that the fish ate. Even though they can see the lack of Bay grasses that used to be there to nurture fish, crabs and other creatures essential to the Bays health, killed by their weedkillers. None of this seems to matter - as long as they can have that "Perfect" weed and insect free lawn.

My lawn is my idea of a perfect lawn. It has had no fertilizer on it, and yet it grows. (Perhaps because I let the grass clippings lay there) No insecticides are sprayed - there are still a few natural "Insecticides" around - called birds. No weedkillers - because I don't have any "weeds". I bet that surprises you! No, I don't have any "weeds", I have violets, I have, red, white and pink clover, I have a profusion of tiny yellow flowers, small red flowers, and countless other flowers that I can't begin to name. When I walk out onto my lawn and see the flowers, with the bees and other insects working them, I see a beautiful lawn. I look next door and see a boring green lawn, just one color. (The raft of dead fish float just off of his lawn) Look back at mine and it is lush with color, generous in its variety. So much so that I am reluctant to mow it!

We are killing not just our wonderful variety of animals, fish and birds as fast as we can, we are killing ourselves, and even more scary our children and grandchildren. How many children suffer from allergies and asthma now? A lot. Many times the numbers that suffered from those insidious ailments and afflictions just a few years ago. Of my parents, my friends, relatives and neighbors, I honestly can't recall any. But most of my grandchildren and their friends suffer from asthma and allergies. This has happened in two or three generations. What is to come if we continue to poison our home (The Earth) in the name of profit and greed?

Already we can see that it costs more to put back what we destroyed, but still we refuse to do the right thing. Corruption is so rampant in all walks of business, government and politics that we stand almost no chance of correcting our misdeeds.

Is it time for a political comment? More of an economic comment really.

2011-12-11T11:40:00.003-06:00

I was watching Fareed Zacharia on CNN this morning. For those of you who don't know him, he is an Economist who was born in India. He is also very intelligent and has a grasp on economic issues that keep on surprising me. He seems to cut to the meat of the situation or problem every time.

One of his guests this morning was John Huntsman - one of the Republican contenders for the Presidential nomination. If I were Obama I would more worried about John Huntsman than I would be about most of the other candidates. He made a lot of sense. There were still some problems, in my mind anyway. For one thing he supports cutting taxes, which I think is a mistake. It seems to me that we are way under taxed. Pretty obvious really when you consider that we borrow 40% of all that we spend! You couldn't keep that up at home for long, could you. But of course it is an easy vote getter to say "I want to cut your taxes".

The facts, as Zacharia pointed out, are that our tax rate at present is the LOWEST that it has been in more than 60 years! It is also the lowest of the top 28 world economies. In other words our tax rate is the lowest of the top 28 economies in the world. And it doesn't seem to be helping does it? He then pointed out that growth in all areas has historically been better when taxes were higher! Under Reagan and under Clinton for example.

Our infrastructure - roads, airports etc - standing in the world has dropped dramatically as had a long list of standings, not least of which was from number 1 in University graduations to number 14. Our output of graduates in the scientific areas was even worse.

Seems to me that we need an increase in taxes. And we should use the money to pay down our debt, to rebuild our roads, airports etc, and to help our young people to go into the maths and sciences at university. We should also encourage saving - remember when we used to be encouraged to save? I do. Those savings were used to loan money to businesses.

And while I'm at it, when you go to war you need to ask everyone to help and to sacrifice. That has always been the way. Now we just sit in front of the TV and watch the wars happening, like it was some sort of "Reality Show". I'm sure people would respond if we were told "Hey we are at war, we need everyone to pitch in. Cut your use of electricity, gasoline, or whatever is necessary. Oh and by the way, there will be a 'war tax', an across the board tax of 5% of every ones income to pay for the war (or whatever amount is deemed necessary)" That would bring home to everyone that we are at war. And it might bring it to an end earlier.

Just a few common sense thoughts.

Why do we NEVER learn?

2011-12-08T12:36:00.002-06:00

Yesterday my Blog mentioned World War Two. Wouldn't you think a War that killed an estimated at least 40 million people would have said "never war no more more" even more than the "Ban the Bomb" movement of my day. But no, war continues to be our favorite pastime.

On another note, the Depression of 1929 followed a time of no restrictions, regulations or controls on Big Banks and Wall Street. And what are Republicans calling for now? Removing all controls and regulations on Big Banks and Wall Street. They refuse to vote for the new regulator, even though a new law that they voted in just last year requires a regulator. Every day that the Republicans delay means thousands of people are vulnerable to unrestricted banks and loan agencies that are charging as much as 25% a MONTH in interest! That's 300% a year! And with no regulator in place there is no one to stop it.

Talk about not learning from past mistakes, here we are struggling to come out of a financial disaster caused by unregulated banks that were allowed to gamble with OUR money and the Republicans are trying to get even the weak regulations that are in place now, removed. What are they thinking? Do they think that banks will regulate themselves? Or are they so much in the pockets of the Big Banks and Wall Street that they think they have no choice but to do their bidding?

I give up - which doubtless is what the greed mongers want.

December 7 th, a day that will live in infamy.

2011-12-07T13:10:00.002-06:00

NPR - National Public Radio did a wonderful program today on the attack on Pearl Harbor, the events leading up to and following it. They also discussed Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt and it included a lot of things that I had not known before - I am 70 years old and consider myself well read - as I like to say, "You learn something new every day."

I urge all Americans, and indeed all non-Americans to read about World War Two, as well as any other things that might interest them. In fact I even suggest reading books and stories that may not seem of interest to you - you might be surprised at what you learn. You can never learn too much. Knowledge is its own reward and its own escape from, and into, the World at large.

I have never regretted reading or learning anything. You just cannot know too much, but you can definitely know too little. Many, many people know too little - it is known as ignorance and ignorance is a blight suffered by far too many of us. To be Ignorant is to be Unaware and Incompetent.

Ben Franklin said "If you think Education is expensive, try Ignorance." and Mark Twain said, "If you have Ignorance and Confidence, success is sure." (Don't quote me here but doesn't that seem to describe several of the Republican candidates today?)

Why I don't take sugar in my tea or coffee.

2011-12-05T07:28:00.002-06:00

Isn't that a strange title? I am sure that it really grabs your attention! Not! Anyway, if anyone has read this far possibly they are interested enough to read the "rest of the story", as someone famous once said.

When I was about 17 years old and an apprentice in the British Admiralty we drank tea at the two tea breaks each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

We`all contributed a very small amount of money each week to cover the cost of the tea, sugar and milk. One day I was there to pick up my mug of tea, and the "Tea Waller" as we called him, asked if I took sugar. I did, and said I so, whereupon he put the spoon into the bowl to get some sugar for me. I glanced into the bowl and seeing some black spots asked what they were. looking in, Ted the Tea Waller said matter of factly, "Mouse droppings". He then took the spoon, removed most of them and dumped them unceremoniously onto the floor.

I have not taken sugar in my tea or coffee ever since - over 50 years! I was going to take my own sugar in to use, but never did get around to it and found that I quite liked my tea without sugar.

A teaspoon of sugar is about 25 calories. I think I probably took 2 teaspoons, so 50 calories. I drink between four and six cups of tea or coffee a day, lets say five. Five times 50 equals 250 calories a day saved. Times 365 days equals 91,250 calories a year. Times 50 years equals 45,625,000 calories.

Aren't figures fun? So, it is generally considered that a pound of fat is 3500 calories. If I divide my 45,625,000 calories by 3500 I come up with one thousand three hundred and three and a half pounds! Now, I weigh 160 pounds, so if I had taken sugar in my tea and coffee for the last 50 years I would now weigh 1463 pounds! (I took off the extra half a pound - for that time I was sick and would have had less cups of tea.) A sobering thought!

Talking about sobering, how many calories are in a beer or a glass of Scotch . . . . .

Fog.

2011-11-07T06:48:00.002-06:00

As many of my faithful readers know, I have often said that The Lake is different every time that I look at it. This can mean day to day, hour to hour and even minute to minute. I suppose if you wanted to be a real stickler you could even say second to second or nano-second to nano-second - whatever they are - because of course it is never EXACTLY the same. The waves are different, the leaves and the birds are in different positions and so on.

But of course I am not referring to the ever changing nano-seconds, or even seconds and minutes. Although I must say that a few minutes can indeed make a big difference, when the sun comes up in the morning the colors on The Lake and the trees do indeed change by the minute, as it does at sunset, or when the sun goes behind a cloud.

But today I am reporting on a major difference to "The Norm", at 6.00 am today as I struggled out of bed to head for my morning coffee my gaze was met by a blank view of white through the window! Had Julia put up white curtains in the night and pulled them across? Of course she hadn't, Mother Nature not Julia, had changed my view of the world and more specifically of The Lake, it was enshrouded in thick fog.

My view of the world was all white. I could not even see the pier a mere 100 feet away and even the trees right in front of the windows were mere shadows.

It is now 8am and the light of my life, known by others as the Delightful Julia, has emerged from her coma and drowsily commented that it is foggy out. I, of course report that it was indeed very foggy a couple of hours ago, but that now it is just a little foggy, almost a mist in fact. The Lake looks almost like something with the edges taken off, sort of rounded, like a pastel painting or one of those Chinese Artists renditions, that they do so well.

I can hear the fog horns on the Bay and the sun is doing its work of burning off the fog. Soon it will be gone and I will be able to view The Lake in all its Glorious Fall Colors.

Gotta get some more coffee and settle down to watch.

Peace.

2011-11-02T09:23:00.002-05:00

Peace, Silence, Stillness, that is what I am seeing outside of my window today. A scene of perfection if I ever saw one. The only movements are of clouds of birds as they glide by and the occasional leaf as it flaps it's way down to join the others on the growing mat of colors on my lawn.

I have stuff to do today, how wonderful it would be instead to stay here and watch, as Seinfeld would say - nothing.

But I have to do stuff. Get the Pick Up Truck after it's major repair, pick up straw and chicken food, visit the bank, call customers, clean out the chicken house, dump my compost tumbler and refill it, spread the compost onto the garden. Pull old plants and weeds and consign them to the compost tumbler along with the chicken sh*t. Light the fire, get wood in, feed the cats, and that is just this morning! There is more for the afternoon, but I won't bore you with that, you have your own stuff to do I'm sure.

Meanwhile I think I will have another cup of coffee and enjoy that peaceful world outside my window for a few more minutes before I have to join the fray of "The Real World."

Winston Churchill

2011-11-02T08:35:00.003-05:00

Winston Churchill said that America will always do the right thing - after they have first exhausted all other possibilities.

I guess the question is, have we exhausted all other possibilities yet? It would certainly seem that we must be getting close, how many other things are there left for us to do before we 'do the right thing' - whatever that may be.

The alternative may be collapse. That is what seems to happen to things when they build up too much.

Take The Mighty Roman Empire, few know that it collapsed, not over centuries, but over one or two decades. The Ming Dynasty in China, built up over centuries fell in a single decade. The Incas were masters of all they surveyed in 1520, by 1530 they were all gone, destroyed by Spaniards, gunpowder and disease.

Closer to home and our time, in case you think those things happened a long time ago and can't happen now, how about the Soviet Union - was that sudden enough for you? What about the dictatorships of North Africa? Ali, Mubarick, Ghadaffi, here today with their fortunes and palaces, gone tomorrow.

Is the European economy about to collapse? And if it does, can ours be far behind? The history of collapses shows them to be sudden, not slow declines as you might think. Sudden and complete.

Oh, did I forget to mention that ALL of those collapses that I mentioned, as well as all the others over the centuries, were all the result of GREED. (You can check in with Wall Street, Bankers, Goldman Sachs et al on the meaning of GREED.)

Beware. And be ready. If you can!

Seven Billion . . .

2011-11-01T17:29:00.004-05:00

. . .Dollars or People? Both actually, the world now officially has seven billion people to support. Coincidentally, Goldman Sachs, a name synonamous with the word Greed, has set aside $7 Billion dollars for Bonuses for it's already Super Overpaid employees. Its associates alone are set to receive an average of $3 million each in bonuses, and there are around 500 associates!

Unbelievably, that money could give one dollar to every single person in the entire world!! Or looking at it another way, if the average family consists of five persons, each family would receive $5.

It may be of interest to you to know that Goldman Sachs received $6 Billion dollars in bailout money from US - YOU AND ME!!! Now they are going to take that $6 Billion dollars of OUR hard earned money, add another Billion to it, and share it out among themselves!!

$6 Billion dollars works out at around $20 for every person in the USA. Or using my earlier figure of 5 people per family it is about $100 per family, that is how much we gave Goldman Sachs to "Bail them out". I don't know about you, but I could put $100 to a lot better use than giving bonuses to the very people that caused the problems that I, and the entire country, is suffering from.

Can anyone tell me why they deserved to receive $6 Billion of our money? Is it for doing such a great job? At what? At robbing us? At destroying our economy? At setting a new standard for greed?

Just in case you didn't already know, I am pretty upset. I can certainly understand why the 99% are upset with the 1%.

Nature Paints a Picture.

2011-10-31T15:47:00.006-05:00

The view from here today is breathtaking - no I am not referring to my view of Julia, which of course is always thrilling and exciting - instead I allude to the view from our Window on The Lake, which is now at it's most amazing. The colors are as bright as any in nature, surely it would be impossible for even a Michelangelo to capture and do justice to this scene? And here it is, laid out before me to enjoy for free.

Wait, let's not get too carried away now, Anne Arundel County does of course impose a heavy penalty for living in the Land of the FREE and the Brave, a penalty known as Property Taxes which they are glad to collect from us at the rate of about $150 a week, or about three times as much as we spend for food, four times as much as we spend on road tax, insurance and gas for our car, but less than one quarter of what we spend on our mortgage. I'm not sure if it is a bargain or not, but I certainly can no more imagine living without my view of The Lake than I could of not enjoying my daily dose of inhaling the beauty of Julia.

Just another day in Heaven.

2011-10-20T21:27:00.002-05:00

Well here it is - Paradise, otherwise known as The Lake.

The day began as another perfectly clear day On The Lake with the sun painting the trees their magical, ethereal colors as it worked its way across them, almost like an artist painting a picture, except a thousand times more beautiful.

Then came the breeze to ruffle the water, and the leaves, and the air. Gradually it changed to a strong wind, moving the grass and the trees and a lawn chair; and kicking up the waves. In fact the wind was so strong that it pushed the water from the Bay into The Lake, raising the level at least a foot. The wind seems to make everything cleaner somehow doesn't it? Just like a heavy rain.

Then came the Coup-De-Gras - another perfect sunset.

It's just like Heaven living here - without the trouble and expense of dying.

I just don't understand why we don't get any visitors, I shower, I shave, I use deodorant, I even try to be nice to people, I'd love to share, but something keeps everyone away, it can't be Julia, so it must be me.

Awful story of retarded people kept prisoner.

2011-10-18T10:32:00.002-05:00

I was just watching the story of 4 retarded people being kept prisoner for their Soc Sec checks, and wondered how could anyone take advantage of poor people and so be so greedy?

Then it hit me!!! Bankers! They must have learned it from the bankers! Greedy, take advantage of the poor. An exact match.

Separation of Church & State.

2011-10-18T07:49:00.002-05:00

Separation of Church and State, a statement that seems to make sense. We have all seen what happens to countries that involve Religion into their Politics. And yet we seem "Hell Bent" on repeating those mistakes.

I cannot imagine that I am the only one who see's a tremendous shift in American's feelings swinging towards the Religious Rights view that the Church should be fully involved in the running of the country.

Will we become a country like Iran, and a bunch of other screwed up countries, run by fanatical religious rulers? (Like our Religious Right.) Or will the sane amoung us prevail and keep the two separate?

At first the answer seems obvious, but if we look back over our history we can see an American prediliction to extreme swings, excesses, changes that no one could have predicted. I refer to things like, McCarthyism and Prohibition, not to mention, Fat, Guns, Wealth and Blacks sit in the back. All excesses and extremes that have no place in a balanced society.

I predict another wild swing in America's long list of swings, to the "Religious Right", (Who I am not afraid to say - although I should be afraid to say it - will take over and destroy the American Way of Life.) and bring us to ur knees, a la Iranian politics, where the people with the most extreme views hold the most power.

Just what is happening here! The more extreme you are in your views the more popular you are!

What is it with Americans?

A couple more extremes in America that I'd like to mention:-

America is the only Industrialized country in the world without a National Health Care System for its citizens.

Perhaps related to that fact is the fact that that Child Abuse in America is the worst of all the Industrialized Nations! With child deaths from abuse and neglect 3 times that of Canada and Europe. Texas has the worst record - by far.

Health Care costs in the USA are a least double, and often many times more, than any other civilized country. (And not necessarily better either.)

Gun deaths. By civilized countries we are pretty much "top" about 50 times as many as the UK for example.

Fat, hey we are not the fattest country! But we are just behind those island nations like Tonga where it is tradition to be as fat as possible. So except for them we are the fattest.

Wealth. Is it necessary to tell you that we have the most extreme differences in wealth? Income gap is higher here than anywhere.

America, Land of Extremes and Excesses. And about the become Extremely Ruled by Religion?

Unobtrusive surveilance.

2011-10-13T10:17:00.006-05:00

Doubtless you are wondering what this title has to do with my usual political and environmental issues. The answer is nothing.

It is merely an observation on the surveillance capabilities of our police and intelligence services. And it is worrying.

One day about two weeks ago I observed this large black SUV parked across the street from our house. It was NOT inconspicuous, it was very large, very black, had very darkly tinted windows and the engine was running.

So I went out to investigate. The windows were very heavily tinted, the engine was running, I peered in through the drivers side and then the passenger side and the windshield, but it was impossible to see anything. I looked up and down the street for the driver. Nothing. Perhaps he had walked down to the water. I walked down there but found no one. Back to the car, surely if someone was in there they would have identified themselves? Why was the engine running? It was 70 degrees, no need for heating, or cooling. It was a mystery, I decided to call the police, but first I checked the back of the car looking for a hose going from the tailpipe to inside the car, but there was nothing.

As I started to walk back to my house another large gray SUV pulled in very close to the first car, the window on the first car slid down. I was pretty upset and headed over to find out what was happening. The man from the second car intercepted me and to my inquiry as to what was happening, simply said "I am a policeman." Meanwhile the window on the first car had gone up without my being able catch a glimpse of the inside. Then another vehicle pulled in, a mini-van with a woman in. She stayed inside. The man from car number two then said they were watching our neighbors house and had I ever seen this man there - producing a thick sheaf of papers with a mans photo on the top sheet. I had not, and told him so.

But perhaps my wife had seen him. So we headed over to my house where my wife and another neighbor were watching from the doorway. (Not the neighbor from the house that they were interested in.)

The mystery man remained incognito, inside of his Big Black SUV. The woman in the mini-van that I had at first assumed was just stranger turned out to be police as well. She also stayed in her car.

Over at our house the picture was again produced and both Julia and Christine - the neighbor - were unable to identify him.

At this time I realized that we actually had no idea who these people were, apart from saying police at first meeting him, I really didn't know. So I asked him for I.D. which he promptly produced and it showed him to be a Howard County policeman. We asked what the problem was with the man and he replied that he was wanted for assault. Our question, "What kind of assault." received the reply, "With a knife."

I asked who was in the mysterious black SUV and was told "A Federal Marshall."

It was at this point that Julia suddenly asked to see the picture again and said she thought that it was the man she had seen walking up and down the road several weeks earlier. Our neighbor Mike had seen him as he left to drive down to his health club and had called Julia to "Warn" her about him. Julia saw him out on the road walking up and down and said that he did indeed look a bit suspicious, but thought no more of it.

The detective seemed to get excited and we all discussed what to do. The lady who lived next door in the house being watched had been widowed when her husband died the previous year and now lived alone. Unless the wanted man was there! We had none of us seen her for weeks or even months. But we had seen both her son, from Pennsylvania, and her daughter, from no-one-knew-where, visit her from time to time. But no one knew how to contact them. Then I wondered about the man who mowed her lawn once a week, he was the most likely to have seen a stranger there because he saw her every week. Christine knew where he lived and was going to take the detective there to meet him, but just as they were about to leave they saw the man, who also happened to be a Baltimore City policeman, mowing a nearby lawn.

Having talked to him and he reporting not having seen the "Person of interest." The detective went and knocked on the door. By this time I had left to go to work.

When I got home I was informed that the wanted man was our neighbors brother who lived in South, or North, Carolina, I can't remember which.

Presumably they obtained his address, and maybe they have "Apprehended" him, we really don't know.

Anyway, that is our story of an "Unobtrusive Surveillance." Pretty scary isn't it?

Scary because they were trying to observe the house without being noticed! It turned out that there was yet another car up at the next corner! Four cars in all. Certainly not a traffic ticket problem! And not even an assault with a knife. I would be surprised at such an effort even for a murderer! Very mysterious.

If I had to give some advice for a surveillance operation - first I would say turn off your engine, that would have made the car much less noticeable. I probably would not have investigated except for maybe a casual glance. And of course a "Normal" car would also have drawn much less interest. A Big Black car with Impenetrable Black Windows might as well have had a red flag flying over it. Even a knock at a neighbors door near the subject might have given the required information or a place to put their car where it would be less obvious.

Bur maybe they would be afraid of the neighbor calling to warn them. Who knows.

If that is an example of our unobtrusive observance, I despair, it is a wonder that we ever catch anyone.

Why I watch CNN

2011-10-11T07:09:00.003-05:00

It's no secret that I am Democrat. But not an extremist. In fact one of my favorite sayings is "Moderation in everything, including moderation."

It seems to me that today we have more and more extremists. I am not only talking about extremist Islamic Muslims. We have our very own home grown extremists right here in America in the form of extremist Christians. Extreme Muslims, extreme Christians, what is the difference? Religion over the ages has a lot to answer for. There have undoubtedly been more wars fought, and more people killed, over religion than any other cause or for any other reason.

But that is another blog for another time.

There seem to be more and more extreme right wing Conservatives and more and more extreme left wing Liberals as time goes on. Why is that?

I have my own little theory. It is because more and more we are not being exposed to a fair sided discussion of politics. We get only one side of the picture.

If you are a Republican you "Have" to watch FOX News and listen to Rush Limbaugh - or you are not a true Republican. And if you watch FOX and listen to Rush you are only going to get one Extreme side of the whole story.

If you are a Democrat you "Have" to watch MSNBC and listen to Mike Malloy - or you are not a true Democrat. And if you watch MSNBC and listen to Mike you are only going to get one Extreme side of the whole story.

What is the answer? Well I have found that people who watch FOX say that CNN is too far to the left, and people who watch MSNBC say that CNN is too far to the right! That says to me that CNN must be the way to go. Another alternative is BBC NEWS, BBC NEWS reports the news - just the news - with no comment or slant. They leave it up to you to interpret it. (Something that no one could accuse FOX or MSNBC of doing!)

Just think, if you only watch FOX or MSNBC you are NOT getting a fair and balanced picture of what is happening in the world and more especially in American politics. Why would anyone want to do that? (Not get both sides of the picture in some semblance of a fair and balanced view?) I really don't know.

Perhaps it is because we have a tendency to exaggeration, which I suppose is a form of extremism. How many times have you heard from your spouse or a co-worker "You ALWAYS . . . " Rarely is it true that you - "Always leave the lights on, or the table a mess, or forget your appointments, or are late." But that is what we say to each other.

Then we see that "The other side" (The other political party.) has exaggerated something, so naturally we over exaggerate our "side" to compensate for their exaggeration. And it snowballs. Unfortunately when you get people going to such extremes it can get out of hand, as has happened here, today. And no one will listen to anything that "The other side says". Even to the point now that if something that is a basic tenet of Party A is proposed by Party B, Party A will vote it down!!

I don't know the answer but when we get so far apart it can only mean trouble. It is how wars have started.

Wonder.

2011-10-07T06:06:00.003-05:00

Or should I say Wondrous? The Lake at 6.30 this morning was indeed a sight to behold. The water was perfectly still with the trees on the opposite shore exactly reflected in it's placid surface. There was just the trace of a thin line of mist laying just above its calm surface. Such peace and tranquility. If only our lives could be so quiet, at least for a brief while. Well I suppose they are sometimes, and this, for me, is one of those times.
The trees are starting to turn to their wondrous shades of gold, copper, red, yellow and every other color that they magically show us.
Right now the mist is rising and growing at differing rates at various spots on The Lake. I wonder what that is? Why? Soon the haze will all be burned off.
Two nights ago I woke up at 1.30am and there right outside of my bedroom window was a huge orange disc, no it wasn't some alien spaceship, it was our very own moon. Not quite full, but close, it seemed to be settling directly into the trees across from me. Big and bright and beautiful. In minutes it was gone.
The mist is starting to disperse and small ripples are beginning to appear on that still surface.
Yesterday, when I walked down to our little pier, there was a large log lying quietly alongside the dock looking almost as if it had tied up there for the day. It was a commercially cut piece of timber about a foot square and 20 foot long. It would soon drift away. It looked useful, I could not think at that moment for what, but it did look useful, so I tapped a stick into the The Lake's sandy bottom to hold the piece in place. I would think about it.
It was completely waterlogged, lying so low in the water that its upper surface was at the same level as the waters surface. If it weighed the same as the water that it was floating in, which it must do, it would weigh in at 62.5 pounds times 20 feet = more than 1200 pounds or well over a half a ton. How could I possibly get it out of the water? Could several people drag it out? Could I hook a come-along to it and a tree and winch it out? Why would I want to? Once it was out how would I move it? Where to? For what? It was treated so I would not want to burn it and put its poisons into the air.
On the other hand once it was out of the water and laying on dry land it would dry out and lose maybe half of it's weight. I still had no idea what to use it for. And still don't, but the log is sitting there quietly and motionless waiting for that inspiration from my brain that will decide it's fate.

New bank fees.

2011-10-05T11:22:00.004-05:00

Just a quick comment on the new bank fees. First, we bailed out the banks because their "get rich quick" schemes emptied their accounts - theirs and ours - and drove the US economy to the brink.

Now they are whining that they don't have enough money. (For what? Their bonuses, that were huge in the years they were bankrupting themselves and us, and even bigger when we gave them money to rescue themselves. Now I suppose they are afraid they may not be able to pay themselves even bigger bonuses.)

So they are going to charge us $5 a month to spend our own money! Five dollars for a transaction that costs them almost nothing to process. That is $60 a year. I guess if they have a customer base of several million that will give them another year of their obscene bonuses. Let me see 5 million accounts times $60 equals $300 million, yes that will give us all a small bonus this year. (That would be one bank)

And don't think it will end there, these people have huge immaginations when it comes to ways of stealing our money.

Corporations are people too?

2011-09-30T05:49:00.002-05:00

Well that is what the Supreme Court says. And Mitt Romney as well.

But I think that I would disagree with that assessment.

Corporations can last for hundreds of years, people can't.

Corporations can't go to prison, people can.

Corporations can't be executed, people can.

Corporations can steal millions of dollars from the government and continue to work for, and steal from, the government. People can't.

Corporations can have incomes in the hundreds of billions of dollars and profits in the tens of billions of dollars and pay no tax. People can't. Well, maybe there are some that can do that, if they have friends in high places, like Congress, and if they make huge political donations, like Corporations do.

O.K. differences are starting to fade. I'd better end this post before I start to agree with Mitt Romney! That would never do.

Divide the country?

2011-09-29T13:55:00.003-05:00

Things are getting so divisive that I had this great idea.

We could divide the country in two with a fence, the Republicans can live on one side with dirt roads, no healthcare, no police, no fire dept, no libraries and no taxes.

The Democrats can live on the other side with paved highways, health care, police and fire protection and clean air & water.

I suspect that pretty soon they would be knocking on the door asking to be let in!

The Lake in Thick Fog.

2011-09-27T07:41:00.002-05:00

As I have said many times The Lake looks different every day, even each hour, and sometimes by the minute.

Yesterday and today we had fog early. Today it was not as thick as yesterday, I could still see the shadowy outline of the trees on the far shore, whereas yesterday I could barely even see the form of the pier which is only 100 feet from the house.

There is something eerie about thick fog, sounds are at least muted or sometimes non-existent. I wonder, is that the blanketing effect of the fog or do the birds and insects "Go quiet" in fog?

I'll have to pay closer attention next time it happens. With double glazing and secure in our own little cocoon here you can barely hear anything even when it isn't foggy, so when the next fog falls on us I will have to go outside and listen.

Democrats and Republicans.

2011-09-26T10:32:00.002-05:00

I thought that the far left Democrats and the far right Republicans were just about as far left and far right as you could get. But I was wrong.

I just found out that you CAN go further to the left and the right. If you go further to the left than the most extreme left Democrats you will come to the Socialist Party. And if you go further to the right than the most extreme right Republicans you will come to the American Nazi Party.

In my humble opinion America is no place for either of these extreme beyond extreme Parties.

Tea Party "Christians"

2011-09-21T21:22:00.002-05:00

I saw, on TV, "Christians", who when asked if a 30 year old man, who decided not buy health insurance, should be allowed to die if he was in a severe accident and needed treatment. These Tea Party "Christians" shouted "Yes".

When it was mentioned that Rick Perry had been the Texas Govenor during the execution of 234 men, a cheer went up from the same Tea Party "Christians".

Now I am not what I would call highly religious, although I do consider myself a Christian, but I do have a problem with associating myself with these people who call themselves Christians. This is a different kind of Christian that I have ever been associated with or understood Christians to be.

Something is wrong somewhere.

Easy question.

2011-09-20T12:11:00.002-05:00

I have an easy quiz for you. Just one easy question, here goes.

You hire a contractor, he does the work, lets say he puts up 10 feet of fencing. He then bills you for 50 feet of fencing!

Now for that easy question, "Would you hire him again?"

I am going to assume that you answered correctly, and the same as I did - "No"

Well now, here is the interesting thing, a lot of large corporations that are hired by the Federal Government cheat them, or to put it another way, commit fraud! Now wouldn't you think that would make them ineligible to do work for the Federal Government again? Well you would be wrong. They might get a fine, but they can keep right on bidding and working for the Feds!

You probably read about a couple of the local cases recently. Maxim Health in Columbia Md. stole $60 MILLION from the Federal Government (Hey, that would be us wouldn't it?) They paid a fine, and they are back to work. I wonder what the Federal Government would do if I stole $60 million from them? Do you think I'd be welcome to keep on working for them, or would I be in jail? Then there was St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md. they billed the Government and Insurance companies for 600 Stents that, "Were unnecessary", Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury Md. did the same for 200 stents - are they a smaller Medical Center or just not so bold as St. Joseph?

One of St. Josephs doctors gave lessons, paid for by the stent manufacturer, on how to sell stents to patients. Apparently he was highly sucessful, as I seem to remember that at least 90% of the stents he sold and installed were unnecessary!

I guess my question is, why is this allowed to happen? Wouldn't it stop if they were struck off, and not allowed to do any work for the Federal Government if they deliberately cheated them. (Us) Others see that you only get a slap on the wrist if you are caught, and then you can go right back to the same old, same old, not much of a deterrant.

By the way as`you heard Mitt Romney say, and the Supreme Court too, "Corporations are people." They are happy to be treated like people, because as "people" they can own property, seek redress in courts and in Congress (where all their friends are!), and, of course they can make huge political contributions. (See one line above - Congress, where all their friends are!) Now, when it comes to being "people" who cheat/steal from the Federal Government they are suddenly treated differently to real people, like you and me, all of a sudden Corporations can't go to prison. They can't even be banned from working for the very government that they stole from!! (Like you and me undoubtedly would.)

Does anyone know why Corporations are treated differently, as in much more leniently, than real people? They say they want to be treated like people, the courts say they are people, even Mitt Romney says they are people, but when it comes to punishment they are not so real after all!

Could it have anything to do with having friends in Congress? No, surely not! Just because as real people they are allowed to give HUGE contributions to politicians, that wouldn't make a difference would it?

No, I didn't think so.

Profit over patients.

2011-09-19T19:43:00.002-05:00

The American health INDUSTRY continues to put their Profits above the interests of Patients. You will no doubt have noticed that I put Health INDUSTRY, as opposed to what every other civilized country in the world calls their Health SERVICE.

That is because that is exactly what the American Health INDUSTRY is - an INDUSTRY, interested in nothing except their profits. That is why the cost of health care in this country is at least double that of every other country in the world - bar none. In fact some countries health care is even less than half the cost of ours, even as much as one quarter as much. AND as good, or better. Don't believe it when the Health INDUSTRY here tells you the health care in this country costs more because it is better, That is simply not true.

It is no more true than statements like, "We have to best road system" - not true, as anyone who has been to Europe, the UK or even Croatia can tell you! "We have the best Financial system." Really, really long, long pause here while I laugh!!! We may have the richest Bankers and Wall Steet types, because they have stolen so much from us that everyone except them is now poor. "Best cars"? Once maybe, but not anymore - drive a Japanese car and see. "Best drugs"? Have you read the reports lately about the drugs that do nothing, but have to be put out there so that the drug companies can "Recover their costs". How many drugs have you read about that have had to be recalled? Or the manufacturers are being sued, because they not only did not help, they damaged and even killed people?

Well guess what - that is what the Health INDUSTRY is doing, killing us, for profit. Stents are being put into thousands of people. Some reports say that there are ten times too many put in, some say a hundred times too many! Multiply that by 10 and a 100 different operations and treatments and you get the idea that the only thing the health INDUSTRY is interested in is PROFIT, at our expense. Almost every treatment used is way over used. We are operated on because they can collect money for it, not because it will help US - because it will help THEM.

Advice from Geithner!!

2011-09-16T11:15:00.002-05:00

I just heard that Tim Geithner is on his way to Europe to tell them how to fix their financial problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse me while I laugh. Long, long, LONG pause here!!!

I would have to say that any financial advice that the US gives to Europe or ANYONE should be soundly IGNORED!!! In fact if ANY US banker gave ANY advice, my advice would be to do the opposite.

Because obviously we are in no position to advise anyone - unless it is someone who is looking to commit financial suicide.

We don't have the slightest idea of how to manage anything, not banking, exporting, importing, our air or water pollution, or virtually anything to do with running or operating a country, as we have proved by ruining our own country. So my advice is if you want advice, go elsewhere.

(For political people, my comments apply equally to Democrats and Republicans - no maybe more to Republicans, it was them more than the Democrats responsible for the raping of the American Financial System, which caused our present finacial collapse.)

3.30 am.

2011-09-16T06:32:00.002-05:00

It was 3.30 am when a loud BEEP, BEEP, BEEPING erupted from the tiny travel alarm clock on Julia's side of the bed. It continued for a full minute before Julia, a strong candidate for the Gold Medal in the "Olympic Sleeping" event, groans and says, "Wa's tha'"? I reply, "It's your alarm." The beeping continues. I say, "It's going off." She struggles to sit up and pick up the offending object - a small Ikea clock. After unsuccessfully trying to turn it off, she hands it to me, says, "Turn it off." and heads for the bathroom.

I, equally unsuccessfully, attempt to turn it off. It has only three controls, one to set the time, one to set the alarm and one to turn the alarm on and off. I flip the alarm switch, nothing. I turn it on and off several times, no joy. So I open the bedroom door, go out onto the deck and throw the clock as far out into The Lake as I can.

Not really, just kidding.

OK removing the clock's battery would seem to be the smart answer, not stomping on it, or throwing it, or even putting it under the mattress, which were some of my first thoughts. I opened up the battery compartment and there was the little AA battery neatly nestled in it's own little space. Firmly in it's space, it turned out I should have said, it would not come out. I paused, how long could it continue to BEEP? I quickly decided too long and picked up a pencil to pry it out of it's cozy home. First the pencil's point broke, then the wood. Something stronger was needed, I found a handy dandy pair of nail scissors and did a successful batteryotomy that any surgeon would have been proud of at 3.30 in the morning, while still half asleep.

Silence reigned.

By now I was fully awake. As I lay there I wondered what would happen if I replaced the battery, would it start to BEEP again, or would it reset itself and start working properly? I tried to put the battery back, it was fairly dark and I could not see which way the battery should go in. It did not want to go in either way, had it expanded since I took it out a few minutes ago. or had the space shrunk? It is strange the way the mind works in the dark in the middle of the night. The battery WOULD go in I decided, it really didn't matter which way, if nothing happened one way I'd try the other. I pushed and in it went, there was an odd sort of moaning sound, but no BEEP. I looked at the face, nothing moved. I pried the battery out and replaced it the other way. Silence. The clock was dead.

Time to go to Ikea and spend another $2.99 or whatever.

Back to sleep.

On using up my remaining time!

2011-09-15T13:51:00.003-05:00

I went into the Post Office today to mail a small package. There were two people working the desk and two people in line ahead of me. So, wait 25 minutes, go to desk, lady looks at my package and points out that there is no zip code. I stare at her. She tells me that I can go to the machine in the lobby and get the zip code. I go out there. A man is using the machine. Apparently he has never used it before. He learns how to use it. And how to use it again, and again, and how to pay with a credit card. My turn. I find the zip code. I have no pen! I memorize it and go back into PO. Go up to the counter and borrow a pen to write the zip on my packakge. Back into line. Twenty minutes later I am called, but a "Lady" rushes in and goes straight to the counter with a "Quick question".The counter lady takes care of her. Finally I am there. My zip is written on a piece of scotch tape I am told/scolded, and might rub off. She writes it onto a piece of paper and sticks it into place.

Finished

Remove one hour from my "Alloted time."

Musings.

2011-09-12T05:23:00.002-05:00

In 1962 I was 21 years old. I'd had a few girlfriends, but was not real comfortable talking to girls. I was awkward. Shy? Embarrassed? Then in June of 1962 I met Julia. All of a sudden I was cool and confident, smart, intelligent, interesting! I'm not sure how long it was before I realized that it wasn't me that changed and became SuperDave, it was Julia. I'm still not sure if I changed because I HAD to, to win this awesome girl, or because she somehow magically changed me with her magic. Or was there some chemical magic?

Who knows? Anyway there is no doubt that I changed, and my life changed, for the better.

As I like to say to people when I, occasionally, get something right - "That is the second time in my life that I got something right. The first time was when I asked Julia to marry me, and the second time was this."

Long may we live, and long may I continue to fool Julia into thinking me SuperDave.

Where were you on Sept 11th 2001?

2011-09-09T22:17:00.002-05:00

Julia and I were in England. England is 5 hours ahead of the east coast of the US.

We had gone to the Waitrose supermarket in Waterlooville, a small town about 5 miles from my parents house. The four of us shopped for a while and had lunch. My parents left and drove home at about 1.00pm (Remember England is 5 hours ahead of the east coast of the US.) Julia and I continued shopping and then drove home just after 2.00. We talked on the way home, so did not turn on the radio. I turned our car into the driveway of my parents little brick bungalow and turned off the engine. My father, who was 82 years old came running out shouting "Have you heard? Do you have the radio on?" Not knowing what he was talking about we said "No, what happened?" He said, "America has been attacked."

We`all rushed in and watched the nightmare unfold on their TV. I remember saying, "The world will never be the same again."

The phone rang, it was our daughter Sarah calling from the USA. We were all watching it on TV when the second plane hit. Sarah was screaming. Julia tried to calm her down, and said, "Make yourself a cup of tea." I remember she said that several times. Then the first tower collapsed. Sarah was crying and shouting. We were all dazed and did not know what to do. We stayed in front of the TV for hours. We were supposed to go down to our little cottage in Litton Cheyney that afternoon - we had been shopping for food supplies etc to take with us - but that had to be cancelled.

We left the next day, or two days later, I'm not sure.

Much of our time at Chimney Sweep Cottage was spent in front of the TV.

Air service was interrupted. All flights in the US were ordered to land at the closest airport. People were stranded hundreds of miles from their homes for a week or more. Planes carrying Americans landed at small airports in Canada where they were put up by local citizens. Some became friends for life - they lived with their hosts for up to a week. Many people spent days sleeping in airports. Some got rental cars and drove home, but cars were hard to find.

One person who slept in an airport was Sarah's first husband Aaron, he had taken off from Boston at almost the same time as one of the planes that had flown into one of the Towers. He spent several days sleeping at Chicago airport, until he was finally able to get a rental car and drive back to Reno, Nevada and his home.

Washington D.C. where Sarah's second husband Roy worked, was attacked of course by a plane that flew into the Pentagon. Apparently there were many rumors of attacks elsewhere in D.C. that proved false. Suspicious vehicles were reported everywhere.
In fact another plane that was heading for D.C. was brought down by the passengers. They received the news of the attacks on the Towers on their cell phones. They got together and organised an attack on the terrorists. One leader was heard to say on his cell phone which he left on while talking to his wife, "Let's roll." The plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. It was headed for DC so they undoubtedly saved lives. It could have been headed for the White House or the Capital or somewhere else, we will never know.

Schools were closed, so Sarah had to go and pick up our grandchildren. We were in England so we didn't get to experience the reaction here.

A day that I will never forget for as long as I live. Just like virtually every one else in the world.

Continuation of third world country story.

2011-09-09T22:15:00.001-05:00

A man in California flips the wrong switch, 6 MILLION people lose power and a nuclear power station is shut down!
Sounds like third world country status to me!

Is the USA a Third World Country?

2011-09-07T12:11:00.004-05:00

You decide.

When we returned from a trip to Europe last year, it seemed like the answer might be yes!

After the roads in Europe, and even in the UK, the roads here seemed pathetic. Even the roads in Croatia - the old Yugoslavia - beat us out!

And Health Care in Europe - at half the cost, it is arguably twice as good!

Now we have a new wake up call, with all the storms - power outages. I don't really know how it is in the rest of Europe because I haven't lived there. But I did live in the UK for 26 years, and I can honestly NEVER remember having a power outage! I'm not saying it never happened, but I can never remember it happening. Here, our power goes out between 5 and 10 times a year on average. This year it has been more than that. If you count brief outages we had over 20 in one day after Hurricane Irene. And it was out for part of 3 days during the hurricane for about 2 days total in all. It rained yesterday, and we were out for about 3 hours. If someone runs off the road and hits a pole, or a tree falls on a line, or a boat with too tall a mast takes out the power line over the creek nearby, we lose power. One of those happens regularly. Then you add in hurricanes, tornadoes, high winds and heavy rain and you see why so many people have generators. I only fire mine up if it is out for more than 6 hours or so, so we have only used it twice this year. (One of those times we kept it running on and off for most of 3 days.) But some neighbors fire up as soon as it goes out and that would be between 10 and 20 times this year.

So what does the UK and the rest of Europe do differently? The power lines, the telephone lines and the cables lines are underground.

We don't notice it here because we are used to it, but there are hundreds to thousands of cables running all over the place here. Check it out next time you are out driving, especially at intersections. We could not believe it when we first came here. Route 40, near where we first lived in the US, is an unbelievably mess of wires. I have only seen worse in places like India. But as I said, we are used to it and don't notice it now. When we return from a trip to the UK, we do notice for a while and then we forget again - until the power goes out!

I had to interrupt this post - because the power went out! Really. I think that is the fourth time this week - so far. Now THAT is third world!

Election thoughts.

2011-09-06T17:39:00.002-05:00

First you have to know that I am a Democrat, or maybe an Independent. When choosing a candidate 3 years ago, I favored Hilary Clinton. Hey, we would have got Hilary and Bill, what a bargain, two for the price of one. Hilary, a smart strong woman and Bill Clinton, one of our best, if not the best, President ever. Hey how many Presidents have had a SURPLUS instead`of a deficit? Not many, if any. He had a 39% top tax rate and a plan to pay off the National debt in 10 years. (Had Bush stuck to that plan it would now be paid off!)

Instead, Bush, true to his word - "Vote for me and I will send everyone a check for $300" - blew it all. Then he cut taxes on the rich to a top rate of 35%, made no provision to pay for it, except to borrow money. So he borrowed money and gave it to the rich, leaving us all to pay for it. Then he started two wars, again making no provision to pay for them. At any other time in history taxes have been raised to pay for wars, here and in any other country. Instead he borrowed to pay for them. So the National debt, instead of being paid off, almost doubled, from $5.7 Trillion to $10.7 Trillion. In one Presidency he added more to the National debt than ALL other Presidents combined! Then he turned the mess over to Obama. A huge tax cut and two wars, which still had to be paid for, remember he made NO provision to pay for them? So the economy continued to shell out money.

Then comes my President, and what does he do? Nothing! Disappointed is a far cry from how I feel. He didn't stand up for his beliefs at all. Instead of letting the Bush tax cuts expire (Even Bush knew we couldn't keep them up forever so he made it for just 10 years.) he allows himself to be pushed into extending them! Then he makes more tax cuts. Then a stimulus bill of which 70% was tax cuts for business. Hello, how do you expect to pay for anything? The man is a secret Republican. What did Boehner say? "I got 98% of what I wanted."

So I start to look around for a suitable replacement, apart from Hilary, who I would go for in an instant, what do I find in the Republican line up but what appears to be a bunch of rejects from a three Stooges casting call. There are people who think the world started 6,000 years ago! And/or Climate Change is not happening. We don't have to pay our bills. And/or we can pay off our National debt by cutting taxes! Each one seems to be more insane than the next - hey an insanity contest! I'm crazier than you, no you're not, yes I am! A bunch of fanatics and extremists.

So I am forced to vote for Obama. Even he has got to be better than the alternatives. Ron Paul is not too bad. Sarah Palin looks good - she'd definitely be our best looking President ever, but I cannot imagine having her represent our country! Even Bush acted good next to her! I can imagine her in the Oval Office with her shotgun. Lets take them out. I don't like them, drop the bomb. Perry says that Soc Sec is a Ponzi scheme, the Earth is 6,000 years old, there is no climate change, he prays for rain (It didn't work. So I guess God is not on Rick Perry's side! So I don't want him.) Michelle Bachman thinks the earthquake and the hurricane is retribution from God! (I was taught that he is a loving, forgiving God. Apparently I got that wrong - according to Ms Bachman anyway.) Mitt Romney signs in a health care bill in his State almost identical to Obama's, and then denies it!

Please, please, pray that none of these crazies get into power.

Amen.

Some Tea Bagger ideas.

2011-09-06T10:42:00.003-05:00

Michele Bachman says that the Earthquake and Hurricane (And the Tornado here) that hit the East Coast of the United States were sent as a divine warning to (Democratic?) Politicians in Washington to curb government spending!

That is silly - it was of course sent, I think, as a warning not to raise taxes on the 1% of wealthiest Americans.

But maybe Ms Bachman is closer to the source than I am.

It seems a real shame that God would kill more than 30 Americans, destroy thousands of homes and lives and do tens of billions of dollars of damage to warn us about government spending. Sometimes collateral damage just cannot be avoided.

Should we apologise to the people who were killed and injured in The Bahamas and the Dominican Republic for the damage that Hurricane Irene caused there because our government is spending more money than they are collecting in taxes?

Should we thank Michele Bachman and the Rev Pat Robertson for interpreting the true meaning for us of what many stupidly thought were natural events? In case you missed it, Pat Robertson said that the recent earthquake damaged the Washington Monument to show his displeasure at the path we are on. (Not sure why he damaged the National Cathedral. More collateral damage perhaps?)

If we are allowed to come up with our own reasons I would like to put forward the possibility that it was because of the government bailout of General Motors.

Now, please don't doubt Mr Robertson's claims. He exposed the connection between legalized abortion and Hurricane Katrina. (There is some controversy here as the Rev John Hagee says that Katrina was retribution for the New Orleans gay parade.)

But back to Mr Robertson who said that the blizzard of last December was a divine message to punish Americans who were going to drive to do something gay. Perhaps he confused the divine message between the two disasters?

Lets not forget the Rev. Jerry Falwell - who could? As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9-11 remember how he saw that it was not Osama Bin Laden but Pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians who were responsible. Or did they just help Osama Bin Laden?

Anyway I am sure that you can clearly see from these disaster interpreters, that God is both a Social and Fiscal Conservative, rather like Rush Limbaugh without the drug problem.

Should we point out to God that there are other places he could direct his warnings to? Perhaps we can cool off some of his warnings to us if he knew that Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, most of Europe, and in fact almost the whole world had National Health Care long before us?

Lets hope that little bit of information helps to protect us.

Oh, one more Tea Bagger type bit of information, Rick Perry says that we can ignore Liberal claims of Climate Change. It is not happening. So that is a relief! (Did I just hear that he returned to Texas because of heat, drought and fires? The worst that Texas has ever had?)

9-11 anniversary approaches.

2011-09-06T10:02:00.002-05:00

As the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 nightmare approaches it occurred to me that I am more upset and depressed by our current situation than I was by the 9-11 tragedy.
Thinking about that it may be because when 9-11 happened we knew who our enemies were. They were real enemies, real terrorists.
But who is "doing it to us" now? It seems to be our own people, greedy bankers who have done way more damage to our economy than Al-Quaida ever did, just as greedy Politicians who seem determined to sink us, just so they can be "In power" and "Save" us!
Save us from Politicians!

Interesting comparason.

2011-08-20T14:05:00.002-05:00

The USA and Cuba.

Lifespan approxiamately the same at 77 years. Cuba has one of the lowest child mortality rates in the world - even lower than the USA. Generally speaking they are as healthy or healthier than Americans.

The reason appears to be their health care system, which puts the emphasis on prevention rather than treatment. All mothers are checked throughout their pregnancies, all children receive all their vacinations and get regular visits and screenings.

The cost of health care in Cuba is 1/14th of the cost in the US!

Delusional.

2011-08-18T15:25:00.002-05:00

Is it just me or do all of our politicians seem to be delusional to you too? It is clear that all of our politicians are delusional and incapable of doing anything but posturing and jockeying for power and influence and prestige. And the more that they jockey the more ridiculous they look to me. And the more ridiculous WE look for having elected ANY of them. If this is what a democracy produces in what we have always believed is the greatest country on earth, then one would have to believe that a democratic government is a failure. It can only produce the same venality, tyranny, stupidity and utter lack of connection with the people (not the special interest groups) that autocracies produce. Our two hundred year old experiment in government has failed.
Not sure what comes next, but something better, I hope.

"Quotes"

2011-08-18T14:55:00.004-05:00

There are a lot of "Quotes" posted on the Internet. I just wanted to put my 2 cents worth in about them. In my, considerable, experience with checking out these quotes I would like to say that they are almost always either mistakes, errors, made up or more often outright lies.

I just read one about our President. I can immediately imagine that 50% of my readers are already saying "It is true". The other 50% are either saying "it is probably not true." or they are saying lets see it. Well I am not going to post it, because it is 100% made up. And the 50% who said "It's true" without seeing it, would almost undoubtedly pass it on.,

What I will do is print the first sentence in the post, which is - "I ceased to advertise my mothers race". I will then tell you that these 7 words were taken from a much longer sentence which was in turn part of a paragraph. When a few words are pulled out of a sentence and presented as a complete sentence it does not take an English major to know that the entire meaning of the sentence, and paragraph is probably changed entirely. As was the case with this "Sentence". And it was obviously intended that you would misconstrue it, by someone who is consumed with hatred and has no problem with telling lies. This person is of a much worse character than that the person whose character he is trying to assassinate.

Anyone who believes the hundreds of stories making the rounds, without first checking out their veracity, is as guilty as the person starting them. If not more guilty.

There are stories being made up on the Internet by the thousands, mostly about politicians (most of whom deserve to be criticized!) but also about companies, and others. None of them, or anyone, deserves to be lied about. And it is my experience that AT LEAST 95% of these stories are either mistakes or outright lies. Usually completely fabricated.

Having said that I know that I have wasted my time, Conservatives or Liberals will believe whatever story they read and want to believe. The more outrageous it is, the more likely they are to believe it, and the more likely, and the faster to pass it on!

For my part I believe that the Internet will destroy us. It is getting more and more difficult to believe anything that is published. Even if it is true - how likely is that? you don't know whether to believe it or not.

Tea Party.

2011-08-14T11:13:00.002-05:00

Some common sense appears to be returning to at least some segments of the American public - approval rates for the Tea Party are dropping.
After their showing in the debt ceiling debate where everyone acted like a bunch of spoiled kids in the back seat of the car on a road trip across Texas, in August, with no air conditioner, it is welcome news indeed.
As more and more Americans learn about this disturbing party their approval rating drops, thank goodness.
Shouting in loud strident voices that Government is the enemy, taxes are bad, death panels are sweeping senior centers, Obama wants to destroy America, appeals to some, but not all of us, I am glad to see. Maybe we will wake up and see what these extremist fear mongers are doing to our country. They have taken control of what was once one of the great parties that along with the other fine party provided the country with balance.
Their only purpose appears to be to destroy the economy. Why? So that THEY can 'save' it?

Persid meteors.

2011-08-14T11:10:00.002-05:00

A follow up on my last blog about the meteors. I went out at midnight and saw no sign. Awoke early morning but there seemed to be complete cloud cover. So yet another year has gone by without seeing a meteor. Maybe next year.

The Perseid Meteor Shower.

2011-08-12T20:35:00.003-05:00

The Perseid Meteor Shower is due tonight. Let me ask you, have you ever seen one? We are told this year, as we are told every year that if we sit and look to the north east we should see about one meteor a minute. Well I just sat on my porch for 30 minutes, it is a clear night with no clouds at all so the viewing is almost perfect, although there is a full moon, but I saw exactly none. Not only that, I have been going out and sitting in the dark every year for the last 20 or 30 years, on that special night that we are passing through the meteor shower, and I have yet to see even one. Some years of course it has been cloudy, so I expect to see none then. But other years it is partially cloudy, or even clear as it is tonight, but never have I seen even one. I will go out again and look before going to bed - it is 9.40pm now, and if I wake during the night, which I invariably do, I will go out and look.
I'll let you know tomorrow if I see one.
I did see a big meteor one night when driving up through the Michigan penninsula into Canada. It crossed the sky, very low and directly across the road in front of us. I was not driving or I would have stopped and maybe even looked to see where it had landed. Larry's stepfather Ralph was driving and barely seemed to notice it.

Climate change?

2011-08-12T13:42:00.003-05:00

Is there climate change? I don't think there are too many people that doubt this now - with the possible exception of some of the more extreme right wingers, such as Rush Limburgh and his ilk.

One of the main problems seems to be the drop in food production that is expected. A frequently used figure is a 10% drop in grain production for every 1 degree rise in temperature. Russia experienced a 40 % drop in their grain production last year during their big heatwave. The USA is experiencing a drop in grain production in spite of farmers ramping up their production efforts. Even after putting more land than ever into production yields are falling.

A bigger problem even than the higher temperatures is water. Water tables the world over, and especially in the US, are falling, due to overpumping. If farmers can't get enough water, they can't grow more food. One ton of grain requires 1,000 tons of water! Where do you get that kind of water supply? One way is to import the grain - if you import a ton of grain that is the same as getting 1,000 tons of water!

Unfortunately the US is not in the business of buying grain, we grow it, so we need the water to do that. And in doing that and exporting grain to other nations throughout the world we are destroying our own water supplies.

Our rivers are drying up, our cities are running short, and our aquifers are dropping, fast.

Solutions anyone?

Another National Debt comment.

2011-08-07T10:30:00.005-05:00

It seems that some people are surprised by S&P's downgrading of the US debt rating. Words like "It came so quickly" etc. The fact is that S&P has been warning the US for at least the last 6 years! But we took no notice at all.

Now think for a minute here, would YOU loan money to someone who acted like Uncle Sam? Just think about the antics of these clowns in Congress over the last few weeks and months. You have an outright refusal by one side - The Republicans - to negotiate at all. You have dozens of supposedly intelligent Congressmen, and women, saying "No problem, let the country reneg on its debts."! If that is not scary to an investor I don't know what is. Here we have a bunch of men and women who openly advocate not paying the countries debt. These are people voted in to help the country, and instead they are prepared to destroy the countries rating in the eyes of the whole world. Quite frankly I am surprised that the rating was not dropped more. After all there is a distinct possibility that more of these Tea Baggers could get in and have their way even more than they managed to do this time. They could say, "To hell with our bond rating or any other rating, we are not going to pay anyone back." This could create a problem! These simpletons think that it is more important to avoid any new taxes, now or ever, than for the USA to pay its bills.

I would like to point out here that taxes in the US are lower now, under Obama, than they have been at any time, under any President, for at least the last 60 years! That is for individuals, especially the wealthiest, and for Corporations. Yes he HAS lowered taxes several times since he came into office - in spite of what some would have you believe.

President Obama, a Democrat, or so he says, you could have fooled me, makes concession after concession to the Republicans, who make none at all, until finally he gives in completely and accedes to all of the Republicans demands. To John Boehner's "I got 98% of everything I asked for." I would say - what was the 2% he didn't get? Did he ask Obama to bring him a cup of coffee? And Obabma forgot - or didn't put enough sugar in it?

There have been rumors flying around that Obama is a secret Kenyan, or a secret Muslim, or a secret Socialist, but it turns out that he is in fact a secret Republican!

National debt.

2011-08-06T12:31:00.004-05:00

I have no idea why Obama doesn't point this out. So I am going to do it for him. Since President Roosevelt (1945) no Democratic President has added to the National debt - except Obama. Of the 14 Trillion National Debt 12 Trillion of it was added by Republicans! While it did go up slightly under some Democrats, that was because of interest on the debt that was added by Republicans. It actually went down under Democrats Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton. It also went down under Republican Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon. But under Republicans Ford, Reagan, Bush 1, and Bush 2, it went up. It went up HUGELY under Reagan and the two Bushes.

Clinton not only balanced the budget, he had a surplus, that he wanted to put towards paying off the National Debt. In fact under his plan for the next ten years the National Debt would have been paid off completely by now. But then came George W Bush who had "A better Idea". Not only did he not use the surplus generated by Clinton towards the debt he actually cut the top tax rate and borrowed even more money to pay for it. He also started two wars, and borrowed to pay for those too. By the time he left office the National Debt was doubled! And Obama was saddled not only with that huge debt but the interest on it, plus the continuing costs of the tax cut and the two wars started by his predecessor.

Along with the refusal by the Republicans to raise the top tax rate on the rich, plug loopholes to huge Corporations paying NO taxes, or even to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, the situation was impossible. With no way to raise revenue and nowhere to cut spending except trifling cuts to things like NPR, EPA, etc Obama was forced to put his sacred cows on the block - Soc Sec and Medicare.

Just allowing the Bush cuts on the rich to expire, the budget would have been close to balancing again. At 39% under Clinton the budget was in a surplus situation. Cut to 35% by Bush with no plan to pay for the cut - except to borrow to pay for it - there was no hope.

So in spite of virtually the entire National Debt being added by the Republicans, the Republicans have managed to convince the public that the whole amount is the fault of the Obama administration!

Another neutral post from a journalist.

2011-08-02T18:58:00.007-05:00

Charlie Reese's final column for The Orlando Sentinel. A journalist for 49 years he wrote this, his last column before retiring.
It is completely non-political, neither anti-Republican or anti-Democrat.
He has hit the nail on the head, it is clear and easy to understand.

545 vs. 300,000,000 People.
By Charlie Reese.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Republicans and the Democrats are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget, The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislators responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. he cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the Speaker of the House now? He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it follows that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it is because they want it in the red.

If the Army and Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If they do not receive Social Security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insolvable government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they can give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all do not let them con you into the belief that there exist disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees . . .

New mileage rules.

2011-08-02T06:42:00.010-05:00

Well now I guess Congress is going to be busy trying to derail the new auto mpg rules. What was Obama thinking of? He must like being attacked. Of course if he defends his beliefs the way he has done so far in his term as President I expect the mpg rules to not only go back to what they are now but he will probaly manage to get them rolled back even further! If he really tries he might manage to get them halved instead of doubled!

To start with, Big Oil will be all over Congress with Big Money, as usual, to bribe them. Then there are our "Friends" in the Middle East who will be bribing Congress - sorry 'Lobbying' - them with Big Money.

And don't forget the Environment, if we use less oil it could make our air and water cleaner. That would never do, so Big Health Care BUSINESS will be Lobbying Congress - sorry - bribing, Sorry, lobbying - it is so confusing isn't it? - to keep using lots of nasty oil, to keep the air dirty so that asthma medication and all those other very expensive, and profitable, medications can continue to flow like the pollution that is flowing into our lakes, rivers, air and ground, once Congress gets the EPA completely evicerated it will be even worse, if that is possible. So far they have only managed to cut EPA's funding by about half and stopped them from enforcing the rules that they do have. But this will not be enough for our polluters, they want a completely free rein to pollute at will with NO chance of being brought to trial, even in the court of public opinion. The far right Conservatives are so 'good' at disemination "information" that even the poor think that keeping our air and water clean is too expensive, so even they support the Big Polluters. Our children, our parents and even ourselves get sicker by the year from the constant attack on our environment by Big Business. All in the name of profit. There can never be enough profit, and no cost is too large, including our Health - in fact especially our Health because of course Big Health makes Big Profits from sick people.
Did you notice that Exxon's profits were UP 41% over last years profits? But apparently even that was not good enough, their shares DROPPED $2 a share - because "The Market" had expected their profits to be higher than that!! More than a 41% increase in PROFITS!! Not enough of an increase! Last year they made a $53 Billion PROFIT - that is profit, not total take, just profit, and on that profit they paid NO tax, not one single penny in tax. Tell me again Mr Conservative about how the American Corporations pay too much tax! And how we have to cut their tax rate even more - please tell me how can you pay less than nothing? Ah, yes of couse you CAN, it is called subsidies and tax credits (GM, another "poor little company" that you may have heard of,) didn't just pay NO tax last year they received an almost $2 Billion tax credit from the US government. (Please don't forget that money came from YOUR TAXES.) Yes, you paid taxes and your government gave it to Big Business. $2 billion dollars is the equivalent of $7 from EVERY MAN, WOMAN & CHILD in the US, so if you are a family of 4 you gave $28 to GE. Not too bad you think? But the same amount went to Skank of America - sorry Bank of America - Billions more to subsidize other oil companies, big agriculture companies that make billions in profits and receive billions in subsidies! And it goes on and on, there are hundreds of companies, maybe thousands, that get subsidies and tax credits - from your tax dollar. And all they have to do to get them is give our wonderful Congressmen and women bribes. (Congress calls it lobbying - lobbyists give them money, I call it bribes, they call it legal, because they make the laws. Including exempting themselves from many of the laws that they pass to keep us under control, while they are completely out of control.)

Non Political Comment from another Senior Citizen.

2011-07-30T18:20:00.003-05:00

This comment is from someone else - unknown - it is completetly non-partisan. It reflects my sentiments exactly, and is written much better than I could put it. I hope you will read it.

This Senior Citizen Nailed it.

Alan Simpson , Senator from Wyoming, called Senior Citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. August, 2010.

This response is from a Senior Citizen in Montana. He is ticked off and tells it like it is! It is the way he sees it and I have to agree with him.

"Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight.

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS. since I was 15 years old. I am now 63)

3. My Social Security paymnets, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Securiy into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.

4. Recently, just like Charlie Brown and Lucy, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commision is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why?
Because you incompetant bastards spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more money to pay off YOUR debt.

To add insult to injury, you label us as "Greedy" for calling "Bullshit" on your incompetance. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayer?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and health care benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch.

A couple of notes regarding Congress. Men and women serving in the US Military for 20 years, risking life and limb to keep us safe, get 50% of their pay upon retirement. Politicians, nice and safe in Washington DC, protected by those men and women receive full pay - 100% - after just one term, for the rest of their lives! Does that make sense?

Staffers of Congress' family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans.

Who knew that members of Congress could retire with full pay, for the rest of their lives, after just one term? And that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws that they passed, while ordinary citizens have to live under those laws?

The latest flagrant exemption is that they exempted themselves from the Health Care Reform!

Why are these people above many of the Laws of the Land that we have to live under? I don't care if you, or they, are Republican, Democrat, Independent or whatever, how can we put up with an "elite" that have put themselves above the law?

You many have seen this proposal before, it looks like a good and sensible one to me: -

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United Sates Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or the Representatives that does not apply equally to the Citizens of the United States."

EPA

2011-07-28T16:12:00.005-05:00

We deserve clean air and water. The government should protect us against those who would pollute our environment. Pretty simple huh?

But, there are way too many members of Congress looking for Corporate bribes or contributions, who are doing everything they can to stop the EPA from enforcing what is the clear intent of the Clean Air and Clean Water laws. Congress and polluters are going to slash our Environmental safety net even more than they already have, which will jeopardize fish and wildlife habitats all across America.

One of the first attacks was the Supreme Court decision that allowed Corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to bribe politicians. A virtual deluge of Big Polluter money flooded in. Even moderate lawmakers in fear of these Corporations and arousing their wrath are voting to cripple environmental laws.

Special interests, mostly big polluters, spent $4 Billion on last falls Congressional elections.

Big Oil, Big Agriculture and other Big Polluters are spending Billions on misleading advertising. Telling us how clean and safe are Coal, Oil, Nuclear, Gas fracking etc, which we know is untrue but which the ignorant believe. After all they say - it MUST be true because it is on TV/Internet/Radio/newspaper etc.

Once upon a time all environmental funding was a miserable 2% of the federal budget, now it is 1/2 of 1%. That is for all the National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and all other environmental and resource programs combined. And the Republicans want to slash them even more. Congress just passed another bill to stop the EPA from enforcing rules that would protect our health and our climate. This will undoubtedly increase our health costs enormously. But of course more importantly to Congress it will cut costs to big Polluting Corporations, and even more importantly increase bribes to Congressmen from those Corporations. Big Polluters will now be able to flout legal restrictions on dumping contaminants into the air, rivers and onto the ground. The EPA will effectively be handcuffed.

Pollution from mercury and other poisonous emissions cause hundreds of thousands of serious illnesses annually, including asthma, which has become a virtual epidemic among our children. Some scientists say that every $1 spent on pollution control saves as much as $20 or $30 in health care costs.

Further uncontrolled pollution by unscrupulous Corporations will further ruin our air, increased carbon build up in the air will trap more heat, overheating the Earth even more than it already has. As the oceans warm up - they have already - we get more moisture in the atmosphere and therefore more intense storms. Noticed that? Massive Floods, Heatwaves, Rains and Snowstorms all over, not just in the US, but all over the world.

I despair for us all. Big Business, Big Polluters and The Rich have complete control of Congress and therefore of our Health, our Air, our Water, our Environment and of every aspect of our lives. We have no control at all left, somehow the Extremist Conservatives have taken control of our world, and they have no mercy for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the middle class or anyone who pays taxes - they don't, or if there are few rich that still make tiny tax`payments, that too will soon be stopped.

Enjoy anything that you have left while you can because it will soon be taken from you.

David. XXX

Congress.

2011-07-26T07:51:00.004-05:00

The blatant bribery of Congress should not be tolerated. Just because Congress calls it Lobbying doesn't change the fact that it is plainly and simply, bribery.

If you had the ability to affect decisions that would put millions or billions of dollars into the pockets of millionaires, billionaires and multi billion dollar companies and you took money from those people or companies and acted upon that power, you would, rightly, go to prison.

But Congress doesn't work that way, they routinely take millions of dollars in bribes every day, and it is perfectly legal, because they, Congress, says that it is OK, for THEM to do that - but not you or me! Congress calls it Lobbying. Any court in the land would call it bribery which is punishable by heavy fines and/or imprisonment. If you took a bribe or a kickback to award a job to a company, what you would be doing would be illegal, but not Congress.

The Health Industry pays Congress one million dollars a DAY in bribes, sorry in lobbying, would you not call that bribery? Most people and courts would if it were you or me doing it.

Now, that is just the Health Industry. (Note - a FOR PROFIT industry.) Not the Health SERVICE as in ANY other civilized country in the world. America is the only country in the world that has a FOR PROFIT Health Industry.

There are HUNDREDS of companies that routinely bribe Congress. They are falling over each other to give them money. Why? Isn't it obvious, they can make or break anyone, by giving them access to government billions, in work, or in subsidies. Companies like Exxon corporation that made $50 BILLION dollars in PROFITS last year and paid NO tax, not one cent in tax! And even more outrageous is the fact that they received SUBSIDIES! Subsidy may just be a word to you, but if you think about it a little you will realize that all of the money that the US Congress spends comes from us. That means that Congress, in return for bribes from Exxon, is giving Exxon, a company that made $50 BILLION in PROFITS and paid NO tax last year, SUBSIDIES from money that YOU paid in taxes!

Yep, Congress thinks that it is fine for big companies to pay no tax, in return for bribes of course, while you pay plenty in taxes. Oh, and in case you didn't catch it the first time, they then take those taxes that you worked hard for and then paid over to Congress, for them, in their wisdom, to give to big profitable corporations. Who in turn give it to their CEO's and other executive officers in salary and bonuses. So your tax can routinely go to pay a CEO's salary and bonuses in the $50 MILLION dollar area! And you can bet your bippy that those CEO's pay way less in taxes on their $50 million than you do on your $50,000. While the average American pays 30% of his income in taxes, the top 1% of Americans pay only 16% in taxes!

Just for good measure here's another annoying fact, the top 1% of Americans own 50% of its wealth. That leaves the other 99% of us to share the other 50%!

Again, just in case it has not occurred to you, most of the members of Congress are among that top 1%. So don't expect them to be doing anything about the situation that makes 99% of us share half of everything while 1% get the other half!

And we want to CUT taxes to the rich! Now, how do they get us to go along with that? Virtually all Republicans, which is about half of the country, and even some Democrats want us to cut taxes to the rich! The latest Republican plan is to cut Social Security by 10% and, are you ready for this, give it to the rich! Yes, they want to cut the top tax rate of 35% (Already the lowest top tax rate of any country in the world) to 29%. No mention of putting the money that would be taken from the poorest among us towards the National Debt, just giving it to the rich, who would suffer not at all.

So, imagine this scenario, you have a young man with Cerebral Palsy who cannot walk or talk, (No he is not lazy and won't work. His disability is no fault of his. His father probably left his mother, so she is taking care of him. As it is a full time job to dress him, feed him watch him etc she is unable to work. Again not because she is lazy, because she is unfortunate enough to be in that position. A nightmare for anyone. Think about it for a few minutes - it could happen to you.) Now, the Republican answer to our unfortunate position, almost entirely the fault incidentally of the Republicans, is to reduce his disability payment of $15,000 per YEAR by 10% ($1,500) and GIVE IT TO THE RICH!!! This is going to solve our problems - NOT! This young man did not cause our problems. But he is going to be punished, and money that is vital to him for any kind of help to his condition is going to be given to people that DID cause our problems - bankers, wall street types, millionaires etc. So some guy who "makes" a million dollars a year is going to be given the $1,500 that will be taken from our unfortunate young man and his mother.

When our Founding Fathers set up Congress I don't think they intended Congressmen to have a "Job for life." They should SERVE for one term and then go back to their regular life.

And how's this for an idea? When a Congressman goes into office he should have his/her Net Worth determined before entering office and then again when he/she leaves, and if it is more when they leave they should have to account for every penny.

There are plenty of honest citizens of character who would be happy to serve their country for one term without thought of massive "Reward". A modest salary and perhaps a small pension should suffice.

I'd be happy to discuss this with anyone who would like to call me and talk about it.

David.

An update on America's wealthy.

2011-07-12T07:20:00.002-05:00

America's wealthy just got wealthier. A report out today tells us that America's CEO's will receive, on average, 23% more than they received last year!

It is of interest to know that the average American worker received a pay raise of one half of 1% last year!

So CEO's, some of America's wealthiest individuals, received a pay raise that was 46 times as much as the average American worker received! Their "compensation", as they like to call it is 343 times the pay of the average worker in their company! (in 1980 they made 42 times their median workers salary.) This is the most unbalanced ratio to be found anywhere in the industrialized world.

Companies were required to report their CEO to worker pay ratio, but last month the GOP voted to repeal that provision. Doubtless their "Friends" on Wall Street asked for that to avoid too much embarrassment. And of course they, Congress, obliged.

The US Congress, the best Congress that money can buy! Exxon spent $28 million "lobbying" Congress last year. (I call it bribing) And Lo and Behold they ended up paying NO tax at all - in spite of making $53 Billion in profits!

I made $39,000 last year and paid hundreds of times more in taxes than Exxon paid! In fact my tax bill was hundreds of times more than at least 25 HUGE US companies COMBINED, they paid NO taxes at all. GE for example received a $1.1 Billion tax credit. The Bank of America received a $1.9 Billion tax credit. And yet we keep hearing from places like Fox "News" that the tax rate on US Companies is confiscatory. That we can't compete with the rest of the world because of our "high" tax rate!

Not only is the tax rate on US Companies laughable, so to is the top tax rate on our wealthy. At 35% it is the lowest in about 60 years, and is also the lowest of any industrialized country in the world. Not that the tax rate affects the rich much anyway, while the average American worker pays 30% of his income in taxes the average tax hit on the top 2% of American is just 16%!!! (Don't forget the GOP mantra - "Lets cut taxes on the rich." "They create Jobs.") And if you believe that I have this bridge in Brooklyn that I would like to sell you! They, the rich, did not get rich by creating jobs, they got rich by laying off their workers which increased the "Profit" of their company and gave them a nice multi million dollar bonus. Then they sent jobs overseas, which cuts their companies costs even more, and gets them another multi million dollar bonus. Then they use some of that money to bribe Congress to fight for tax cuts for the rich! Doubtless it does not hurt that most of our Congressmen and women, are rich too.

Talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house!

I am SO upset.

2011-07-11T17:44:00.006-05:00

I am so upset that I can hardly see straight. I completely fail to see how our "Leaders" can justify asking the poorest of our citizens to sacrifice, while asking nothing of our richest, wealthiest. It is beyond belief that the Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare and cut jobs everywhere that the poor and hardworking members of our society are, while refusing to ask anything at all of the rich. They still want to cut taxes even more to the wealthiest Americans!!!! The top 1% of Americans already own 50% of all the wealth in the country, leaving the other 99% to share the other 50%!!! How can anyone, even those unbelievably rich want to have even more?

I am SO upset.

2011-07-11T17:44:00.003-05:00

I am SO upset.

2011-07-11T17:44:00.001-05:00

Another quick comment

2011-07-11T09:25:00.006-05:00

- from a news article that I just read. The top 1% of Americans own 50% of the total American wealth!

This is the largest inequality EVER, and also ANYWHERE - anywhere in the world that is!

To repeat one of my favorite often repeated facts - the income spread now is the biggest that it has ever been, at any time, any where. (And we still want to cut taxes to the rich!)

Oh yes, I forgat to mention it is also widening fast, faster than it ever has.

In case you are not good with math, if 1% of Americans own 50% of all its wealth that means that the other 99% of us have to share the other 50%. And yet STILL, at least 50% of Americans (Just about all Republicans, and even some Democrats!) want to cut taxes to the rich! No one has been able to explain this to me. In fact no one has even tried to explain it to me.

Putting it another way, there are 100 people in a boat, starving, a pizza is delivered, ONE of the 100 people takes half of the pizza. The other 99 people share the other half! Would you be happy with that? Probably not, but you ARE happy that 1% of Americans own half of everything. (And pay less tax than us! They average 16% tax on all their income wheras the average American averages 30% tax on their income! But not only does no one have a problem with that, they don't even want the top tax rate raised!)

I give up.

A quick comment.

2011-07-10T18:30:00.003-05:00

There seem to be a lot of people who think that cutting taxes will somehow miraculously get us out of our un-balanceed budget and create jobs.

Going back to my blog of a couple of days ago when I tried to equate the way I operate my budget with the way the USA operates it's budget.

One of the things That I pointed out is if I run short of money I borrow from savings (USA can't do that as it has none) OR I borrow from a bank, and pay it back as quickly as possible to reduce the interest I pay. (The USA borrows but does not pay back the loan) The third option was to get another job, to generate more income. This works for me. (The equivalent for the USA is to collect more taxes - for some reason they don't want to do this) The fourth option, for the USA, is to cut taxes! The equivalent for me would be to cut my income! Drop my extra job? Ask my employer to cut my pay? Now, can ANYONE explain to me how this would help me with my "Balance of payments"? How would it help me to pay my bills? How would it help me to pay off my loan?

(In case someone says that by cutting taxes to the rich - most of who pay hardly any tax compared to the average American - they, the rich, will create jobs, I have to ask, "Are you mad?" If they would create jobs, HOW, why are they not creating jobs?? Their tax rate is the LOWEST that it has been in at least 60 years. With such a low tax rate - the lowest the USA has had in 60 years, AND the lowest in the WORLD - WHY are they not creating jobs?? As the rate of job creation is the lowest in 60 years and the tax rate is the lowest in 60 years, common sense says that by lowering taxes we will lower the rate of creating jobs. At every point in the last 60 years our tax rate has been higher and our job creation rate has been higher! Reagan 50% top tax rate, Nixon 70% top tax rate, Eisenhower 91% top tax rate. And in every instance higher job creation rate. I say, raise the tax rate on the rich. - and thus create jobs!)

Congress.

2011-07-08T06:21:00.002-05:00

I don't understand why Congress is so upset about the un-balanced budget.

THEY approved all the spending bills. Every dollar that the US spends THEY approved.

THEY also set the tax rate. THEY decided NOT to collect enough in taxes to cover what THEY had decided to spend!

So what are they so upset about?

As THEY decided not to collect enough in taxes to pay for what THEY had decided to spend they KNEW that they would have to borrow to cover the difference.

Therefore it is entirely the fault of Congress. Not my fault, not your fault, not even Obama's fault - CONGRESS approved everything that got us into this mess.

Or am I missing something?

Politics - and a balanced budget.

2011-07-06T05:51:00.005-05:00

What to do, what to do? How do we balance the budget? Cut spending? Cut taxes? Increase taxes?

When I meet such dilemma's I try to "go small", in other words what do I do in my own budget situation?

Well now, all of a sudden it becomes easy - well as easy as balancing a budget can become.

We have an income, and we spend it, some for necessities like housing, food, transportation, etc (For the USA that would be taking care of the poor and disabled, agriculture, infrastructure of roads, airports, rails, etc.)

Then there is entertainment, an occasional dinner out and a movie, a vacation, a sports event, visiting friends etc. (For the USA that would be NASA space exploration, the Arts, public radio and TV, the National Parks and Wilderness areas, Wars etc.)

Then there is charitable donations, volunteer work, putting something into savings, etc. (For the USA that would be foreign aid - which is one tenth of one percent of the USA's GNP! Much, much less than we give personally. And also the lowest of the 22richest countries in the world, some of who give one percent, or more, of their GNP, ten times as much as we give! So cutting that would make no difference to us at all. Not to mention that most of it is not really foreign aid as most countries would define it, most of our "Foreign Aid" goes to Israel, Egypt, Pakistan etc in the form of military aid - so even what we give them is actually charity to our own weapons manufacturers! Yet we call it "Foreign Aid", which I used to think was food etc for poor countries! We do give money to starving countries for food, but with the proviso that they must use it to buy food from the USA! So it is no help to their farmers who cannot compete by growing food for their own people, as their government must use the money to buy the food from the USA! So they are even worse off! It turns out that the "Aid" is charity for our own farmers who sell their surplus food to the Aid countries! Where was I? Oh yes, volunteer work, that would be the Peace Corps, Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Ships etc, And Savings, well of course the USA doesn't have any savings for a rainy day? Shame on us.

If we have something come up that is not in the budget, where we need a little more money we take it from our savings, or we borrow it from a bank. (For the USA that means as they have no savings they have to borrow it.)

We then pay back the 'loan' to our savings account or to the bank where we borrowed the money. Here, we and the USA differ. We pay back the money and we do it as quickly as possible to minimize any interest payments, which is a total loss to us. You could say that interest is of no interest to us at all! We would rather have that money for our use than give it to the bankers. But the USA continues to borrow and to accrue interest payments. Why? At first I was going to say "That is easy to explain." but of course it is not easy, but I will attempt to give my reasoning's. It all comes back to Politics, Politicians and Greed. Quite simply they, the Politicians, think we, the people, are stupid and that they, the Pile of Shitens, can fool us, the people, all the time. Even if they can't fool us all the time they can throw us a bone - they can use the old war cry "Cut Taxes" as a sure fire way to get elected. Having cut taxes, all they have to do then is borrow more money to fill the hole left by having less income from taxes.

This obviously does not work. Here the ability to compare my "Small" budget with the budget of the USA becomes impossible because they, the USA or more accurately the Politicians, do not act intelligently or even reasonably. Whereas I can talk to my partner and come up with a plan, the two political parties, who are in no way partners, cannot talk. Like partners in a divorce they can only fight. And we all know where that leads to in a divorce - disaster - more accurately financial disaster for everyone. (Except the lawyers.)

So the two parties, who should be partners in guiding our country through its trials and tribulations instead fight amongst themselves, completely unaware, or not caring, about what they are doing to their country and their countrymen. It's like fighting while on the edge of a cliff, they will both fall, whereas if they co-operated they could save each other.

What hate. Can you imagine such hate, to hate the "Other side" so much that you would destroy not only them, but yourself, AND 300 million other men, women and children?

Hey, I got away from my comparison between my small budget and the USA's budget. I am almost finished - as will the USA be if our politicians don't straighten up and become, if not friends, at least partners.

So what I was going to say was that if we can't get our budget balanced we negotiate among ourselves - my wife and I - about what to do. And what we do is we cut expenses where we can and if that does not work we increase income. By getting another job. (For the USA that means, cutting expenses, preferably excessive or wasteful spending, and if that doesn't work - which it obviously cannot as we are spending almost DOUBLE our income!!!!!! In other words we could cut ALL of our "Discretionary" spending and still nowhere near balance the budget! We have to get more income, in the form of taxes. Now, one of the options I mentioned right at the beginning of my Blog was to CUT taxes! Anyone with more than an IQ of 50 should realize that will not work! The only thing it would do, which its proposers know, is destroy the country, which is what they want so that they can get back into power and SAVE the country. Now, it should also be obvious that NONE of them are able or even interested in saving the welfare of the USA. They are only interested in getting into, or staying in, power. Why? Why indeed would anyone be interested in being in charge of a sinking ship with no captain, no rudder, that is full of holes and in a storm being driven towards sharp rocks? Who? Why? And neither "Party/Partner has ANY interest in correcting the situation. Or at least they are making no attempt to correct it.

The way I see it is we have to cut expenses, but only excessive and wasteful spending and we have to raise taxes, but only on the rich.

Here's my reasoning, I hear one side say "OK, we need to cut spending and raise taxes. We are prepared to talk about cutting discretionary spending, military spending, and social spending, or 'entitlements', but we also need to raise taxes on the wealthy." The other side says, "We need to cut discretionary spending and cut taxes on the rich."

I have no problem with picking a side here!

The "reasoning" on the cut taxes side is that if you cut spending you will have more money to cut taxes. And if you cut taxes you will have more jobs. That does not work, has never worked and can never work.

Fist, if you cut spending you will cut work. For every $30,000 to $40,000 that you cut spending you cut one job. Cut the EPA $3 billion, easy, that's 100,000 jobs at $30,000 each. Cut the IRS $4 Billion, that's another 100,000 jobs at $40,000 each. Cut road works, cut NPR, PBS, NASA, it's easy, BUT for everything you cut, you lose jobs. You CANNOT cut money from any area without cutting jobs. I thought the main problem nowadays is jobs. BUT, if you increase taxes, you don't lose any jobs. Someone making $250,000 a year (Which is 5 times as much money as I ever made) or $500,000 or $10 million or whatever, is not going to let his housekeeper go because he has to pay a little more in taxes is he? Can you imagine the situation in the home if he had to tell his wife "We can't afford to have the cleaning woman in any more, we have to clean the house ourselves"? How is making the rich pay their fair share in taxes going to cut jobs? We keep hearing that the rich are going to spend us out of the recession. Bull. We have been in this recession for what, at least 5 years, we have cut taxes several times and we are still in a recession. Do you see any sign of the rich spending us out of it? If they are going to do it then they need to get on and do it.

The top tax rate at present is 35% - the lowest that it has been in at least 60 years - and we have the lowest rate of job creation in 60 years. The top tax rate under Clinton was higher and he created I think it was 22 million jobs, Under Reagan the top tax rate was 50%, no problem with jobs then, under Nixon the top tax rate was 70%, again no problem with jobs. Want to go back even further? Under Eisenhower the top tax rate was 91%, lots of jobs then!

I can remember under Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 1 and Clinton, trying to hire workers for my small business, it was hard to find people. The unemployment rate was low and we were competing for workers. Some weeks I spent $1,000 advertising for help (We were a small company with only 30 or so employees at our max.) This was when the top tax rate was higher. Now that it is at its lowest the job creation rate is also at it's lowest. Following that path, if we cut taxes on the rich even more, the unemployment rate will go even higher. BUT, the rich will be richer! And who makes these kinds of decisions? Why, the Rich of course! Now in order to cut taxes on the rich - who already pay at a rate half that of the average American - we have to take money from somewhere else to give it to them. And where do we get that money? The only place you can get it, from the poor and the middle class. And you get it by cutting benefits to them, cut their Soc Sec (The rich don't need Soc Sec so that is OK), cut food stamps, welfare, unemployment pay, cut discretionary spending - roads, etc etc, where the workers work, and give it all to the Rich. The Rich then take that money and spend it. And save the country! And if you believe that I have this bridge in Brooklyn that you might like to buy!

How can the Rich spending their money (Your money) solve our problems? For one thing they spend it by going to Paris and buying French perfume, French Gowns, eating in very expensive French restaurants and staying in expensive French Hotels. How does that help us here? They then do it all again in Switzerland while skiing, and again in Australia and on and on. Oh, and lets put our money into a bank in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands, so that the tax man can't get at it.

I have been berating the Rich, but I really don't think all rich people are bad people. I am sure that many of them appreciate that they live in the richest country in the world and it has been good to them. But hey, if the country wants to make it even easier for them by giving them more and more tax breaks, why would they argue with that? I am sure that many of them would step up to the plate and have no problem with paying more taxes if it were asked of them. If I were making a million dollars a year I'd have no problem paying more in taxes and I'm pretty sure you would not either.

Not only is the top tax rate in the USA at the lowest it has been in at least 60 years, but the top tax rate in the USA is also the lowest in the World! With the exception of Japan which is about the same as our top tax rate, every other country in the world has a higher top tax rate than we do. What do they know that we don't ? Apparently they are right and we are wrong because we can't balance our budget. (There are of course some exceptions out there, mostly a few countries that have tried to emulate the USA by borrowing too much.)

Anyway, I was about to say that many of the wealthy realize the problem and I am sure would like to help. Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the USA said "The tax system is the USA is crazy. I pay less tax than my secretary."

What we need to do is give them, the wealthy, the chance to help the country that made them rich.

When you go to a bridal shower or a baby shower you receive a list of things that the happy couple needs. You can then choose a gift from that list according to your wishes and your means. I suggest that the Country get together such a list and encourage the rich to select one, or more, things from the list and use their remarkable powers to solve the problems presented to them.

Here is a few ideas from me to start the list off, I'm sure that you could come up with hundreds more!

One of our biggest problems with our balance of payments is all the money that goes to buy oil from abroad. Any way we can replace oil is money saved from being sent to people who hate us and use it, our money, against us. To that end : -

Develop cheaper and more efficient solar panels.
Develop roof shingles that double as solar panels.
Develop a more efficient, quieter windmill that people could afford to use at their homes.
Develop more efficient insulation.
Pay to insulate the homes of the poor.
Develop a paint that acts like a solar panel. It could be used on cars and homes.
Develop a device to retro-fit in cars to measure the MPG you are achieving NOW - this very second, and also since you installed it and on trips. It could be like a GPS. I drive a Prius and seeing the MPG I am getting as I accelerate hard or drive carefully helps me to reduce my gas use. (When I drive my pick up, which does not have such a device I don't try so hard to cut my gas use!) At present I am getting 53.4 MPG on my Prius. If everyone got an MPG like that we would probably not have to import any oil!
Find ways to produce everyday things in the USA at competitive prices - shoes, clothes etc.
Put together a drive to make "Made in the USA" a source of national pride. Make it so people want to "Buy American". Perhaps we could even waive sales tax on things that are "Made in America." The loss in sales tax would be more than made up for in the taxes paid by people at work and the savings in unemployment pay.

Can you add to this list? I'm sure you can. But will you?

Numbers.

2011-07-05T06:58:00.010-05:00

Units, tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintrillions, sextillions - big numbers - that last one, sextillions, is just about the number of grains of sand on all the beaches in all the world! No, I didn't go out and personally count them all, it's an estimate that was done done by other people.

What I find even more extraordinary is that there are more stars in the universe than that! Just go down to your local beach and check out the sand, see how many grains there are! Now imagine all the grains on all the other beaches in the world and add them all together. All those beautiful beaches in Florida - lots of sand there - and Hawaii, and of course the Caribbean, we even have beaches in Europe, and I'm pretty sure that they have them in Africa and South America too, and don't forget the nude beach at Bondi beach in Australia! Add all those grains of sand together and the total doesn't come close to equaling the number of stars!

Some more facts for those of you not familiar with stars, our Sun is a star. It is of average size, there are some smaller and there are some bigger, some stars are 1,000 times, or more, bigger than our Sun! Our group of stars is in a galaxy called The Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy has about 200 Billion stars in it. As you can imagine there are different sizes of galaxies, some of just a few million stars to some with hundreds of Trillions of stars. Our galaxy is a bit bigger than the average sized galaxy.

With numbers like these I like to think about things and play with the numbers. For example, we have telescopes now that can see planets around other stars, well they don't actually 'see' them, I think that it's more like they see the interruption in light as a planet passes between us and the star. They have examined several thousand stars now and found that at least 50% have planets. As of now we can only detect large planets - the size of Jupiter for example - so the chances are that most stars have planets. If they were small like the Earth or Mars we would not be able to detect them yet. But I am sure we will soon, and as we are already above 50 % I suspect that most stars have planets.

Still thinking, I wonder how many of those planets have life? I cannot help thinking that as life has managed to survive just about everywhere on this planet from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans, from the coldest lands to the hottest desserts and even in hot springs and in ice it seems reasonable to assume that life also exists on other planets. Most of the stars that we have examined have about 5 planets. Our star has 9 and as 4 of those are very small they most likely would not be detectable from the kinds of distances over which we are looking - tens to hundreds of light years. (A light year is the distance light travels in one year - a long, long way when you consider that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles in one second! That's more than 11 million miles in one minute. So light can travel to the moon, and back again, 44 times in one minute! Just imagine how far it can travel in a year!) Anyway, I am going to go out on a limb and say that life does not exist somewhere around every star (Even though I suspect that it does) Lets say it exists at one star in a thousand. I'm sure that it is more common than that, but. OK, now, on how many of those planets is there intelligent life do you suppose? (Always assuming that WE are intelligent!! Now there's a thought! Sometimes I wonder seriously about that, especially when I observe our Politicians!) But back to my subject. Lets say out of every one thousand planets with some form of life just one has intelligent life. Now we are at one star out of every million having some form of intelligent life existing on one of its planets. If we assume 10 planets per star we are now at 10 million planets and only one out of those 10 million planets has intelligent life.

OK, as I said earlier there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. With an intelligent form of life at just one in every million stars that means there are 200,000 intelligent life forms in our galaxy! Now surely this HAS to be a minimum, one out of every million?

But I continue, lets extrapolate that to the other galaxies. It is generally accepted that there are at least 200 billion galaxies! So lets multiply the 200,000 life forms in our galaxy by the number of galaxies - 200 billion - and you get 40 Quadrillion. That is 40 quadrillion intelligent races in the universe! Now that is a whole lot!

Aren't numbers fascinating? Or do they give you a headache? You can go all kinds of places from here. How about how many "People" - we have 7 billion people on Earth - so why not multiply that number by the 40 Quadrillion intelligent races? for the total number of "people"? Or how about if there are intelligent races at one of every one thousand suns instead of every one million. Wow.
How crowded does that make heaven? How would we ever find anyone there amongst, how many people?

And yet another thought, I am talking about our Universe, some say there may be other Universes, even billions of other universes. Ooops, headache coming on!

Oh, wait, one more thing, a year or two ago some astronomers decided to point a very powerful telescope at a point in the sky that was completely black, entirely devoid of any sign of any stars. This point was the size of a grain of sand held at arms length - got that? A grain of sand held at arms length, that spot was completely dark, they wondered why it was so black. They set the telescope and left it there turned on for, I forget if it was a week, or more, anyway for a long time. At the end of the week, or whatever, they developed the film, and found, ta da, TEN THOUSAND GALAXIES!!! Not ten thousand stars, ten thousand galaxies! Don't forget our galaxy has 200 Billion stars, and they found 10,000 galaxies in that tiny dark area!

Now is that fascinating? Does that make you feel insignificant? It surely does me.

So that I don't feel too insignificant, how about sending a comment to me? Does anyone out there enjoy reading my blog? Or do you hate it? Or are you, most likely, indifferent?

David.

A Bald Eagle.

2011-06-16T09:40:00.002-05:00

Yes, great excitement here at The Lake and in the Liddle household as we observed a Big Beautiful Bald Eagle in our little backyard! I was sitting in our bedroom, which has an expansive view of our garden, The Lake and its Flora & Fauna, when all of a sudden a large bird flew straight towards me and landed in a tree not more than 50 or 60 feet from me. I shouted to Julia to come. She grabbed the binoculars and confirmed my diagnosis - a Bald Eagle was standing proudly in a maple tree just outside of our bedroom window! How exciting is that?
We watched breathlessly as it bobbed up and down, appearing and disappearing behind the dense leaf cover. Then it took off and landed in a dead tree next door. A perfect view. But more to come, ANOTHER Bald Eagle appeared and landed in the dead tree. At first I though it was the mate of the first bird, but Julia soon corrected me, it was in fact an immature Bald Eagle. We watched them both for several minutes, small birds seemed to be dive bombing them. I guess they are a danger to their nests. After a few more minutes they both took off and landed in yet another dead tree several hundred yards away before flying off.

I missed the GOP debate last night.

2011-06-14T05:29:00.003-05:00

I meant to watch it, but something else got in the way, I think it was the sunset or something.

But I remembered it when I got up this morning and thought I would put in a couple of cents worth of my opinion.

The last time we had a Republican president - George W Bush - here are some figures that should be of interest. He took over from Bill Clinton (Democrat) who left office with a budget SURPLUS!!! Unheard of. He also had in place a plan to pay off the National Debt within 10 years. Bush immediately sent everyone in the country a check for $300 (Remember his promise, "If you vote for me I will send everyone $300.00."?)

The Dow Industrial Average was 14,000 when Bush came in to office. It was 6,000 when he left. (It is now 12,000)

Gas was $1.25 when Bush came in and $4.10 when he left. (It is now $3.50)

The National Debt was $5.7 Trillion when he came in and $10.7 Trillion when he left - almost DOUBLE.(It is now $14 Trillion, a long way from double, and not even as much as Bush added to it)

The reason for such a disaster? He gave RICH people a HUGE tax cut - at least $1.3 Trillion, cut taxes to Big Business, gave free drugs to senior citizens and started two wars. He did all of these things and made NO provision to pay for ANY of them!

That was his huge failure, no provision to pay for any of his largesse. If you cut taxes in one area (Say to your rich friends) then you need to raise taxes on another sector (As the Republicans want to do - on the poor and the middle classes.) or you need to cut expenses elsewhere. (As the Republicans want to do by cutting services to the poor and the middle classes.

Bush cut taxes to the rich, on the theory that it would get the economy going again. It's been more than 10 years now and it has not worked. It never worked when tried in the past. The only thing that happens is that the very wealthy get even wealthier and the poor and middle class get poorer. Oh yes, and the greedy Politicians get rich too from a grateful bunch of rich people!

One final rant. The income gap in the US is bigger than it has EVER been, and not just here in the US but ANYWHERE, in other words the income gap HERE, in the US, NOW, is bigger than it has ever been at any time anywhere, including anywhere in the entire World!! The rich are richer than they have ever been at any time in our history AND they pay less in taxes than they have ever paid at any time in our history!! They pay less in taxes than you and I pay!! The top 1% to 2% in the US pay only 16% of their income in taxes while the average American pays 30% of their income in taxes!!!!! What kind of sense does that make? AND THE CONSERVATIVES WANT TO CUT TAXES TO THE RICH EVEN MORE!! They want to cut them even further! Insanity. These people are already obscenely rich and we want to give them even more of our money to make them even richer. Are we mad?

It was a British Movie.

2011-06-12T11:40:00.003-05:00

What was? "Men Behaving Badly." was, and how appropriate a title is it nowadays?

I am not even going to try to list the l o n g, l o n g list of men who have behaved badly! It would take up too many pages in my always too long a Blog anyway. But you know most of them, from Presidents to Governors to Senators to Congressmen, to Representatives, to Leaders in other fields such as Sports, Religion, etc.

When you were thinking through the list of these men who cheated on their wives with women, men, prostitutes and so on, did you notice that they were all men?

When was the last time that you read a story about women in politics, who behaved badly? I can't remember one, can you?

Lets think about it. Obviously women must have affairs with other men, other women etc. So why don't we hear about them? Could it be that they are smarter than us men? Could it be that they realize that if they are in the public eye they should not indulge in that kind of behaviour? And if they do, is it possible that they don't tell about it, that they don't Tweet, Facebook or e-mail about it - reveal it ON LINE!!! If that is the case, I put it to you that yes, they must indeed be smarter than us men. In which case it is more than obvious that we need to have more women in politics and other positions of power.

When was the last time you saw Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi or any other woman politician biting her bottom lip, in the glare of the TV lights, while making a teary eyed confession and apologizing for their infidelity, lies and mistakes?

I put it to you that the world would be a better place if we had more women politicians. Right now we are depending on these "men" to make decisions for us about our Health Care, our Money, our Children, our Taxes, even War & Peace. You only have to look at their marriages to see the quality of their decisions making powers! With this kind of decision making judgement do we really want them making other more important decisions affecting us, (Like the decisions they make in apparently, to them, unimportant areas of their lives like their wives and children.)

(An aside here, did you know that out of the 180 other countries in the world the USA ranks 90th in the number of women politicians? Countries with a larger % of women politicians include Uganda!, Argentina, India, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Tanzania, Egypt, and even Iraq, Iran, Cuba, South Africa and on and on!!)

Our Lake is a nursery.

2011-06-12T08:21:00.002-05:00

We were seated in the sitting area of our bedroom this morning watching The Lake and its inhabitants when the pair of Canada Geese with the three large babies swam into view near our pier. As we idly watched them, Julia with several Oh and Ahs, another pair of the beautiful birds swam into view with two Goslings. But something was wrong, these two were almost as large as the triplets that we could still see. We knew that there were two tiny babies, but they could not possibly have grown to the size of their large cousins in just a day or two. As we pondered this mystery the two tiny babies paddled into view. The mystery was solved - we now had three sets of baby Goslings!

How these two had escaped our notice we do not know. Apparently these birds must spend large amounts of time elsewhere on The Lake, and have only just got around to visiting us here.

So, it is a wonderful sight indeed to now see three sets of young Geese, each being displayed by their proud parents.

It is still a mystery why there are such small broods this year, usually there are batches of 8 to 12 Goslings in each group and we do usually have 2 or 3 groups. So the question is have they had fewer babies this year because that is a natural cycle or because an animal ate some of the eggs - which seems unlikely, they would probably eat them all - or did the DNR oil some of their eggs leaving just a few to relieve pressure on The Lake. Or is there yet another explanation?

Meanwhile we continue to enjoy it all.

Three more Goslings.

2011-06-10T11:13:00.002-05:00

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.

Late arrivals.

2011-06-07T08:28:00.002-05:00

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.

Jobs, and taxes.

2011-06-06T11:33:00.002-05:00

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.

A little tip to save money - and oil.

2011-05-27T13:21:00.003-05:00

Most people know, I hope, that the heaviest user of energy in our homes is heating and air conditioning.

I thought you might be interested in how we keep down our use of energy in this sphere. As the A/C part of the "problem" is at hand I will start there.

We have set the time to start using our A/C as June 1st. So we don't start using our A/C until at least June 1st. If the weather co-operates it could be later. It is usually no problem to do this, rarely is it really hot before then and we find by opening windows - with the screens on - and wearing light clothing we have no problem, we might eat salads instead of a hot meal and pull curtains across if the sun is shining in and heating up the house. Eventually, in any year it will get to a point where the A/C is pretty much a necessity. (Here I must tell you of one year back in the late 70's or early 80's when we were here at The Lake in our little redwood cabin on July 4th with our friends John and Norma Hergenroeder and it was so cold that we lit up the wood stove!) That is a true story. So it is not always so hot in the summer!

Anyway the heat eventually arrives and we turn on the A/C and set it at . . . . drum roll here . . . . 80 degrees! Yep 80. Most people will no doubt find this completely unacceptable, but it is just fine with us. If we have guests coming we will turn it down to 78. It might be of interest to know that your electric use drops by 7% for every degree that you set the thermostat up. (Or down in the winter.) So if you normally set your A/C at 65 you will be using about 100% more electric than me! In other words if my bill is $10 a day for A/C yours would be $20 a day. Quite a savings. Some people do have their A/C set at 65 - I've seen it with my own eyes. Most set it at 68, some "frugal" people at 70. Another interesting little fact is that if it gets hotter people will turn their A/C down to a LOWER setting! "Ooh it is 90 degrees today turn the A/C down"! If you have it set at 70 because that is where you like it, it will be 70 in your house if it is 75 outside or 90 or 100, it is not necessary to turn it down even lower. In fact even before we came up with 80 as "our setting" and were using 72 or whatever, if it got really hot I would turn the temperature setting UP. Hey if it is 95 outside, 80 or even 85 is going to feel nice. If you set the thermostat say 10 degrees lower than outside it is always going to feel comfortable, certainly more comfortable than outside, because the A/C removes the humidity which is what makes heat so uncomfortable. And don't forget the 7% rule. If it is hotter, your cost goes UP by 7% for every degree warmer that it is. So if you turn your A/C colder by 5 degrees you are adding 35% to your electric cooling bill PLUS whatever is added by the hotter temperature of the day. To sum that up - if the temp outside is 85 and it goes up 90 - and we are both set at 75, you turn your thermostat down to 70. I turn mine up to 80. Your bill goes up by 70%, mine stays the same! No increase. (I was 10 degrees away from the outside temp - 75 to 85. I am now still 10 degrees away - 80 to 90. But you were 10 degrees away - 75 to 85, but are now 20 degrees away - 70 to 90. So the additional 10 degree difference in your setting is 10, or 10 times 7% equals 70% higher cost.

In the winter we try to wait as long as possible before turning on the heat. (Another little story here, some friends on Gibson Island had the same "game" and one year boasted that they managed to put off turning on the heat "Almost until Christmas."!) When we do turn it on it is usually to 68 degrees. We keep it this "hot" because Julia has arthritis problems and feels the cold. 68 degrees is too cold for most people, but we temper that by wearing warm clothes, long pants and a sweater. Julia will put a blanket over her legs while sitting watching TV in the evenings. It is a lot cheaper to put on a sweater than to turn the heat up. At 72 you are spending 28% more than I am at 68. If you like 75 your bill is 49% more than mine!

As It happens we recently, last winter, installed a wood stove, so our house, especially the living room, where we spend most of our time, is very warm and cozy and the heat rarely comes on at all, we set it at 65 or 62 - it will only come on if the fire dies down and the temp drops below 65 or 62 degrees. This might happen at night, when we are cozy in our bed with a nice warm over sized Duvet on the bed.

Can you imagine the drop in oil use by the US if everyone did this? We would probably have to cut our oil imports by a huge percentage! What would that do to our balance of payments?

F U

2011-05-26T06:46:00.006-05:00

It seems to me that the GOP - The Party of No - has "Progressed" to The Party of F You.

Maybe you are wondering why I would say that?

You will doubtless have noticed that a number of contenders for the Republican nomination for President have dropped out. Some of these 'dropouts' were the more reasonable of the Republicans. Mike Huckabee and Mitch Daniels for example. Mitch was a reasonable governor. He seemed to put important matters ahead of ideology - a no-no nowadays for ANY politician, but especially for a Republican. I think they dropped out because they did not want their carefully nurtured reasonableness to be attacked by the Republican Party of today.

Even they can see, as I can, that the GOP of today is a party of lies, distortions, incorrect 'facts' and "birthers". Prejudice trumps fact, any expert is pooh poohed, any truth or reality is a Liberal or elitist plot.

Their world of False Reality is nurtured and created by themselves, Fox "News", Rush Limbaugh and other "fair and balanced" far right extremists.

For the first two years of Obama's administration, while he was trying to correct the problems and excesses of the Bush years, when both parties should have been pulling together to put the country back on its feet, they were instead The Party of No. Any attempt made to put the country back onto a sound footing was sabotaged at every possible opportunity. Any attempt by Obabma to extend an olive branch was rejected. If Obabma tried to close the gap between the parties and made concessions they made no concessions back.

If my neighbor's house was hit by a truck or a tree or a flood or a fire I would go to help, as he would, if such a disaster were to hit my family. We would do this without first asking, "Are you a Liberal or a Conservative"? I compare the countries present position to my neighbors position. But The Party of No, far from helping, is instead parking their truck in the road blocking the fire trucks, turning off the water, calling the authorities to stop sending whatever help they can stop them from sending.

Anything for political gain. They cry "Cut taxes", a cry guaranteed to get people on your side, even though you know it will only make matters worse. Even worse, cut taxes to the rich, they will spend us out of this recession, something that has never happened before and has not happened this time, in spite of repeated tax cuts.
Now the GOP has embraced a new party, the Tea Baggers, who are even further to the right than the modern Republican Party! The Far Right Tea Baggers are wealth-and-business-obsessed.

Now we have The New Republican Party which has morphed from The Party of No to The Party of F You.

In 2010 they campaigned on jobs, deficits, tax cuts and health care. Who wouldn't vote for that? But now they are in power their tune changes. If you are a wealthy individual or a big corporation like big oil, big agriculture, big banks etc, anyone with plenty of money, they have nothing but hugs and kisses for you. For the rest of us? The GOP offers a Big F You.

Out of a job? F You. They blocked efforts to extend unemployment benefits. Instead, they wanted to cut taxes to the rich, so they could "spend us out" (an idea only accepted by lunatics and Republicans. An idea that has never worked before and is not working now.)

Worried about another financial collapse? F You, say the Republicans. Regulations on banks were enacted after the Great Depression and were kept in place for 50 years. But 30 years ago, since Ronald Reagan, the GOP started repealing the regulations that had prevented those same abuses for 50 years. Resulting in the financial collapse that we are all suffering today. (All, that is except the "Top" 1% who are even wealthier! Please note that you are poorer, and they are wealthier - has anyone else, other than me, noticed that?) After the disaster of the Great Depression, common sense says the banks need regulating, but The Republicans fought even the modest Dodd-Frank regulations that were passed, in spite of their fight, in 2010. They continue to fight to weaken or delay it!

Worried about cutting the deficit? The Republicans say they are, but they are not. Instead they say F You. They don't care a toss about deficits, why else would they vote to keep the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy? This added billions to the deficit. And no, we are not overtaxed, the the overall tax burdens of Americans is at it's lowest level since 1958. The Republicans want to cut taxes to the rich and to corporations, making the deficit even WORSE, and then they want to cut all government spending to pay for the tax cuts to their rich friends. Medicare and Social Security - that Corporations and the wealthy don't need, will be cut as will anything that the poor and middle class depend on. To pay for tax cuts to the rich! (A couple of figures here, the richest 1% of Americans have more wealth than 50% of Americans COMBINED. The top 2% of Americans, in income, pay 16% of their income in taxes. The average American pays 30% of his income in taxes!! CEO's of giant corporations pay less tax than their secretaries!) And the GOP wants to cut taxes to these unbelievably greedy people even more!)

Worried about health care in your old age? F You, says the GOP. Thought you could just make it if you could just reach retirement age, because then you would qualify for Medicare? F You. Worry more, the Republicans and the Tea Baggers are attacking Medicare relentlessly. It will be privatized, which means your health care will still be FOR PROFIT, just as it is now, when you are paying through your teeth for health care, and just as Obama won a small victory for you - making the insurance companies continue to cover you even if you got sick! The richest country in the world, and the only one without universal health care for it's citizens, is about to fall back even further. Medicare - one of the few government programs that by far the majority of Americans like, is about to be snatched away from you. And replaced with a voucher system which won't begin to cover the cost of most old people's insurance costs. This means that, unless you are rich, you won't be able to afford health care. If you can just afford to get health insurance, it will be as it was a few years ago - don't forget it will be privatized insurance - you will start to get the letters that we all dreaded, "It's not covered", "You got sick, so we have to raise your rates.", "Sorry, you got sicker, we have to cancel your insurance." That is the way the GOP wants it. They have to pay for more tax cuts for the rich somehow!

If you are a woman, it is definitely F You. The GOP wants complete control of a woman's body. Elimination of the right to an abortion, even if it is not paid for by the government is right at the top of their agenda. If you were raped, they are even redefining rape. They want to redefine all women's health services to be even more detrimental to women. I've seen this defined as "The Republican War on Women."

I hope you don't expect the GOP to manage the countries finances responsibly? The debt ceiling needs to be raised. To the Republicans that is just another bargaining chip. They don't care - F You.

High gas prices, do they affect you? F You, say the Republicans. The Republicans in the Senate voted to protect subsidies to Big Oil who have made billions in windfall profits thanks to high prices. Here they had a chance to help the American people, but they showed their true colors - the colors of their corporate benefactors - over the red white and blue colors of the American people. Here they also had a chance to cut our dependence on oil, and thus cut our economic, environmental and national security risks tied to oil. But it was the same old, same old. They know which side their bread is buttered. They know who to to suck up to, and it's not you and me and the American public, it's BIG OIL - as in BIG MONEY.

Want me to go on? I didn't think so, so I'll stop with just a quick list of F You's from the Republicans. Global warming deniers, birthers, union busters. In fact F You to virtually everyone except the wealthy and the big corporations. They have moved so far to the right that they are way way beyond the American mainstream. And they don't care because they have the ear of everyone who matters - the obscenely rich and big business. And for some unknown reason a lot of people are going along with it. Why? Is it because they think that they too will be hugely rich one day?

I think Daniels dropped out because he really doesn't want to be a part of the F You Party.

Persistance or habit?

2011-05-25T06:44:00.002-05:00

Every year - well every year for the 3 years that we have lived here - a little bird, a wren, has built a nest in the wreath that Julia hangs on our front door. Julia has a selection of silk wreaths that vary with the season and her whim. Sometimes it is even a real wreath, made with some of natures bounty. Each year the wreath has been different, but each year that persistent little bird does not vary her routine. She builds her nest and lays between 3 and 5 eggs. We then have to stop using the front door for several weeks, entering and leaving our home via the garage and trying to intercept any visitors before they bang on the door. We don't always manage this and we have taken to checking the progress of the tiny feathered creatures daily. We do this by going out the garage door and over to the front door - afraid that if we open the front door the mother will fly into the house. The babies are remarkably quiet. I always thought they would chirp to attract the mother's attention and to ask her to give that tasty looking grub to ME. But the silence is uncanny, they never make the slightest noise, which I think is very wise, as 'There be Dragons here.' Well OK, cats. Which would result in their demise either way.

This year she laid 5 eggs of which 4 hatched. (We discovered the 5th unhatched egg after they had all left) So there were 4 babies, all looking very cute, and fluffy - well OK, feathery - then when they were all pretty much fully grown and really, really crowded in the tiny nest suddenly there were only three! We saw no sign of the fourth sibling, so don't know if she fell out or was pushed (A case for Detective Poirot - did she fall or was she pushed?) Anyway it could be that she made a tasty snack for a passing cat, raccoon or even a dragon? Or perhaps she was very precocious and left early, we hope so. The others were all gone when we looked yesterday, which was about 5 days after the Mysterious Disappearance of the Fourth Sibling.

Then it was clean up time. It is remarkable how much mess a few little birds can make on a door.

But all was not over. More persistence. This time in the form of wasps. For the third year running wasps started to build a nest on the front door, using some remarkably strong adhesive. They build it not just on the front door but in exactly the same place each time. But these guys are not so welcome. The first time the soft hearted Julia said "Leave them". So we did, but "They" got got obnoxious, buzzing us every time we went out or in. Opening the door produced a swarm of wasps some of who came into the house and had to be ushered out again - a hazardous duty. Visitors encountered them with varying degrees of alarm. They had to go. A can of wasp spray, and they were history.

But each year they still return, and I dispose of them quickly before they terrorize us and our guests again. How or why they keep coming back to that one spot year after year I do not know. Some must survive each time.

To return to this post's title - persistence or habit, what do you think? Or is it a routine, like the routines that we all have? I think I vote for instinct. All those other labels are human qualities, animals don't have them. Or do they . . . ?

Riddles.

2011-05-19T06:10:00.002-05:00

What, could no one solve my two little riddles? Go back 4 posts to see them, two little riddles, easy. Well the second one is easy, the first one could occupy you for a few minutes. Why not give them a try?

Corruption.

2011-05-14T06:29:00.004-05:00

I was reading recently about the corruption that exists in some countries. I was horrified to read that elected officials will take bribes. They can be bought with money, having been bought they will then do the bidding of their owners, passing laws in favor of the people who paid them!!

Wait, isn't that what happens here?

In some of these 'other countries' this bribery is done in secret. In others they are quite open about it, everyone knows 'how it is done'.

Here we do it both ways. In Congress and the Senate for example people called lobbyists meet openly with our politicians and regularly hand them money. The Health Insurance Industry for example spends one million dollars A DAY bribing them. (What else would you call it?). Why do they willingly hand over this princely sum of money every day? Is it because they like our honest, upstanding officials? No, I don't think so either. It is because they want OUR Congressmen to vote for THEIR industry. And they do. What would you do? The Health Insurance Industry is just one business that conducts business in this way. So too do the Oil Industry, Farming, and dozens, maybe hundreds of other big, and small, companies. It is accepted. Unbelievably it is accepted by us!!!! We sit by while the people that we voted into office to run the country for us, in the way we wanted them to run it, and in the way they promised to run it, do nothing that they told us they would do. They can't, they are too busy lapping up all this money. Who can find time to work, especially for the lousy $200,000 a year that they are being paid when there are lobbyists lined up at their doors BEGGING them to take money!

Hard to make ends meet on $200,000 a year, and a virtually unlimited expense account, not to mention free health care (That is real health care - not the bullshit health care that they voted in for us poor schmucks, and which they will doubtless soon be taking away from us so that their friends in the health care INDUSTRY can rip us for 2 to 4 times as much as we pay now. Oh and don't forget the letters that say "Sorry that is not covered", or the letter that says "You are sick, we can't afford to cover you any more." Those kind of letters will be back soon.) No that kind of health care is not good enough for the likes of them. Instead they voted themselves a REAL health insurance - that they do not pay for of course. We pay for it for them. While I am at it, the health insurance continues for them, and their families for the rest of their lives, paid for by us. Oh, and don't forget the pension scheme - wouldn't you love to have this pension - 100% of pay for LIFE. For your whole family, health insurance for life, and at no cost to them. (We get the bill) - and don't forget most of them can more than afford to pay for it, most are wealthier than you or I could even dream of. Did I forget to mention that their children get to go to the best schools for free. Well not for free, we get the privilege of paying for that too.

All this for a bunch of, mostly, scumbags who do nothing all day except take money from lobbyists, raise money from other rich people, people who they can help, for their re-election. Oh yes, you bet they want to get back in. And there will not be any time at all left over to do the work that we put them in there to do. They have to fly all over the place, stay in fancy hotels, eat expensive meals and entertain "important" people, all at our expense, in order to get reelected. Yes the next 4 years is spent getting re-elected. Well any time that they have left over after the main business of collecting money.

Yep, there is no doubt in my mind that the good old USA is the number one most corrupt country in the world.

THEY are in charge, THEY get to vote the laws, and there is no way THEY are going to change any of the laws - unless it is to make it even easier for them to steal from us.

Unfortunately, they will never make it illegal for Congressmen and Senators to take bribes from special interests. They will never vote in a law making, say, a 6 year term for Congressmen and Senators, so they can get on and do their jobs, instead of spending all their time (and all our money) working on getting re-elected. Have the same health insurance for them that we have, and pay for it themselves.

No, as an old saying goes - "We have the best politicians that money can buy."

I am going to advise my grandchildren to somehow or other get elected to Congress, for just one term. That is all you need, then you are set for life. You don't even need to take money from Big Business etc. Just do your job for 4 years and retire with an indexed pension and health insurance for life.

Well back to the fight. I got a new health insurance and prescription insurance on Jan 1st this year, making sure that it covered the one prescription that I take - it did. Here we are 5 months into the year and I am still fighting to get them to pay for the first months supply! They assure me that it is covered. I just have to go through special channels to get it. Five months! Once I get the first months supply, do you suppose it will take me another 5 months to get the next months? And this is before we get Medicare ripped out from under us - I'm sure it is coming - how long will it take to get it then?

I get more depressed with the system every day. And it looks like it is going to rain today! I was going to plant some seeds, so that we can get "Free" food from the garden.

Insider Trading.

2011-05-11T17:24:00.000-05:00

Finally - some good news from the courts. I don't know how it happened but a BILLIONAIRE was finally found GUILTY - I know, I know, sounds impossible doesn't it? It seem this Billionaire decided that a billion (or two or more?) wasn't enough and he could steal another 60 Million using insider trading. Well he was caught. And found guilty! Faces up to 19 years in prison!!! Yeah, way to go. I hope he gets the full 19 years. He deserves it. No, not just because he is rich, but if you already have a BILLION and you try to STEAL more from people like you and me who have very little, then you are greedy beyond any hope of redemption.
I say lock him up and throw away the key.
You still don't belive that it happened do you? Well OK it did, it's true, just not in the USA of course. It happened in Britain. It will be a long, long time before any banker, politiion or super rich person in the US will ever be found guilty of anything.

Jobs.

2011-04-07T15:02:00.002-05:00

I was thinking about our "Politicians" and wondering how it would work out if we hired our workers the same way we hired our politicians. Here's a couple of ideas about how it might work : -

Wanted Shop Assistant. Must not like people. Must give the product to the rich for free and charge the poor and middle class double - thus forcing the lower paid people to pay for the rich. Must be able to take "gifts" and bribes and kickbacks. Must work short hours and take long breaks. No experience necessary.

Wanted Car Mechanic. Must hate Cars and Car manufacturers. Must be mechanically inept. Prefer no experience.

Wanted Accountant. Must be unable to handle the job. Must not be able to balance the books. Must not be able to do simple addition. Prefer person with no business experience at all.

Wanted CEO. Must be able to steal from your customers, ruin your company and then be able to take a multi-million dollar bonus for "Good Performance" without laughing. Must have a hard heart and be able to lay off workers and hire workers in another country. Must be happy to pay no taxes - for you or your company.

That is how we would be running our businesses if we hired our employees the same careful way we hire our Politicians.

A riddle for you.

2011-04-07T07:21:00.002-05:00

What am I?

Pronounced as one letter,
And written with three,
Two letters there are,
And two only in me,
I'm double, I'm single,
I'm black, blue and gray,
I'm read from both ends,
And the same either way,
What am I?

And another one, easy this time.

From the beginning of eternity,
To the end of time and space,
To the beginning of every end,
And the end of every place,
What am I?

Good luck, let me know when you get them.

David.

Budget.

2011-04-01T20:47:00.011-05:00

Last week a cross section of the public were asked how much of the Federal Budget was used to subsidize NPR (National Public Radio) - in my view a public treasure that reports fairly on US and World happenings and has a veritable treasure trove of programs designed for every age and class of people. The average thought was 5%. They actually thought that 5% of the Federal Budget was used to subsidize Public Radio! The real figure is less than .01%.

I thought in view of this I would give a few figures that accurately reflect just how the Federal Budget is divided up.

The Military Budget is 54% of the entire Federal Budget! This figure is more than is listed on the budget because in the "Official" budget the amount spent on wars is not included in the Military budget. In other words the Federal Government does not include in the Military budget the money that is spent in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and probably a host of other wars that we are engaged in around the globe. It also does not include interest spent on the Military Debt, which is interesting because obviously if we did not spend so much on the Military we would not have any debt.
So, including those figures, the Military takes 54% of the entire US Federal Budget. Then there is 30% spent on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This leaves 16% for EVERYTHING ELSE. By everything else I mean everything else the government spends. I will list just a VERY FEW things that are included on that list. Infrastructure - including roads, bridges etc, NASA - space exploration, The IRS, subsidies for the oil companies and agriculture and a host of other companies, the Courts, police, fire, the Treasury, the White House, Congress, The Senate, science, astronomy, PBS/NPR, all government regulatory departments, foreign aid - * (See note at bottom regarding foreign aid) and literally thousands of other federal departments.

So the 16% that covers everything except The Military, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is the only part that Congress is willing to cut. The Military and The Entitlements are sacred cows that cannot be touched. Obviously there is not room there - in the 16%, even if every thing were cut by 25%, which would devastate most of the programs, we would only shave 4% off of the entire budget!

Not voting to continue the 4% Bush tax cuts to the rich would have covered all of the cuts, and more! (And the rich already pay only 16% of their incomes in taxes compared to the average Americans 30% in taxes!!) They would hardly have noticed it. Instead so that they can keep even more money and be even richer than they were, we all have to suffer. We have to put up with eviscerated libraries, NPR/PBS cuts, roads that need fixing, cuts to police, fire, cuts to science, medical research, and a thousand other things that make life easier or more enjoyable for the poor and the middle classes - just so that the already disgustingly rich can have even more!! Did you know that the richest 400 Americans have more than half of what all Americans have combined? Let me put another way - the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than 155 MILLION Americans COMBINED! Now that is greed beyond belief, an Income Gap never seen anywhere else ever. The gap now is wider, by far, than it has ever been.

OK lets make the rich richer, forget trying to make them pay their fair share. We could still get around the cuts, by cutting the Military budget by 4%. Surely they would hardly notice a 4% cut. Certainly not as much as we would notice cuts of 25% to 50% in some of the programs more important to us.

Or there is yet another way. Social Security, Soc, Sec. taxes are deducted from the earnings of everyone earning up to $107,000. That means that I and probably most of you reading this pay Social Security tax on all of your earnings. Why should it only be the lowest earners that pay it? If everyone paid Soc Sec Tax on ALL of their earnings, problem solved. I pay it on all of my income, you pay it on all of your income, why should Tiger Woods not pay it on all of his income ($100 million a year! For playing golf!) The US has been good to him - and to all the Billionaires out there, they should be happy to help out and contribute to the country that gave them their wealth.

If you think that is taking too much from them - boo hoo - reduce the overall rate, I think it is 6% now, cut it to 5% or 4%, but deduct it from 100% of every ones earnings. (Then you and I would pay less!) Make it a rate that would take care of Soc Sec, and maybe Medicare and Medicaid for years to come.

We could also raise the retirement age, slowly, when Soc Sec was started, 65 was the age that most people started dying at! Now we live into our 80's and even 90's. If the retirement age were raised to 70, over a period of years - say increase it by 2 months every year, that would help tremendously.

Maybe a combination of the several suggested solutions? Or implement them all and pay off the National Debt. As President Clinton had planned! I think under his plan, it would have been almost down to zero by now! You may remember that Clinton left office with a surplus! Has that ever happened before? I'm not sure. Anyway, George Bush gave it away, remember? He said elect me and I will send everyone %600. He just barely got into office even with that offer! He sent out the checks and that was the end of any chance of getting rid of the National Debt. (I was thinking I might run for office and say "I will send $5,000 to everyone if you elect me." Do you think I would get in?)

There are other areas where money can and should be taken to pay for the running of the country. Boeing Company had a pretax profit of 10 Billion dollars from 2008 to 2010. During those three years they paid NO federal taxes! (They were recently given a 35 Billion contract to build planes for the Federal government. A nice reward for paying no tax!)
G.E. 2006 to 2010 $26.3 Billion pretax profit. Tax rate? Negative 15.8% - they got a REFUND of $4.2 Billion - after paying NO taxes! GE has more employees abroad than in the US! Their pretax profit abroad? $67.7 Billion - on which they paid tax, at the rate of 19.6%. Put another way, they get a REFUND in the US on their earnings. They pay TAX abroad on their earnings! Oh by the way they cut 20% of their work force in the US - and sent the jobs abroad! This IS a US company - I think. More greed!

* I promised to tell you about US foreign Aid. A lot of people think if we did not send aid abroad we could balance our budget. Not so.
It is a minuscule amount, especially compared to what most other countries in the world give - we are 22nd on the list of 22 richest countries in government aid to other countries as a percentage of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product.) The countries of The United Nations agreed on a figure of .7% of the GDP of the 22 wealthiest nations. Denmark gives the most with 1.1% of its GDP, most of the Scandinavian Countries give around 1%, The US gives .1%! (To repeat, one tenth of 1%, the lowest of the 22 richest countries.) And most of our foreign aid goes to places like, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan etc! Almost all of it is military aid. The little bit that goes to countries that really need help, like starving African Nations get what is called "Tied Aid" which means they have to use the money to buy from the US. This would seem to make sense until you realize that if a starving African Nation has to buy food from the US it's own farmers are not helped at all - they could work, grow food and sell it to their own government, but that is not allowed, their government must use the aid money to buy only from the US. So the "Help" is no help at all to the citizens. 90% of US aid is "Tied", The UK and Norway "Ties' 10%. Also, of the Foreign aid that the US sends, 80% of it goes to American Companies in those countries!

So, to sum up, stopping foreign aid would do nothing to help our budget woes. It is only .1% of our GDP, almost all of it is military aid to Israel, Egypt, Pakistan etc - not really what foreign aid was intended for, which was to help poverty stricken countries. What does go to countries in that category is "Tied" - it must be used to buy from the US, which hurts their economies not helps them. And finally 80% of the money goes to American companies in those countries anyway. You don't hear about these things here because US news is about the US. If anything is reported about non-US things it tells how it affects the US. European news, tries to give news about the whole world.

Sorry, if I sound bitter or anti-US, but I am telling it the way it is. And it is getting worse. Congress will cut and cut and cut, and they will be angry because it doesn't matter how much they cut they will be almost completely unable to affect the budget. Because they cannot touch the sacred cows of the Military, Soc Sec etc which represents 84% of the budget!! They will eviscerate everything that makes life worthwhile for many people and only be able to reduce the huge budget deficits by tiny amounts - even after crowing how they cut WICK, PELL, and goodness knows what else by huge amounts, they will have to admit that they have barely affected it at all. And then they will blame their idiocy on "Someone else".

Then they will continue to serve the Rich. That is what Congress and the Senate does, in case you hadn't noticed! They serve the Rich, they have no interest whatsover in anyone else, their entire reason for living is to make the Rich richer. Because of this the Rich throw crumbs to them when it is time for them, the Politicians, to retire, with just 100% of their salary for life and the best medical care money (our money) can buy! (Even if they only serve one term they get this incredible package!)

Enough already, I am so upset by our "Pile of Shitens", sorry Politicians, that I can barely see straight. Night, night.

Six Osprey.

2011-04-01T19:46:00.003-05:00

What's that you say? Six Osprey? Yes, six, can you imagine. I looked out at The Lake yesterday morning and there they were, six of them, hovering - you know, the way they do, and swooping and diving into The Lake, all in the vicinity of Sunset Cottage. I could hardly believe my eyes. Fortunately they were not successful with every dive!

What with the three Great Blue Herons that I could also see from the vantage point in my living room, by the fire, and the Cormorants dotted about The lake I was wondering if we would ever have another home caught fish dinner! There just seems to be too much competition out there for the few remaining fish for me to succeed in "bringing home the bacon" in the form of a fish dinner.

Well, to heck with the fish dinner, lets just enjoy the birds.

Speaking of birds, the Canada Geese are still here, we should have a great lawn this year - if Goose poop is good lawn fertilizer!

The two Swans are much in evidence, with the male Swan going Ape sh*t every time he sees another bird that could imperil his offspring. That is, his offspring in the form of egg(s) being patiently sat on by his beautiful mate while she is perched on the top of a mountain of a nest. Unfortunately, as we know, they will never be born, the eggs having been oiled again. Baby Swans would be a delight to see but I think we can understand the danger that they would all be to the ecology of The Bay and The Lake in particular. As aggressive as this one pair of Swans are I cannot imagine if there were several pairs of them here. They would undoubtedly drive all the other birds off. They eat and destroy, by tearing up large quantities of The Bay's grasses too, which The Bay can ill afford, as most of it's grasses have already disappeared.

As most of you know, my own theory about the disappearance of The Bay's grasses is that they have succumbed to the onslaught of the hundreds or thousands of tons of weed killers that are poured onto the lawns surrounding our Bay. These lawns, in my humble opinion, especially the ones directly on The Bay front should be banned from having weedkillers or fertilizers of any kind being put onto them. They might as well pour it directly into The Bay. And of course, possibly not quite as bad, but almost so, are the weedkillers spread onto the lawns, gardens and roadsides all over the six State area that drains into the Chesapeake Bay.

When a National Treasure like The Chesapeake Bay is plundered day after day by so many rapists, with no restraints put on them, it is sickening. I compare it to pouring poisons and acids onto The American Constitution or The Mona Lisa. The Chesapeake Bay is even more irreplaceable than those treasures, but we act as though it were a bank with inexhaustible funds that we can withdraw at will.

If only we would stop raping her she could repair herself. Surely it would be cheaper to leave the Oysters, the Menhaden and the other natural cleaners to do their jobs and clean up The Bay, rather than for us to have to live on the shores of the World's Largest Cess pool?

Hail.

2011-03-24T07:04:00.006-05:00

Hail to what you say. Why hail to me of course.

Yesterday was in many ways a typical day, busy. Let me a take a few minutes to tell you about it. It was quite warm when I woke up and I did the usual chores, made coffee for me, got the wood stove going, opened the chickens, turned on the computers, collected the newspapers, fed the cats. Usual stuff. Then I made tea and took it in to Julia. We watched The Lake. There was a large bird in a tree close to the house that we finally determined to be an Osprey. It was hidden by branches and the emerging leaves. Another Osprey landed in another tree close by and they seemed to be sizing each other up. Yet another Osprey was hovering close by over The Lake and it made a successful dive into the water, coming up with a nice sized fish. It flew off. When Julia said "Why are they just sitting there and not fishing?" they seemed to take the hint, and flew off.

Meanwhile elsewhere on The Lake the flock of Cormorants that appears every morning and then disappears was in evidence. As on most mornings today's crowd was about 40 or 50 birds strong. They are a delight to watch as they swim along mostly submerged with just their heads and necks above water. When they dive they stay submerged for as much as a minute. I assume they can swallow their prey under water although sometimes we see them come up with a fish and swallow it while they are on the surface. If we get the numbers that we have had here in previous years we could see as many as 100 or even 200 birds. As I said they are enjoyable to watch, but it is scary to think of all the fish that they consume. Will they leave enough for me?

There were a number of other birds scattered around, including what may be favorite, the Great Blue Herons.

Anyway, we had to leave our little bit of Paradise and head for the Accountants Office. It is tax time in the US and Julia and I had spent much of the last three days preparing for the annual assault on our income by the dreaded IRS! That over, we headed for the library, then the bank, Trader Joe's in Annapolis and finally to Koontz Toyota, also in Annapolis, for our first service, 5,000 miles, on our "new", now 6 months old, Prius.

While they did whatever it is they do to cars when they "Service" them. Screw them up? We decided to have some lunch. Julia remembered a little cafe that was just a few blocks away and we walked there. As I said earlier, it was warm today. WAS warm, being the operative words, it was now cold and getting colder. It was so warm earlier that I had forgotten to take a coat with me! Anyway The Wild Orchid Cafe was warm and inviting and I enjoyed a Guinness with my Bison Burger while Julia sipped a glass of wine with her Crab Cake.

Then it was a quick walk back to the dealer, while observing that 'it looked like snow', and indeed it did look like snow. But it didn't snow here, although we later heard that much of the East Coast north of us did in fact receive as much as several inches of the white stuff. But not us.

We headed home, stoked up the fire and had a little rest. Soon, lightening, followed quickly by rumbles of thunder and then an ominous drumming on the house. Turning on the outside lights and looking out I saw - - - Hail, Marble sized and heavy, the ground was soon completely covered. Julia had no sooner voiced her worry for the fate of our flowers than it had stopped. Barely 5 minutes long but the damage was done. Some of the Daffodils and Primroses were broken, but her main worry, the Lenten Roses seemed this morning to have survived unscathed.

It is cold again today and the forecast calls for temperatures only in the 40's for the daytime this week with it being right around freezing at night. We are hoping that our proximity to the waters of The Bay and our Lake will keep us above freezing.

Soon, very soon we hope, spring and summer will be here.

My favorite daughter.

2011-03-22T21:57:00.004-05:00

It is daughters week and Sarah is my favorite daughter. You don't have to worry about my other children being jealous, because she is my only child, but if I had ten daughters or a hundred I'm sure that she would still be my favorite. She is a winner in every way. Works two or three jobs. Takes care of four sons, two dogs, a husband and a home. I don't know how she does it, but I sure hope that I had something to do with it. I know her mother did.

It always brightens up my day when I see her, she has a beautiful smile that lights up the room. But like a beautiful flower she attracted pests too! Boys. Watching her being picked up by a boyfriend felt like handing over a stradivarius violin to a gorrilla.

She's a survivor too. She survived a major earthquake in California that happened just a few days after she arrived there. She survived a major bout with cancer. She has survived four boys - including two teenage sons! There have been many more life changing episodes that no one person should have to go through but she has survived them all.

Far from me teaching her, I think I have learned more about life and how to live it from Sarah. And she looks great.

It is hard to believe she is 29 already. (I'll never tell)

I love her with all my heart and I always will.

War, War, War. (The Swans are at war.)

2011-03-20T17:32:00.006-05:00

Well we have a war in Libya against a maniac killing his own people, war of course in Afghanistan, wars no doubt in many other countries, a sort of war in Japan against radioactivity and other tragedies, whilst here on The Lake the male Swan has, as usual in the Spring, declared open warfare on everything on The Lake.

Anything swimming on The Lake is fair game as far as he is concerned. I have been working outside today and every now and then I hear a tremendously loud sound, the beating of wings. He chases any Goose, Duck or Cormorant and even the occasional Kayaker until they leave. It seems to be in vain. While he is busy chasing off the next offender they casually walk back down into the water and start paddling around again until he has chased off everything else and gets back to them once again.
The male Swan is a very large bird and I have no doubt that if he were to attack me he could inflict considerable damage. A blow from his wings could probably break an arm or a leg.

In fact there are quite a few Canada Geese here that have injuries, mostly to their legs. At least they seem to be the most obviously damaged parts. I have no way of knowing if he did the damage but I did hear from someone that he was seen to kill one of the young geese a few years ago.

The problem is that his protective warfare continues for a long time. The local animal control authority oils their eggs, thus rendering them unable to hatch. The Swans don't know this and so instead of her sitting for the usual 5 or 6 weeks she sits there for several months and the male continues to wage his protective battle. It might be kinder to break the eggs but I suppose she would lay more then.

They stop the Swans from breeding because they are not native birds. They also do considerable damage to the grasses of the Chesapeake Bay, eating and pulling up a large amount of the grasses - which are in very short supply already, probably killed by all the weed killers that are poured into The Bay. Well OK, they weren't poured in, but they might just as well be. The millions of lawns surrounding The Bay are looked at as proudly by their owners as the Swans look at their huge eggs. The war by neighbor against neighbor to have the greenest most perfect lawn, takes no prisoners. Whether it is Swans, Canada Geese, Falcons, Owls, Osprey, Fish, Crabs or any other creature of our wonderful Chesapeake Bay matters not. They would willingly sacrifice every wonderful animal, bird, fish or insect just to have their lawn greener than Joe's lawn!

Meanwhile the battle goes on, Swan against all other birds threatening his mate and their offspring, conservationists against the killers of our flora and fauna and Ghadaffi against his citizens, when will it ever end?

Albania.

2011-03-18T07:48:00.012-05:00

I can hear you now, Albania? Well, Albania is in the news lately. It is slowly becoming a part of "The Real World", and I am remembering my first 'contact' with Albania.

It was in 1964 - 47 years ago - I was on my honeymoon with Julia, 'The Girl Of My Dreams', as she was then, and still is now.

We had gone to Budva in what was then Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was under the control of Tito at the time. He was what I would have called then a Benevolent Communist, he had control of the country, he was in fact a Dictator, but the country worked, and it was open to the West.

Anyway, we were on our honeymoon, Budva had been a good choice, it was a beautiful country, and Budva was a charming, small, walled town with friendly "natives", wonderful weather, beaches and food. And it was an 'adventure'. In spite of being "open" to the west, it was still a mysterious and backward country.

Even getting to Yugoslavia had been an adventure to us. We flew there, on our first air flight. The plane was a DC-5 - I think - ancient even then! The interior of the plane was bare metal with thousands of rivets visible, every one of which was loose! The 'windows' which were even smaller than those on today's planes, if that is possible, were covered with metal mesh, I hate to say chicken wire, but that's pretty much what it was. The noise from the old engines, the loose rivets and the wire on the windows was so loud that conversation was difficult. But we barely noticed - did I mention that we were on our honeymoon, our first flight and an adventure?

Our arrival in Yugoslavia was not on time. We were in fact about 12 hours late. After waiting at Gatwick "Airport" - think of today's Gatwick, one of the world's busiest airports and then think of a field with a small building on it. That was Gatwick in 1964. The flight was at first late, then delayed, then had not yet left Yugoslavia!

We were bused to Brighton, to the Grand Hotel. Yep, the very same one where an attempt was made on Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's life 15 years later, in 1979. Interestingly enough, exactly 15 years to the day after we stayed there on September 19th 1964 the Assassinee (What is the title for an attempted assassin?) checked in, on September 19th 1979. He dug a hole in the wall of his room, planted a gelignite bomb, covered it so well that no one noticed it, maybe in our old room? and it went off 22 days later on October 11th when Margaret Thatcher was there - at 2.45 am - it did not kill her, but it did kill 5 other people.

So, we stayed there for the night. Well not really, we arrived at about 1.00am, the porters etc came out and got our bags, they had obviously just got out of bed! They then got us up again at 4.00am to be taken back to the airport! When we opened our bags in the room - at 1.00 am - it was to find it stuffed with confetti, which promptly fell out all over the floor! For some reason or other we picked it all up. Why, I will never know, what did we care if they knew we were just married? But we did. Imagine us, on our hands and knees on the floor of our hotel room at 1.30am, picking up confetti on our first night! I could say we were tired, and I think we were, but we were young. And we should have been tired, after an early rise, to get ready for our wedding. A drive, for me, with my best man, Den Lee, a stop at a pub for a "quick one", then a stop at Julia's house, oops you are not supposed to see the bride before the wedding, where a large glass of whiskey was pushed into my hand by Julia's mother with the admonition, "Go away". Then the wedding, I don't remember much about it, except she looked fantastic, oh yes and the heel on one of her gold shoes broke off as she entered the church. She managed to 'walk' down the aisle without anyone noticing. The offending shoes were removed in the taxi cab after the ceremony. They had very high stiletto heels. (And the shoe store would not replace the brand new shoes, worn once for about 50 feet!) Gold, you are saying? Yes, something you probably already know about Julia is that she is different. The wedding dress, a true work of art, made by one of the Queens Dressmakers, was of gold brocade and she had gold accessories. Stunning is the Understatement of the Year.

When she arrived and stood next to me, she looked at me, and could apparently tell that I had been drinking - I had promised not to - I blurted out, "Your mother gave it to me." This seemed to satisfy her, although I didn't relish hearing what she would say to her mother later, and the ceremony continued. Whew, a close call.

Where was I? Oh yes, back to the airport and our ancient plane, which delivered us safely to Yugoslavia.

Our bags recovered, they put us onto a coach, also ancient, but not as ancient as the plane. We left Dubrovnik airport on a new four lane highway. After about 1/2 a mile, or maybe only a 1/4 of a mile, the coach slowed down and bumped off of the highway onto a dirt road. Oh, we thought, they haven't finished it, there must be a space before it begins again. One hundred miles later, well maybe it was only 60 or 70 miles, we reached Budva!

But what a ride! The scenery and the ride were breathtaking. The road went along the coast in places and across mountains in other places. We saw unfamiliar trees, bushes, plants, flowers, birds and animals and dust, lots of dust! The edge of the road was never very far away, sometimes you could not see the edge of the road, it was somewhere under the bus. Then we arrived at a river - with no bridge - what to do now? Had the bridge been washed away? Were we lost? The bus stopped and waited. Then a raft appeared. A raft? Well, it was a big raft. We were all told to get off of the bus. The bus was driven onto the raft, and we all got onto the raft. But not onto the bus!

After more dusty miles and more adventures we arrived in Budva. At the Hotel Avala. (Which incidentally is still there, although much bigger now. We saw it just last year, on our first return trip there, in 2010, 46 years later.) The difference in the country - - - -, well another story for another day. if you want to hear it, ask me. It was dark, The Hotel staff welcomed us with trays of Slivovich - a local alcoholic drink - in small, very small, glasses. We were hot, dry, dusty and very thirsty. we reached for the welcome beverage, wanting to slake our thirst, and tossed it down. Have you ever tried Slivovich? No need to go out and buy some, use a small quantity of gasoline mixed 50/50 with rubbing alcohol to get a rough idea!

The next morning, and all the other mornings in Budva were like being in Paradise. Did I mention that we were on our honeymoon? The hotel was great. I was not very familiar with hotels, but in today's parlance I would call it a 4 or 5 star hotel, adjusting for the year. There was a wonderful beach right outside of the Hotel, a 30 second walk from the entrance of the hotel to the water. A walk of a few hundred yards along a path carved out of the cliff led to another, hidden beach. The walk went along the edge of the sea with waves breaking over the rocks that had come from cutting the walkway into the cliff. The town of Budva was a two minute walk, or less, and looked the same as it must have looked centuries ago. Open sewers ran along the middle of the "Roads", which were 10 to 20 foot wide, there were a few shops, an occasional market that sold local fruits, vegetables and meats. There were no stalls the wares were on the ground and the 'Shopkeepers" were women dressed in all black head to toe robes. The wares were not at all appetizing looking.

We wandered the streets. Some of the gardens had laundry hanging up, and there were the womens black robes drying in the sun alongside brightly colored underwear! Red Bras, slips, stockings and underpants. Looking into the dirt floored houses we could see children sitting on the floors watching TV.

Some evenings were spent in the underground nightclub under the watchful eye of "The Commissar" as we called him. Especially after he insisted that one of our number pay for a glass that he accidentally dropped onto the floor! Or we had parties on the beach or at one of the rooms that some of the guests had in small cabins up on the hill above the hotel. I lost most of one day after I discovered that one of my favorite liquors at the time -rum - could be had for about $1 for a large bottle. Sure it was a local brew, but how different could it be? Well I don't know if it was the quality or the quantity, but lets just say I was unwell for a day or so!

Another day we sat on the cliff at a Cafe and ordered coffee. Have you ever had Yugoslavian coffee? Don't bother, it is a very strong 'coffee', in a very small cup. Approximately half is 'coffee', the other half, in the bottom of the cup, is a sort of mud. Anyway, language was a difficulty. I took seven years of French in school and spoke about seven words of French, really. Julia's French was a little better, but she also spoke some German and a little Dutch - which was of no use at all. The other couple with us were similarly language inhibited. We got together and put together a sentence which I delivered. It was partly in French and partly in German, they seemed to speak some of each, but not much English. The sentence went something like this, "Quatra Cafe, deux mit milch and deux mit out milch", This produced gales of laughter from us, which lasted for several minutes, but no reaction from our waiter. The Mit Out was the part that had us almost rolling on the ground. Mit was OK - with. But how to say without? Anyway, the coffee did arrive.

On yet another day we borrowed a rowing boat, no need to rent, just ask! And we rowed out to a small Island off of the coast. It was too far to swim, about a 1/2 mile, but ideal for a small row boat. The Island of maybe 20 acres or so had a beach at one end, the end we were going to, and rose steadily to a height of maybe 150 to 200 feet at the other end. We reached the beach and "Explored", there was a tiny chapel on the beach. It was about 10 foot square and contained nothing. Outside were a number of cactus plants, they were everywhere in Yugoslavia, some had fruits on them. We carefully removed some ripe ones and cut them open, they were surprisingly tasty. Back to the mainland.

Snorkeling, our new friends Margaret and Ed had a snorkel and face mask. We took it in turns to explore a New World. Right off the beach in front of the hotel was a whole New World! We were fascinated, and have since snorkeled in many parts of the world. There were fish swimming around right where we were swimming.

Got to finish up. I hope someone has stayed for the punch line - Albania.

Albania, there were trips from Budva, we took one one day to Lake Scutari which is on the border of Yugoslavia and Albania. The day was grey, Lake Scutari was grey, Albania was grey, and definitely CLOSED. We were happy to not go there! There was a lonely French lady on the small boat with us and no other French people. Julia and I pooled our very limited French and composed a short sentence - "La nage sur la montagne". I spoke in my halting "French" as I pointed at the mountain with the snow on it! (For those of you as limited in the French language as we are, "The snow on the mountain" - I think!) The French ladies eyes lit up and she started spouting French at an incredible rate. It was apparent to her that we did not understand. We said "Un peau", "Un petit peau", which I think means "A little", "A very little." She went off again, a little slower, but we could not follow, it was like trying to follow a Nascar on a bicycle, we were hopelessly out paced. After a while she gave up and slumped back into her depressed mode.

The rest of the vacation was as wonderful as the first. We returned to our new home. I carried Julia over the threshold and continued on into My Life With Julia.

And what a Life! If it comes to an end soon, it has been a great one. I have been blessed with a beautiful, amazing wife, a host of wonderful friends, an adventure of a life, and two loving, clever, superior parents who raised me and taught me right.

Remembering Three Mile Island.

2011-03-16T07:36:00.005-05:00

The present tragedy in Japan reminds me of Three Mile Island. Even after living through those scary times in 1979 I cannot begin to imagine the horror of living through one of the strongest earthquakes ever, plus a huge tsunami and then the "Problems" with 4 of the 6 nuclear reactors at the site.

I was working at The News American at the time. The News American was one of Baltimore's two newspapers at the time, the oldest one, now defunct. I was a District Manager and part of my work included collecting money from the carriers. This was done at various times during the month, I had 60 or 70 carriers in my district. One day in March I was due to head to the office for meetings, paper work and to deposit my collections from the previous week. The story was on the early news. The presses were stopped and the new headlines began to run.

I decided that in view of the happenings I would not deposit the money that I had collected, I think it was 2 or 3 thousand dollars, but instead I would hold it and deposit it next week - if we were still there! Fearing an evacuation of the area - they did evacuate the area around the reactor - not knowing if it would happen or how far the evacuation would stretch and having not only a wife but an 8 year old daughter I decided that it would be prudent to hold onto the money in case we had to drive to Florida or something. In such an eventuality food and gas prices would be very high!

Compounding the situation was a movie that had come out recently called "The China Syndrome" - starring Jane Fonda - in which a nuclear reactor comes close to a meltdown. There are stories that if it does melt down the core would go through the Earth to China! They also said that an area the size of Pennsylvania would be uninhabitable for centuries, etc, etc.

Nothing like that happened and I deposited the money the next week.

Disaster averted, what will happen this time? Eventually my guess is that we will have another disaster at least as bad as Chernobyl.

Is it possible that we will eventually decide, that if we do continue to build nuclear plants, just maybe we should not build them on fault lines? Seems like a good idea to me!

We just narrowly, perhaps, avoided a meltdown of our financial system, for now, brought on by greed and a lack of controls. Will we continue to reject proper controls in the area of Nuclear Power in our lives too? I think maybe not. If the continuing problems at the Japanese reactors continue and really get out of hand, I think we will have stronger controls brought in. The Nuclear Power Industry does not have anything like the power of Bankers, Wall Streeters and Politicians who we cannot restrain at all, but I am sure we will put curbs on Nuclear Power, and continue to limit our citizens rights while giving our Bankers and Politicians Open Season on us!! (Well, we don't GIVE them control over us, they just TAKE it. Of course we do nothing. Remember we voted for them to KEEP the 4% tax break that George W Bush gave them, even though the richest top 2% of Americans already pay only 16% in taxes compared to the average Americans 30% in taxes.)

I say send the Bankers and Politicians into the next Nuclear Plant Meltdown to control it. All those in favor say "YES".

P.S. If anyone is reading my Blog would you mind indicating it by making a Comment or by e-mailing me at julia-david@comcast.net? I try to avoid political comments as much as possible, I really really do! Just look at my last half dozen posts. See, hardly anything political at all! Aren't I being good?