Well it feels like winter is here. It was 32 degrees this morning when I awoke. The trees have lost pretty much all of their leaves. Thanksgiving is over and December is only about 5 days away so I guess there is no point in trying to fool ourselves any longer.
I mowed the leaves, yes the leaves, a few days ago here at Lake Drive. It is quite remarkable how just mowing them seems to get rid of them. They get so broken up that most of their bulk just falls down into the grass. I am just hoping that we will have enough warm days coming that the worms will come up and drag all those little tiny pieces of leaf down under the ground.
I also mowed over at Brent House Farm which REALLY has a leaf problem! You cannot even see at least half of the lawn for leaves. As I mowed I looked more like a snow plough with huge piles of leaves being pushed in front of the mower and mowed and unmowed leaves coming out the side like snow out of a snow blower. But I mowed in a circle as much as possible starting at the outside and throwing the leaves into the middle of the circle so that that got mowed over and over again. Once again it was quite successful. When I was finished you could again see a lawn instead of just a leaf desert.
However, although at least 95% of the leaves have already fallen from the trees, there are acres and acres of leaves on the ground, which will undoubtably spread out when the wind blows and cover the lawn again.
But maybe not. We lived at Brent House Farm for 29 years, during which time I never once raked leaves! And the lawn was never leaf covered except briefly. The reason was, I think, that the lawn is surrounded by woods and when the wind blows it blows the leaves into the woods where they become trapped by the trees, bushes, fallen branches etc, and stay there. Lets hope that this happens again. We don't want prospective buyers to see leaves covering everything and thinking, "I will spend my weekends raking leaves. Let's find a place with no trees."
Anyway, I am checking the house every couple of days and if the leaves look like they are getting out of hand I'll just mow them again.
It is looking a bit like that here at Sunset Cottage so I may need to mow the leaves here one more time.
Meanwhile The lake is looking Pristine and Beautiful this morning. I sat and watched it early this morning as I sipped my coffee. As it often does it looked like a mirror. Except for one scar right across the middle caused by a small duck padding across, quite unconcerned and unknowing that he/she was producing such delight in the mind of one of natures biggest lovers and destroyers - a human!
HUMANKIND - you can be both!
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
A nostalgic visit to the dentist.
I went to the dentist last week after suffering a couple of very slight "twinges". Afraid that it would develop into a full blown toothache I bravely made an appointment.
The day of the appointment arrived and I showered, dressed and, forgot to go!
They called me and set up another appointment for another day, which I remembered.
My dentist is a woman. After determining which was the offending molar she gave me several injections into the gum with a very very thin needle that looked more like a hair! I barely felt it. She then drilled and filled the cavity. I hardly felt anything. It was no more painful than getting a haircut, picking my nose or cutting my toenails.
The only painful part of the whole operation was - the bill! OOuucchh!!
As I exited her office I passed a wall display with a collection of dentists tools from bygone era's. I fervently Thanked God, and the modern dental business that I had not been born in an earlier time.
I then remembered my grandfather, my mothers father who was what most people would describe as "A Character". He would often tell me tales from his lifetime. Some of which I doubted and some of which I believed. My mother and father told me which ones to believe and which ones to - "Take with a pinch of salt". Some that I did not believe, were true. The one about "dentists" of his day that I am about to tell you, is true.
But first, just to get you "in the mood" about my grandfather, I am going to tell you a couple of his "less than true" tales.
The first one he told me when he visited me in hospital after I had my appendix out. It is short, and basically it went like this - "I had my appendix out in France during the first World War. It was during the Battle of the Bulge and we were up to our knees in mud. They took it out with no anesthetic, using a rusty bayonet." (Actually I think it may have all been true except for the no anesthtic and the rusty bayonet bit!)
Another one, which again was set in World War One occured when I proudly showed him a new pair of shoes that my parents had bought me. I think I was about 10 at the time. It went like this - "We lived in trenches, up to our knees (or sometimes it was waists) in mud. Our boots would rot. The only way to get new boots was to kill a German and take his. I once had to kill 10 Germans before I found a pair of boots that fit me."
Having set the scene with a couple of his "Tall Tales." I am now going to tell you one which was COMPLETELY TRUE! I didn't believe it until my parents told me that it was indeed true.
When he needed a tooth extracted he would go to Charlotte Street. Charlotte Street was a road full of market stalls. They mostly sold food or clothes, but one was a "Dentist". He had two prices for removing teeth. This was in England so rather than use the local currency I will use dollars. The two prices were one dollar or two dollars. For one dollar he would remove your tooth with NO anesthetic. You sat in the plain wooden chair. For two dollars you sat in the comfortable upholstered armchair and they used anesthetic - gas. My grandfather took the one dollar price. And that my friends is a TRUE story.
To use the vernacular of a famous man I am now going to tell you "The Rest of the Story." about my grandfather killing ten Germans to find a pair of boots that fit.
His son Clive, who was also a World Class Storyteller - in fact even better than his father, told a true story of a pair of boots. This story gives a much better idea of the true nature of my grandfather.
My grandfater was also in Gallipoli (Turkey) during the war. (If you like to read horror stories like Stephen King etc, read about Gallipoli. I guarantee that you won't sleep for weeks!) Anyway, my grandfather survived the beaches of Gallipoli - as well as the mud of the fields of France and being gassed in France and the heat of the desserts of North Africa. After they took Gallipoli they also took a lot of Turkish prisoners. My grandfather had a spare pair of boots. Whether they were British, or German, or Turkish I don't know, but I guess it was important to have a spare pair of boots when you were trekking from the Fields of France to the Beaches of Gallipoli, to the Desserts of North Africa. Anyway one of the Turkish prisoners that he was in charge of, had no boots, so he gave him his spare pair!
That is a true story, and was told to me by his son years after my grandfather died. Even after he had seen thousands of his comrades killed by the Turkish machine guns as they ran up the beaches of Gallipoli he had the humanity to treat his enemies with decency and respect and kindness.
There are many stories about my family in war. If you have read my blog and the 'book' that I gave to my family and friends for Christmas a few years ago you will have seen some of them.
There is much history over the years of my family, the Liddles' and Julia's family, the Roberts'. Learn about it, and PLEASE learn FROM it!
David.
The day of the appointment arrived and I showered, dressed and, forgot to go!
They called me and set up another appointment for another day, which I remembered.
My dentist is a woman. After determining which was the offending molar she gave me several injections into the gum with a very very thin needle that looked more like a hair! I barely felt it. She then drilled and filled the cavity. I hardly felt anything. It was no more painful than getting a haircut, picking my nose or cutting my toenails.
The only painful part of the whole operation was - the bill! OOuucchh!!
As I exited her office I passed a wall display with a collection of dentists tools from bygone era's. I fervently Thanked God, and the modern dental business that I had not been born in an earlier time.
I then remembered my grandfather, my mothers father who was what most people would describe as "A Character". He would often tell me tales from his lifetime. Some of which I doubted and some of which I believed. My mother and father told me which ones to believe and which ones to - "Take with a pinch of salt". Some that I did not believe, were true. The one about "dentists" of his day that I am about to tell you, is true.
But first, just to get you "in the mood" about my grandfather, I am going to tell you a couple of his "less than true" tales.
The first one he told me when he visited me in hospital after I had my appendix out. It is short, and basically it went like this - "I had my appendix out in France during the first World War. It was during the Battle of the Bulge and we were up to our knees in mud. They took it out with no anesthetic, using a rusty bayonet." (Actually I think it may have all been true except for the no anesthtic and the rusty bayonet bit!)
Another one, which again was set in World War One occured when I proudly showed him a new pair of shoes that my parents had bought me. I think I was about 10 at the time. It went like this - "We lived in trenches, up to our knees (or sometimes it was waists) in mud. Our boots would rot. The only way to get new boots was to kill a German and take his. I once had to kill 10 Germans before I found a pair of boots that fit me."
Having set the scene with a couple of his "Tall Tales." I am now going to tell you one which was COMPLETELY TRUE! I didn't believe it until my parents told me that it was indeed true.
When he needed a tooth extracted he would go to Charlotte Street. Charlotte Street was a road full of market stalls. They mostly sold food or clothes, but one was a "Dentist". He had two prices for removing teeth. This was in England so rather than use the local currency I will use dollars. The two prices were one dollar or two dollars. For one dollar he would remove your tooth with NO anesthetic. You sat in the plain wooden chair. For two dollars you sat in the comfortable upholstered armchair and they used anesthetic - gas. My grandfather took the one dollar price. And that my friends is a TRUE story.
To use the vernacular of a famous man I am now going to tell you "The Rest of the Story." about my grandfather killing ten Germans to find a pair of boots that fit.
His son Clive, who was also a World Class Storyteller - in fact even better than his father, told a true story of a pair of boots. This story gives a much better idea of the true nature of my grandfather.
My grandfater was also in Gallipoli (Turkey) during the war. (If you like to read horror stories like Stephen King etc, read about Gallipoli. I guarantee that you won't sleep for weeks!) Anyway, my grandfather survived the beaches of Gallipoli - as well as the mud of the fields of France and being gassed in France and the heat of the desserts of North Africa. After they took Gallipoli they also took a lot of Turkish prisoners. My grandfather had a spare pair of boots. Whether they were British, or German, or Turkish I don't know, but I guess it was important to have a spare pair of boots when you were trekking from the Fields of France to the Beaches of Gallipoli, to the Desserts of North Africa. Anyway one of the Turkish prisoners that he was in charge of, had no boots, so he gave him his spare pair!
That is a true story, and was told to me by his son years after my grandfather died. Even after he had seen thousands of his comrades killed by the Turkish machine guns as they ran up the beaches of Gallipoli he had the humanity to treat his enemies with decency and respect and kindness.
There are many stories about my family in war. If you have read my blog and the 'book' that I gave to my family and friends for Christmas a few years ago you will have seen some of them.
There is much history over the years of my family, the Liddles' and Julia's family, the Roberts'. Learn about it, and PLEASE learn FROM it!
David.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Notes.
Is it a policy of No Compromise that is killing the Republican Party? A Grand Old Party that has a history of sensible, moderate, friendly politicians that were able to sit down with their friends from the House and the Senate and talk about their shared goal, which was whatever was best for their country, not their party.
Now we seem to have a group of Fundamentalists preaching NO to virtually everything that the opposing party wants to do irrespective of whether it is good or bad for the country. Good or bad for the Country and the American people does not seem to feature in their minds at all. It is all Party, with no room for compromise at all.
When far-out kooks make far-out statements that even those right of center in their own party can't possibly agree with, nothing is said! Someone can say, "The Earth and the Universe are 6,000 years old." or, "Contraceptives are the same as Abortion." or, "The Theory of Evolution is an idea from the Pits of Hell." and their so called leaders say nothing! But vote for a common sense bill such as supporting the EPA, or reducing pollution, or putting restrictions on Banks and Wall Street and even if you have a record of voting 98% or 99% of the time with your own party, you are immediately branded as a traitor and hounded out of office. To be replaced with someone who "agrees" with the party line - meaning he/she will vote along party lines however crazy the bill may be!
No-Compromise is a strict party line. Just think of Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, Self Deportation, Rape, Contraception, rejection of Science, rejection of Climate Change, complaining about mounting debt and then calling for tax cuts, dereguate Big Banks and Wall Street, tax cuts for the rich, end Medicare, cut Soc Sec, remove Obamacare and replace it with Romneycare - which is virtually identical, we were not far enough to the Right. Every one of these far out archaic statements/ideas was guaranteed to lose them votes and maybe the election.
Continuing to lobby for this kind of crazy stuff will lose them the next election, and all future elections if they don't come to their senses and open their eyes.
And it is just fine with me if they keep on trucking along with their eyes, minds and senses firmly in the closed position!!
Now we seem to have a group of Fundamentalists preaching NO to virtually everything that the opposing party wants to do irrespective of whether it is good or bad for the country. Good or bad for the Country and the American people does not seem to feature in their minds at all. It is all Party, with no room for compromise at all.
When far-out kooks make far-out statements that even those right of center in their own party can't possibly agree with, nothing is said! Someone can say, "The Earth and the Universe are 6,000 years old." or, "Contraceptives are the same as Abortion." or, "The Theory of Evolution is an idea from the Pits of Hell." and their so called leaders say nothing! But vote for a common sense bill such as supporting the EPA, or reducing pollution, or putting restrictions on Banks and Wall Street and even if you have a record of voting 98% or 99% of the time with your own party, you are immediately branded as a traitor and hounded out of office. To be replaced with someone who "agrees" with the party line - meaning he/she will vote along party lines however crazy the bill may be!
No-Compromise is a strict party line. Just think of Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, Self Deportation, Rape, Contraception, rejection of Science, rejection of Climate Change, complaining about mounting debt and then calling for tax cuts, dereguate Big Banks and Wall Street, tax cuts for the rich, end Medicare, cut Soc Sec, remove Obamacare and replace it with Romneycare - which is virtually identical, we were not far enough to the Right. Every one of these far out archaic statements/ideas was guaranteed to lose them votes and maybe the election.
Continuing to lobby for this kind of crazy stuff will lose them the next election, and all future elections if they don't come to their senses and open their eyes.
And it is just fine with me if they keep on trucking along with their eyes, minds and senses firmly in the closed position!!
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Election Obituary.
Just a few "Highlights", or "Lowlights!" - depending on which persuasian you are.
One of the first of the facts that really hit me in the face was that Single Women went for The President over Romney by a margin of 38 ! Almost an unprecidented gap for any category !
Going to places that know Mr Romney, his home State of Michigan - where the trees are "Just the right Height" - was a Landslide for The President. Moving on to his other home State of Massachusetts, I guess you could call it a Double Landslide!
Moving on again, this time to Utah, which he did win, duh! But, George W Bush did better with Mormons than Romney did ! !
So, anywhere that the people really know him - the State that he was born in, the State that he was Governor of, and the home State of his Religion, it would appear that he is not that popular, to put it very mildly.
Just saying.
One of the first of the facts that really hit me in the face was that Single Women went for The President over Romney by a margin of 38 ! Almost an unprecidented gap for any category !
Going to places that know Mr Romney, his home State of Michigan - where the trees are "Just the right Height" - was a Landslide for The President. Moving on to his other home State of Massachusetts, I guess you could call it a Double Landslide!
Moving on again, this time to Utah, which he did win, duh! But, George W Bush did better with Mormons than Romney did ! !
So, anywhere that the people really know him - the State that he was born in, the State that he was Governor of, and the home State of his Religion, it would appear that he is not that popular, to put it very mildly.
Just saying.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
What happened?
Well that was unexpected! An "easy" Obama win. I was preparing myself for a Romney win and had even told a Republican friend that a Romney win would be better for the country!
My reasoning for this? Well if the Republicans had won, I feel that the Democrats would have co-operated with the Republicans to get the country moving again. Democrats are much more moderate, less polarized and more likely to "Reach accross the Aisle." But now we have the same stalemate that we had before. I am afraid that the Republicans will continue to stonewall the President and stop any movement towards change.
President Johnson (LBJ) had to deal with just one filibuster during his Presidency. President Obama has had to try to work with more than 250 ! And a filibuster now is not even the same as it was during Johnson's time. Then, a Senator had to stand up and talk continuosly for hours or even days on end. Now all they have to do is make a phone call and say, "We are going to filibuster that." But still, to end a filibuster you have to be able to get 60% of the vote - 60 out of 100 senators must agree !!!
So in effect instead of needing to have a simple majority to pass a bill - 51 to 49 for example - you now have to have a "Super Majority" of 60 to 40. This why nothing gets done. So even having "Control" of the Senate, means nothing!
Republicans were able in this way to block all President Obama's efforts to do anything. Even when he wanted to cut taxes to small businesses The republicans blocked him ! ! ! When he tried to cut spending, the Republicans blocked him ! ! !
What else lost Romney the election? I think the extreme extremism of his party and himself, although he had himself moved enormously toward the center, because of his extreme views during his selection process people did not know whether to believe what he was saying now, or what he had been saying for the last 1 1/2 to 2 years!
Then there were what I call The Crazies in his party, especially the Tea Party people. We have the people who think the Earth and the Universe is 9,000 years old, or is it 6,000 years old? Evolution is a theory from the "Pits of Hell." A woman can't get pregnant from rape. No women can die in childbirth now. How is it possible to govern when you have such fundamentalists preaching this kind of rubbish?
Finding abortion unacceptable, except in the case of rape, incest and the life of the mother, is certainly understandable and accepted by most people. But here again the Republicans, once a reasonable party with its fair share of Moderates, have said no to abortion, even where the life of the mother is in danger or in cases of rape or incest. But some of them have gone even further, they now want to ban contraception! In a world that is already vastly overpopulated.
Then there are the extreme views that we will not accept $1 in new taxes even in exchange for $10 in spending cuts! ZERO negotiating in ANY area.
There are many more examples of the modern Republican Party not fitting into today's world but I will end with one final example that may have been the final nail in Romney's coffin - apart from the doubt about if he pays taxes - and that is his view that 47% of Americans are layabouts who don't pay taxes and just want handouts! That may have been the final thing. Especially when it sank in that he and many of his rich friends and corporations (Who are people too!) don't pay taxes or pay very little in taxes, certainly less than the average American pays! And many of these Giant Companies and Banks and Wall Street get more in handouts than anyone.
(On the positive side - I think we are less likely to go to war with Iran now. We will now have affordable health care for everyone. We will now continue to search for affordable, environmentally clean energy. Our environment will gain as we continue to have an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency.), Clean Air and Clean Water Acts will remain, the Banks and Wall Street will be regulated, the increased mileage requirment will stay in place. And maybe we will even address Climate Change.)
My reasoning for this? Well if the Republicans had won, I feel that the Democrats would have co-operated with the Republicans to get the country moving again. Democrats are much more moderate, less polarized and more likely to "Reach accross the Aisle." But now we have the same stalemate that we had before. I am afraid that the Republicans will continue to stonewall the President and stop any movement towards change.
President Johnson (LBJ) had to deal with just one filibuster during his Presidency. President Obama has had to try to work with more than 250 ! And a filibuster now is not even the same as it was during Johnson's time. Then, a Senator had to stand up and talk continuosly for hours or even days on end. Now all they have to do is make a phone call and say, "We are going to filibuster that." But still, to end a filibuster you have to be able to get 60% of the vote - 60 out of 100 senators must agree !!!
So in effect instead of needing to have a simple majority to pass a bill - 51 to 49 for example - you now have to have a "Super Majority" of 60 to 40. This why nothing gets done. So even having "Control" of the Senate, means nothing!
Republicans were able in this way to block all President Obama's efforts to do anything. Even when he wanted to cut taxes to small businesses The republicans blocked him ! ! ! When he tried to cut spending, the Republicans blocked him ! ! !
What else lost Romney the election? I think the extreme extremism of his party and himself, although he had himself moved enormously toward the center, because of his extreme views during his selection process people did not know whether to believe what he was saying now, or what he had been saying for the last 1 1/2 to 2 years!
Then there were what I call The Crazies in his party, especially the Tea Party people. We have the people who think the Earth and the Universe is 9,000 years old, or is it 6,000 years old? Evolution is a theory from the "Pits of Hell." A woman can't get pregnant from rape. No women can die in childbirth now. How is it possible to govern when you have such fundamentalists preaching this kind of rubbish?
Finding abortion unacceptable, except in the case of rape, incest and the life of the mother, is certainly understandable and accepted by most people. But here again the Republicans, once a reasonable party with its fair share of Moderates, have said no to abortion, even where the life of the mother is in danger or in cases of rape or incest. But some of them have gone even further, they now want to ban contraception! In a world that is already vastly overpopulated.
Then there are the extreme views that we will not accept $1 in new taxes even in exchange for $10 in spending cuts! ZERO negotiating in ANY area.
There are many more examples of the modern Republican Party not fitting into today's world but I will end with one final example that may have been the final nail in Romney's coffin - apart from the doubt about if he pays taxes - and that is his view that 47% of Americans are layabouts who don't pay taxes and just want handouts! That may have been the final thing. Especially when it sank in that he and many of his rich friends and corporations (Who are people too!) don't pay taxes or pay very little in taxes, certainly less than the average American pays! And many of these Giant Companies and Banks and Wall Street get more in handouts than anyone.
(On the positive side - I think we are less likely to go to war with Iran now. We will now have affordable health care for everyone. We will now continue to search for affordable, environmentally clean energy. Our environment will gain as we continue to have an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency.), Clean Air and Clean Water Acts will remain, the Banks and Wall Street will be regulated, the increased mileage requirment will stay in place. And maybe we will even address Climate Change.)
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Guns, again.
I know, I know, enough about guns already! But this is just in - well its been in for a long time - so lets just call it a reminder.
The rate of firearms related homicides in the USA is 20 TIMES that of the next 22 richest nations COMBINED!!!
And that is just the homicides, if you include suicides and accidents it is even worse!!
And it would be so easy to reduce it considerably if it were not for organisations like the NRA and the Republican Party. Just a tiny little bit of common sense would say, "Don't let Alcoholics, and Drug Users have guns. Or people under 21, hey they can't drink, but they can carry handguns around, is it just me or is that dumb? Also anyone convicted of a gun related or violent crime, (including domestic violence.) And lets ban Assault guns too." Hello, Duh, even blondes know that is Dumb!! But not Republicans and NRA members.
If you value your life and that of your family, friends and neighbors, banning ownership of guns by Alcoholics, (Including people convicted of drinking and driving.) Drug Users, people convicted of Gun Crimes or Violent Crimes and anyone under the age of 21, would probably cut gun deaths by AT LEAST 50% or MORE! All people in these groups have reduced ability to forsee the consequences of their actions.
Those changes, plus requiring stricter background checks and a requirement to report all gun sales would I think reduce gun deaths by as much as 80% or 90%. Surely worth doing? How can any intelligent American with even a modicom of common sense object to that? Wait, we are talking about NRA and Republicans. Forget it, no common sense in either of those camps!
The rate of firearms related homicides in the USA is 20 TIMES that of the next 22 richest nations COMBINED!!!
And that is just the homicides, if you include suicides and accidents it is even worse!!
And it would be so easy to reduce it considerably if it were not for organisations like the NRA and the Republican Party. Just a tiny little bit of common sense would say, "Don't let Alcoholics, and Drug Users have guns. Or people under 21, hey they can't drink, but they can carry handguns around, is it just me or is that dumb? Also anyone convicted of a gun related or violent crime, (including domestic violence.) And lets ban Assault guns too." Hello, Duh, even blondes know that is Dumb!! But not Republicans and NRA members.
If you value your life and that of your family, friends and neighbors, banning ownership of guns by Alcoholics, (Including people convicted of drinking and driving.) Drug Users, people convicted of Gun Crimes or Violent Crimes and anyone under the age of 21, would probably cut gun deaths by AT LEAST 50% or MORE! All people in these groups have reduced ability to forsee the consequences of their actions.
Those changes, plus requiring stricter background checks and a requirement to report all gun sales would I think reduce gun deaths by as much as 80% or 90%. Surely worth doing? How can any intelligent American with even a modicom of common sense object to that? Wait, we are talking about NRA and Republicans. Forget it, no common sense in either of those camps!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Crazy.
I'm guessing that you know by now who I am talking about - yes, Republicans, or more specifically Tea Partiers.
Let's see now, we have Richard Mourdock. He recently said "If a woman gets raped and becomes pregnant, God intended it to happen." Insensitive to say the least. But in my mind Simply Stupid.
Then there was Todd Akin. He famously, now, said, "A woman who was 'legitimately' raped would not get pregnant because her body would shut down the reproductive process."
Next we have Joe Walsh. He said that "Abortion to save the life of the mother has become a tool for abortions at any time." He also said, "It is a ploy because the mothers life can always be saved now with no harm to the fetus."
Then there is Paul Ryan, you have heard of him? He co-sponsored the bill with Todd Akin that would redefine incest as something that only happens to minors!
Last, but not least, on my roster of "Stupid White Men." is the prehistoric Paul Broun who said that "The earth is only 9,000 years old and evolution is a lie that is straight from the pit of hell."!!! He is on the Republican Science, Space and Technology Committee!! He is also a medical doctor!!
And if Romney becomes President I'm sure that the world's oceans will be happy! They will have freedom to take over the world! What did he say to Obama's "It is time to slow the oceans rise."? He said I'm not worried about the oceans or the world I'm worried about you. (the people)
New Yorkers are saying, "We are getting 100 year floods every 2 years!"
All these idiots - sorry, I really do hate to use such a strong word and I considered long and hard before deciding that it is indeed appropriate - are right behind the man who will be leading this country soon and who will be inducting these people to run our country and ruin it. He, Romney, will doubtless be putting forward new names for the Supreme Court who have these beliefs. Roe vs Wade will be reversed. Abortion, for any reason, will be outlawed. (Good news for the back alley abortionists.)
The brothers and sisters of these crazies are waiting anxiously to vote out the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. And of course the Affordable Health Care Act (Also known in Mass. as Romneycare - because it is virtually identical.) And Family Planning along with well women visits, insurance coverage for contraception, breast cancer screening, other cancer screening for women, violence against women help, etc etc etc. We can also say goodbye to the EPA, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water, any controls or regulation of Big Banks, Wall Street, Big Business, Big Agriculture, Polluters.
Let's see who else has a limited lifespan if the Tea Party Republicans take over? How about Public TV and Big Bird, Public Radio, protection of our National Parks, our waters, rivers, education help for those who can't afford to pay for higher education themselves, science, research and development, Social Security, Medicare, you name it.
And if you think that I am exaggerating just read what Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and others in the Tea Party controlled Republican Party has been running on, and the septic nonsense that they spout out.
It is obviuos to me that Conservatives are unable to see just what is being said by these people in the name of the Republican Party. Because they consider themselves Republicans, they think that whatever their Republican leader says is what they themselves believe. If they could only look at it, read it and think about it, surely at least some of them would be able to see what is being fed to them in the name of the once great Republican party.
To repeat - from men who are NOT doctors, women cannot get pregnant if they are raped, if they do get pregnant, God intended it, doctors can always save women without harm to the fetus. Real doctors all say this is BS. Then we have men who say incest only happens to minors, the world is only 9,000 years old. Do we really want these people leading us??
I certainly hope not.
Let's see now, we have Richard Mourdock. He recently said "If a woman gets raped and becomes pregnant, God intended it to happen." Insensitive to say the least. But in my mind Simply Stupid.
Then there was Todd Akin. He famously, now, said, "A woman who was 'legitimately' raped would not get pregnant because her body would shut down the reproductive process."
Next we have Joe Walsh. He said that "Abortion to save the life of the mother has become a tool for abortions at any time." He also said, "It is a ploy because the mothers life can always be saved now with no harm to the fetus."
Then there is Paul Ryan, you have heard of him? He co-sponsored the bill with Todd Akin that would redefine incest as something that only happens to minors!
Last, but not least, on my roster of "Stupid White Men." is the prehistoric Paul Broun who said that "The earth is only 9,000 years old and evolution is a lie that is straight from the pit of hell."!!! He is on the Republican Science, Space and Technology Committee!! He is also a medical doctor!!
And if Romney becomes President I'm sure that the world's oceans will be happy! They will have freedom to take over the world! What did he say to Obama's "It is time to slow the oceans rise."? He said I'm not worried about the oceans or the world I'm worried about you. (the people)
New Yorkers are saying, "We are getting 100 year floods every 2 years!"
All these idiots - sorry, I really do hate to use such a strong word and I considered long and hard before deciding that it is indeed appropriate - are right behind the man who will be leading this country soon and who will be inducting these people to run our country and ruin it. He, Romney, will doubtless be putting forward new names for the Supreme Court who have these beliefs. Roe vs Wade will be reversed. Abortion, for any reason, will be outlawed. (Good news for the back alley abortionists.)
The brothers and sisters of these crazies are waiting anxiously to vote out the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. And of course the Affordable Health Care Act (Also known in Mass. as Romneycare - because it is virtually identical.) And Family Planning along with well women visits, insurance coverage for contraception, breast cancer screening, other cancer screening for women, violence against women help, etc etc etc. We can also say goodbye to the EPA, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water, any controls or regulation of Big Banks, Wall Street, Big Business, Big Agriculture, Polluters.
Let's see who else has a limited lifespan if the Tea Party Republicans take over? How about Public TV and Big Bird, Public Radio, protection of our National Parks, our waters, rivers, education help for those who can't afford to pay for higher education themselves, science, research and development, Social Security, Medicare, you name it.
And if you think that I am exaggerating just read what Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and others in the Tea Party controlled Republican Party has been running on, and the septic nonsense that they spout out.
It is obviuos to me that Conservatives are unable to see just what is being said by these people in the name of the Republican Party. Because they consider themselves Republicans, they think that whatever their Republican leader says is what they themselves believe. If they could only look at it, read it and think about it, surely at least some of them would be able to see what is being fed to them in the name of the once great Republican party.
To repeat - from men who are NOT doctors, women cannot get pregnant if they are raped, if they do get pregnant, God intended it, doctors can always save women without harm to the fetus. Real doctors all say this is BS. Then we have men who say incest only happens to minors, the world is only 9,000 years old. Do we really want these people leading us??
I certainly hope not.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Yum Yum!
You would not put pesticides or insecticides, herbicides or weedkillers, fertilizers or chemicals on your childs plate, or your own for that matter - would you?
I thought you would say that. But you do!!!
Let me explain that. If you put weedkillers, insectkillers, fertilizers and chemicals onto your lawn or garden this is what happens to them. When it rains those poisons are washed into the roads and gutters, and from there into storm drains and then streams and rivers and finally the Bay and the Oceans where they are taken up by the fish and crabs, which are caught, sold to stores, supermarkets and canneries where you buy them and put them onto your and your childs plates.
So you see you DO put those weedkillers, pesticides, chemicals - which includes the bleach and other chemical cleaners that go down your toilet and sinks and bathtubs - right back onto your plates!!
Yum Yum! Enjoy.
I thought you would say that. But you do!!!
Let me explain that. If you put weedkillers, insectkillers, fertilizers and chemicals onto your lawn or garden this is what happens to them. When it rains those poisons are washed into the roads and gutters, and from there into storm drains and then streams and rivers and finally the Bay and the Oceans where they are taken up by the fish and crabs, which are caught, sold to stores, supermarkets and canneries where you buy them and put them onto your and your childs plates.
So you see you DO put those weedkillers, pesticides, chemicals - which includes the bleach and other chemical cleaners that go down your toilet and sinks and bathtubs - right back onto your plates!!
Yum Yum! Enjoy.
Foreign Policy Stuff.
Mitt The Twitt as a representative of the US. Romney is probably the least diplomatic politician in America.
During a one week tour in Europe he managed to insult at least three countries including our biggest ally, the UK. He continued on to insult Israel and the Palestinians. Oh and don't forget his own wife when he said that he would not be watching her horse competing in the Olympics. In fact he said he didn't even know when it would be.
Then he told Iran to launch a dirty bomb at the US, specifically Chicago I think it was.
Let's see, what else was there from this great diplomat? Oh yes, "Russia is our number one enemy." And then he insulted Spain saying we don't want to go down the same road as Spain, when they actually have a lower debt rate than the US! And they have a Conservative government!
Oh yes and while I'm onto who he has insulted let's not forget 47% of the American public!
This man is scary in the extreme. If he can't even meet our allies without insulting them what will happen when he gets out there with countries who are not as friendly? We could be embroiled in more wars than Bush got us into, and with 20 and 19 year old grandsons it is too frightening to think about. With the length of today's wars I will even need to worry about my 11 and 13 year old grandsons.
During a one week tour in Europe he managed to insult at least three countries including our biggest ally, the UK. He continued on to insult Israel and the Palestinians. Oh and don't forget his own wife when he said that he would not be watching her horse competing in the Olympics. In fact he said he didn't even know when it would be.
Then he told Iran to launch a dirty bomb at the US, specifically Chicago I think it was.
Let's see, what else was there from this great diplomat? Oh yes, "Russia is our number one enemy." And then he insulted Spain saying we don't want to go down the same road as Spain, when they actually have a lower debt rate than the US! And they have a Conservative government!
Oh yes and while I'm onto who he has insulted let's not forget 47% of the American public!
This man is scary in the extreme. If he can't even meet our allies without insulting them what will happen when he gets out there with countries who are not as friendly? We could be embroiled in more wars than Bush got us into, and with 20 and 19 year old grandsons it is too frightening to think about. With the length of today's wars I will even need to worry about my 11 and 13 year old grandsons.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Will you be voting to give EVEN MORE money to Millionaires?
I won't of course, as I seem to be one of the few out there who don't think Millionaires deserve even more of our money, but many will!
My poor wife and I have already given very generously - and unwittingly as well as unwillingly - to Millionaires and Billionaires, not one of whom thanked us even a little bit. Ungrateful lot!
But many of you will be voting to give money to Millionaires. If you vote for Mr Romney for example (Or Mr Rob Me as I like to call him.) you will be doing just that. How, I can hear some saying. Well here's how - Mr Romney is in favor of Corporate Tax Breaks.
Please don't believe that hogwash about US tax rates for American corporations being the highest in the world, they are in fact the LOWEST in the world! That is from The Wall Street Journal. I think their wording was actually "- effectively the lowest in the world -" That is of course because their buddies in Congress would not allow corporations (Corporations are people too!) to pay a higher tax than anyone else in the world, so they have created loophole after loophole after deduction after deduction to ensure that it doesn't happen, and it hasn't happened, as the Wall Street Journal (that Liberal rag - not!) said, after all the deductions and loopholes available to American companies, their effective average tax rate is around 10%, or less.
Also Mr Rob Me believes in income tax loopholes - for the rich. And of course a low capital gains tax rate - and who benefits from those? That's right, the rich.
Income disparity is at the highest level since the Great Depression, wealth is concentrated as never before at the top with the top 1% of Americans having 50% of all of it's wealth!
Does that sound like we are waging war on the rich, as we keep hearing them whining? They, the 1% have already won that war. But they are complaining that we are bigoted against the wealthy!
Maybe the fact that 1% of Americans own 50% of it's wealth doesn't sink in.
To make it really easy to understand, look at it this way - there are 100 people. They order a large pizza. When it arrives it is cut into half, and half (50%), is given to ONE person. The other half (50%) is shared among the other 99 people! That is what it means. Is there any way you can say that is fair?
The wealthy are paying the LOWEST tax rate in over 60 years. AND they pay the LOWEST tax rate of any other civilized country in the entire world! Does that sound like "The Unctious Impoverishing Bigotry of Class Warfare." as one writer said on Forbes.com last week?
Obama has suggested that the Bush era tax cuts be continued for people earning less than $250,000 a year and should be stopped for people earning more than that. They would STILL be paying a lower rate than most of us!!!
But no, most of us are going to vote to give The President of the United States, Warren Buffett, Mitt Romney and all the other people already more fortunate than any of us can ever expect to be, even more money!
I doubt that they even realize that it will cost THEM money to give this to these elite few! The Trillion dollars that it will cost to make the richest among us even richer will have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is from us - the 99%.
It will come in the form of HIGHER taxes for us and in the loss of "Entitlements", like Soc Sec, Medicare, disability and affordable health care. Which the rich have managed to make us feel bad about, by calling them "Entitlements", even though we have paid for them every week for 50 years.
Incidentally the rich did not pay their fair share for those "Entitlements", while we, the 99% pay 6.2% of our income into Soc Sec, someone who makes $1 million ayear only pays in .6% and someone who pulls in $10 million pays only .06%. That is because they only pay on the first $106,000 of their income. They pay NOTHING on the next million or 10 million or indeed 100 millon!
So as well as paying a lower tax rate than us, they get it even further reduced by another 6% or so by not paying payroll taxes on all of their earnings as we do!
No I am not jealous or bigoted, it's not classism, or socialism. It's just plain outrage at the rich asking for even more tax breaks, and Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Tea Partiers and Republicans falling over themselves to comply.
My poor wife and I have already given very generously - and unwittingly as well as unwillingly - to Millionaires and Billionaires, not one of whom thanked us even a little bit. Ungrateful lot!
But many of you will be voting to give money to Millionaires. If you vote for Mr Romney for example (Or Mr Rob Me as I like to call him.) you will be doing just that. How, I can hear some saying. Well here's how - Mr Romney is in favor of Corporate Tax Breaks.
Please don't believe that hogwash about US tax rates for American corporations being the highest in the world, they are in fact the LOWEST in the world! That is from The Wall Street Journal. I think their wording was actually "- effectively the lowest in the world -" That is of course because their buddies in Congress would not allow corporations (Corporations are people too!) to pay a higher tax than anyone else in the world, so they have created loophole after loophole after deduction after deduction to ensure that it doesn't happen, and it hasn't happened, as the Wall Street Journal (that Liberal rag - not!) said, after all the deductions and loopholes available to American companies, their effective average tax rate is around 10%, or less.
Also Mr Rob Me believes in income tax loopholes - for the rich. And of course a low capital gains tax rate - and who benefits from those? That's right, the rich.
Income disparity is at the highest level since the Great Depression, wealth is concentrated as never before at the top with the top 1% of Americans having 50% of all of it's wealth!
Does that sound like we are waging war on the rich, as we keep hearing them whining? They, the 1% have already won that war. But they are complaining that we are bigoted against the wealthy!
Maybe the fact that 1% of Americans own 50% of it's wealth doesn't sink in.
To make it really easy to understand, look at it this way - there are 100 people. They order a large pizza. When it arrives it is cut into half, and half (50%), is given to ONE person. The other half (50%) is shared among the other 99 people! That is what it means. Is there any way you can say that is fair?
The wealthy are paying the LOWEST tax rate in over 60 years. AND they pay the LOWEST tax rate of any other civilized country in the entire world! Does that sound like "The Unctious Impoverishing Bigotry of Class Warfare." as one writer said on Forbes.com last week?
Obama has suggested that the Bush era tax cuts be continued for people earning less than $250,000 a year and should be stopped for people earning more than that. They would STILL be paying a lower rate than most of us!!!
But no, most of us are going to vote to give The President of the United States, Warren Buffett, Mitt Romney and all the other people already more fortunate than any of us can ever expect to be, even more money!
I doubt that they even realize that it will cost THEM money to give this to these elite few! The Trillion dollars that it will cost to make the richest among us even richer will have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is from us - the 99%.
It will come in the form of HIGHER taxes for us and in the loss of "Entitlements", like Soc Sec, Medicare, disability and affordable health care. Which the rich have managed to make us feel bad about, by calling them "Entitlements", even though we have paid for them every week for 50 years.
Incidentally the rich did not pay their fair share for those "Entitlements", while we, the 99% pay 6.2% of our income into Soc Sec, someone who makes $1 million ayear only pays in .6% and someone who pulls in $10 million pays only .06%. That is because they only pay on the first $106,000 of their income. They pay NOTHING on the next million or 10 million or indeed 100 millon!
So as well as paying a lower tax rate than us, they get it even further reduced by another 6% or so by not paying payroll taxes on all of their earnings as we do!
No I am not jealous or bigoted, it's not classism, or socialism. It's just plain outrage at the rich asking for even more tax breaks, and Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Tea Partiers and Republicans falling over themselves to comply.
Friday, October 19, 2012
David on how to cut America's energy consumption.
As I promised in my last post I am going to make a couple of suggestions for reducing the amount of energy that we use - with a minimum of bother or inconvenience or expense.
The easiest and cheapest way to accomplish that by is conservation.
Now wouldn't you think that with a name like conservation - about as close as you could get to Conservative - that would be the Conservatives area of expertise? But you couldn't be further from the truth. Conservation is the last thing on the mind of a Conservative. Presumably that is because conservation is somehow synonamous with Liberal!
If we spent half of what is being spent by Democrats and Republicans, to smear the names of their opposite numbers, on educating the American public on ways to use less energy we could cut our energy use by 10% to 20% with no trouble at all.
Just by explaining that a vehicle sitting idling does not do so without using any gas! Or by suggesting that we use our smallest most economical vehicle when there is only one or two, or even 3 or 4 people making the trip. Or by explaining that every time you accelerate hard or you brake you are wasting gas. Or by suggesting that your next car be one that is small and economical, we could EASILY cut 10% to 20% of of the amount of gas that we use.
If we also explained that by using less gas we would have more money in our pockets to spend on other things . . . !
A small car that gets 30 mpg or so uses 2 ounces of gas a minute while idling, a medium sized car getting an mpg in the low 20's uses about 3 ounces per minute and a large SUV or Pick Up uses around 4 ounces of gas a minute while idling. So, sitting in your SUV waiting 15 minutes for your child to come out of school with the engine running uses 15 times 4 oz = 60 ounces of gas, almost a half a gallon!!! For nothing! Doing nothing except dirty the air that you and your child have to breathe! And putting money into the pockets of those that hate us! And which they can then use to buy arms and make bombs to further hurt us.
Most Americans could easily save a gallon of gas a day, many of us probably a lot more.
Instead of leaving my car to "Warm up" for a few minutes, I drive off right away - the recommended thing to do by car manufacturers. If I go to my bank drive through I shut off my engine while doing my transaction - usually 5 minutes or so - thus saving between 10 and 20 oz of gas, depending on my vehicle. I see people leaving their car running while they go into the 7-11 to get coffee and cigarettes, and to talk about how expensive gas is! I see them sitting at the kerb waiting for their spouse who just went into the supermarket to pick up a few things, or to use the bathroom, or to try on the latest fashion item in Sears or The Gap, all the time with the engine running.
At any one time there are millions of vehicles sitting idling, polluting the air, emptying their owners wallets and making some Arab richer!
Moving on to our efforts to reduce energy use. Julia and I reckon that we easily use half, or less, than most families in our day to day energy use. Possibly 1/3 or even 1/4 as much!
How do we accomplish that?
Well for one thing we drive a Prius, in which we get 56 mpg - four times the mileage of your average large SUV or PU that gets 14 mpg - That means 1/4 the gas use! Actually we use even less because we try to plan our trips carefully. Also we don't leave our vehicle idling. (We can't even if we want to because the engine automatically shuts off when the car stops, even at traffic lights! Further saving gas.)
We also have Geo Thermal heating and A/C. That uses a little more than half the energy of what the conventional heating and cooling system uses.
We also have Solar Hot Water. So we spend almost nothing for hot water. Quite a savings,
We also have a 6KW Solar Electric system. Cutting the cost of our electricity considerably.
We also have a woodstove, thus once agin cutting the cost of our heating.
And we are carefull in our use of all our resources. We keep our A/C set at 80 degrees in summer, turning it down to 78 if we have visitors. We set our heat at 68 in winter, but our living area is usually warmer due to the woodstove.
I just know that you are dying to say, "You must be rich, there is no way that "regular" people like us could afford to do that." But the fact is that there are very few people more "Regular" than us. Almost certainly you earn more than we do. Most people do. In fact almost anyone could do what we have done.
Start with the Prius. The average person drives 15,000 to 20,000 miles per year. If you drive an SUV that gets 14 mpg and drive 20,000 miles you will use more than 1420 gallons of gas which at $3.80 a gallon will cost you around $5,400. (I contend that most people who drive large SUV's or PU's use more than that because they don't plan their driving as carefully as we do and because they let it idle more than we do.) 20,000 miles in my Prius uses 357 gallons, which at $3.80/ gallon costs me $1356 or more than $4000 LESS than the SUV or big PU driver!
Over 10 years that is more than $40,000, or enough right there to do all the energy saving things that I just listed - just by driving a Prius! That is just doing one thing. It doesn't take into account any other savings. For example if your next car was a Prius, or similar, car you could install a hot water solar unit just from your first year savings in gas use! (Not to mention putting less CO2 and other pollutants into the air.) So with virtually no cost for hot water you would be saving EVEN MORE! And by turning the A/C up and the heat down (Take off clothes in summer and add sweaters in winter) you save even more. Within a couple of years you should have enough to "Go Solar". And when your heating system goes up replace it with a Geo Thermal system too which costs a little more initially but saves money, and energy, every day thereafter. (Again not to mention reducing air pollution and our dependance on foreign oil and our need to send our children off to war to fight for oil and to lose limbs and lives. All that just by being sensible AND saving money too!)
I could probably go on for pages and pages with similar ideas. In fact I know that I could. But here is just one more. If all cars had an instant display showing gasoline use at that very moment, the Prius and several other cars already do, we could save even more gas. A Jaguar that I owned more than 20 years ago had a display that showed the mpg at that very second, so I could see that if I stomped on the gas the mpg would drop to like 2 or 3 mpg - really! - and when I let up on the gas and just accelerated gently or took my foot off the gas and cruised along it would go up to say 15 mpg (It was not a very economical car!) but just like in the Prius you can see instantly - which is the way we all like to do things nowadays, right? - just what our mpg is.
I find it quite energising, even exciting, to see my mpg at at 100 plus as I go downhill or at 50 mpg plus as I cruise at a sensible speed on the flat. Just knowing what your mpg is at any given time would save gas. Well it does for me anyway. Maybe a $ sign getting bigger and bigger as you do "Bad" things would bring the cost of using more gas home to some people? And having the engine stop even when I stop at a traffic light! Wow that is almost sexual! I ALMOST enjoy sitting in a traffic jam now, with my engine safely in "Using NO gas mode" while the Big Pick Up next to me is going Boom, Boom, Boom as it idles, and RRRRR, RRRRR, RRRRR as its owner revs up in frustration, sucking up that gas!
There are dozens more ideas for saving energy that I could tell you. Well, probably hundreds!
Wouldn't it be great to say to Ahmadinajab, or Prince Fatso, or Mohammad Whatsit, "Fuck off drink your oil and eat your sand"?
Just saying.
The easiest and cheapest way to accomplish that by is conservation.
Now wouldn't you think that with a name like conservation - about as close as you could get to Conservative - that would be the Conservatives area of expertise? But you couldn't be further from the truth. Conservation is the last thing on the mind of a Conservative. Presumably that is because conservation is somehow synonamous with Liberal!
If we spent half of what is being spent by Democrats and Republicans, to smear the names of their opposite numbers, on educating the American public on ways to use less energy we could cut our energy use by 10% to 20% with no trouble at all.
Just by explaining that a vehicle sitting idling does not do so without using any gas! Or by suggesting that we use our smallest most economical vehicle when there is only one or two, or even 3 or 4 people making the trip. Or by explaining that every time you accelerate hard or you brake you are wasting gas. Or by suggesting that your next car be one that is small and economical, we could EASILY cut 10% to 20% of of the amount of gas that we use.
If we also explained that by using less gas we would have more money in our pockets to spend on other things . . . !
A small car that gets 30 mpg or so uses 2 ounces of gas a minute while idling, a medium sized car getting an mpg in the low 20's uses about 3 ounces per minute and a large SUV or Pick Up uses around 4 ounces of gas a minute while idling. So, sitting in your SUV waiting 15 minutes for your child to come out of school with the engine running uses 15 times 4 oz = 60 ounces of gas, almost a half a gallon!!! For nothing! Doing nothing except dirty the air that you and your child have to breathe! And putting money into the pockets of those that hate us! And which they can then use to buy arms and make bombs to further hurt us.
Most Americans could easily save a gallon of gas a day, many of us probably a lot more.
Instead of leaving my car to "Warm up" for a few minutes, I drive off right away - the recommended thing to do by car manufacturers. If I go to my bank drive through I shut off my engine while doing my transaction - usually 5 minutes or so - thus saving between 10 and 20 oz of gas, depending on my vehicle. I see people leaving their car running while they go into the 7-11 to get coffee and cigarettes, and to talk about how expensive gas is! I see them sitting at the kerb waiting for their spouse who just went into the supermarket to pick up a few things, or to use the bathroom, or to try on the latest fashion item in Sears or The Gap, all the time with the engine running.
At any one time there are millions of vehicles sitting idling, polluting the air, emptying their owners wallets and making some Arab richer!
Moving on to our efforts to reduce energy use. Julia and I reckon that we easily use half, or less, than most families in our day to day energy use. Possibly 1/3 or even 1/4 as much!
How do we accomplish that?
Well for one thing we drive a Prius, in which we get 56 mpg - four times the mileage of your average large SUV or PU that gets 14 mpg - That means 1/4 the gas use! Actually we use even less because we try to plan our trips carefully. Also we don't leave our vehicle idling. (We can't even if we want to because the engine automatically shuts off when the car stops, even at traffic lights! Further saving gas.)
We also have Geo Thermal heating and A/C. That uses a little more than half the energy of what the conventional heating and cooling system uses.
We also have Solar Hot Water. So we spend almost nothing for hot water. Quite a savings,
We also have a 6KW Solar Electric system. Cutting the cost of our electricity considerably.
We also have a woodstove, thus once agin cutting the cost of our heating.
And we are carefull in our use of all our resources. We keep our A/C set at 80 degrees in summer, turning it down to 78 if we have visitors. We set our heat at 68 in winter, but our living area is usually warmer due to the woodstove.
I just know that you are dying to say, "You must be rich, there is no way that "regular" people like us could afford to do that." But the fact is that there are very few people more "Regular" than us. Almost certainly you earn more than we do. Most people do. In fact almost anyone could do what we have done.
Start with the Prius. The average person drives 15,000 to 20,000 miles per year. If you drive an SUV that gets 14 mpg and drive 20,000 miles you will use more than 1420 gallons of gas which at $3.80 a gallon will cost you around $5,400. (I contend that most people who drive large SUV's or PU's use more than that because they don't plan their driving as carefully as we do and because they let it idle more than we do.) 20,000 miles in my Prius uses 357 gallons, which at $3.80/ gallon costs me $1356 or more than $4000 LESS than the SUV or big PU driver!
Over 10 years that is more than $40,000, or enough right there to do all the energy saving things that I just listed - just by driving a Prius! That is just doing one thing. It doesn't take into account any other savings. For example if your next car was a Prius, or similar, car you could install a hot water solar unit just from your first year savings in gas use! (Not to mention putting less CO2 and other pollutants into the air.) So with virtually no cost for hot water you would be saving EVEN MORE! And by turning the A/C up and the heat down (Take off clothes in summer and add sweaters in winter) you save even more. Within a couple of years you should have enough to "Go Solar". And when your heating system goes up replace it with a Geo Thermal system too which costs a little more initially but saves money, and energy, every day thereafter. (Again not to mention reducing air pollution and our dependance on foreign oil and our need to send our children off to war to fight for oil and to lose limbs and lives. All that just by being sensible AND saving money too!)
I could probably go on for pages and pages with similar ideas. In fact I know that I could. But here is just one more. If all cars had an instant display showing gasoline use at that very moment, the Prius and several other cars already do, we could save even more gas. A Jaguar that I owned more than 20 years ago had a display that showed the mpg at that very second, so I could see that if I stomped on the gas the mpg would drop to like 2 or 3 mpg - really! - and when I let up on the gas and just accelerated gently or took my foot off the gas and cruised along it would go up to say 15 mpg (It was not a very economical car!) but just like in the Prius you can see instantly - which is the way we all like to do things nowadays, right? - just what our mpg is.
I find it quite energising, even exciting, to see my mpg at at 100 plus as I go downhill or at 50 mpg plus as I cruise at a sensible speed on the flat. Just knowing what your mpg is at any given time would save gas. Well it does for me anyway. Maybe a $ sign getting bigger and bigger as you do "Bad" things would bring the cost of using more gas home to some people? And having the engine stop even when I stop at a traffic light! Wow that is almost sexual! I ALMOST enjoy sitting in a traffic jam now, with my engine safely in "Using NO gas mode" while the Big Pick Up next to me is going Boom, Boom, Boom as it idles, and RRRRR, RRRRR, RRRRR as its owner revs up in frustration, sucking up that gas!
There are dozens more ideas for saving energy that I could tell you. Well, probably hundreds!
Wouldn't it be great to say to Ahmadinajab, or Prince Fatso, or Mohammad Whatsit, "Fuck off drink your oil and eat your sand"?
Just saying.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Who has the most sensible energy policy?
That would be for the USA and the World.
Should I discuss the differences or just come out for one or the other?
The answer is obvious but if I plump for one you might not bother to read any further if your opinion is different.
It really doesn't matter because my choice will be obvious very quickly anyway. The policies on one side make sense for the US and the World while the other sides make no sense for either.
One side says drill baby drill, cut regulations, keep subsidies on profitable oil companies, cut out any help for clean energy, oppose raising fuel efficiency standards and so on. That is the Republican side.
The other side instead want to cut energy use. They want to do this in several ways, the easiest, cheapest and cleanest way is to reduce demand. One way to do that is increase fuel efficiency standards, which Romney opposes! Another way is to produce energy cleanly with solar, wind, wave, geo thermal and other non-polluting methods. Romney opposes these too, threatening to eliminate tax breaks for any clean energy, renewables or green ways of producing energy. This has already resulted in the loss of jobs as wind and solar companies pull back after threats from Romney to kill tax credits for clean energy efforts, but to keep them for extremely profitable oil giants. Then he blames Obama for the loss of jobs in the renewable energy fields!
The "Etch-a-sketch" man who was a big basher of coal when he was the Massachusetts Governor, has now made a 180 degree change on that and he now woos the coal companies.
Romney wants to increase oil and gas production in the US. Oil and gas production in the US is already at record highs. And oil imports are at record lows! Even after the BP oil spill oil rigs are at record high numbers. Oil companies have over 7,000 permits to drill on Federal land that they are not using!
Romney wants to help the oil barons even more by reducing air pollution standards. Obama opposes that.
Obama wants to cut tax breaks for the spectacularly profitable oil companies. Romney opposes that. Obama wants to encourage clean energy production. Romney opposes that. Obama wants to increase fuel efficiency. Romney opposes that.
Who has the most sensible energy policy?
In my next post I will offer some ideas of my own on ways to cut America's energy use.
Should I discuss the differences or just come out for one or the other?
The answer is obvious but if I plump for one you might not bother to read any further if your opinion is different.
It really doesn't matter because my choice will be obvious very quickly anyway. The policies on one side make sense for the US and the World while the other sides make no sense for either.
One side says drill baby drill, cut regulations, keep subsidies on profitable oil companies, cut out any help for clean energy, oppose raising fuel efficiency standards and so on. That is the Republican side.
The other side instead want to cut energy use. They want to do this in several ways, the easiest, cheapest and cleanest way is to reduce demand. One way to do that is increase fuel efficiency standards, which Romney opposes! Another way is to produce energy cleanly with solar, wind, wave, geo thermal and other non-polluting methods. Romney opposes these too, threatening to eliminate tax breaks for any clean energy, renewables or green ways of producing energy. This has already resulted in the loss of jobs as wind and solar companies pull back after threats from Romney to kill tax credits for clean energy efforts, but to keep them for extremely profitable oil giants. Then he blames Obama for the loss of jobs in the renewable energy fields!
The "Etch-a-sketch" man who was a big basher of coal when he was the Massachusetts Governor, has now made a 180 degree change on that and he now woos the coal companies.
Romney wants to increase oil and gas production in the US. Oil and gas production in the US is already at record highs. And oil imports are at record lows! Even after the BP oil spill oil rigs are at record high numbers. Oil companies have over 7,000 permits to drill on Federal land that they are not using!
Romney wants to help the oil barons even more by reducing air pollution standards. Obama opposes that.
Obama wants to cut tax breaks for the spectacularly profitable oil companies. Romney opposes that. Obama wants to encourage clean energy production. Romney opposes that. Obama wants to increase fuel efficiency. Romney opposes that.
Who has the most sensible energy policy?
In my next post I will offer some ideas of my own on ways to cut America's energy use.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
EPA
That stands for the Enviromental Protection Agency - obviously a Liberal Agency! Therefore it MUST be destroyed. Conservatives - in this context is that not a major misnomer? - want to shut down the EPA. They feel that the Environment is already way over protected!
Now I don't know about you but does that not sound like they may be living in a different world to the rest of us?
Is their world not warming? (Yes it is. For every one of at least the last 360 months the average temperature over the world - that's the one that we both live in whether they like it or not - has been above average. To repeat that, the average temperature over the entire world has been ABOVE average for every single one of at least the last 360 months!) Does their world not have insect, bird and animal species that are not becoming extinct at the rate of at least a hundred a year? Do they not notice that children are suffering from asthma and other diseases relating to bad air and bad water at an ever increasing rate? Or perhaps they just don't care? I really don't think that is the case, it may be more a case of ignorance.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could make ignorance extinct? Without making Conservatives extinct. That seems to be where most of the ignorance in this world, and about this world, exists!
Just saying.
Now I don't know about you but does that not sound like they may be living in a different world to the rest of us?
Is their world not warming? (Yes it is. For every one of at least the last 360 months the average temperature over the world - that's the one that we both live in whether they like it or not - has been above average. To repeat that, the average temperature over the entire world has been ABOVE average for every single one of at least the last 360 months!) Does their world not have insect, bird and animal species that are not becoming extinct at the rate of at least a hundred a year? Do they not notice that children are suffering from asthma and other diseases relating to bad air and bad water at an ever increasing rate? Or perhaps they just don't care? I really don't think that is the case, it may be more a case of ignorance.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could make ignorance extinct? Without making Conservatives extinct. That seems to be where most of the ignorance in this world, and about this world, exists!
Just saying.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Evolving.
What did the first fish(s) say when they crawled out onto land and evolved?
Do you give up?
They said, "Let's build a wall so no one else can crawl out of the water and evolve!"
Sounds about right don't you think?
Do you give up?
They said, "Let's build a wall so no one else can crawl out of the water and evolve!"
Sounds about right don't you think?
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
A self made man.
That is how I just saw Mitt Romney described!!
Consider, when he was born it was no doubt in a hospital with the very best health care that money can buy.
He came into a world of wealth and privilege, just like everyone else, right? No advantage over the average person? NOT!
He lived in an area that was average, with average neigbors. NOT.
Of course he went to your average school and your average University where he met avarage people, just like you and I did. NOT.
He didn't have to worry about paying for his education or getting and working jobs to pay for it. By the time he finished his schooling he had met more people that would help him through his "self made" career than 100 average people had met, or would meet, in their whole lives.
Calling him "Self Made" is insane.
My Grandson would love to have just a tenth of the help that Mitt had. Bradley is working three jobs and going to college, And that is with his parents, grandparents and great grandparents helping him. He has been saving up his pocket money and baby sitting money and Birthday and Christmas money for some 10 years - he is 19 - just like Mitt doubtless did. NOT.
Calling someone who started off near the top and made it to the top is not the story of a self made man.
In fact with the kind of help that he had how could he possibly fail?
Consider, when he was born it was no doubt in a hospital with the very best health care that money can buy.
He came into a world of wealth and privilege, just like everyone else, right? No advantage over the average person? NOT!
He lived in an area that was average, with average neigbors. NOT.
Of course he went to your average school and your average University where he met avarage people, just like you and I did. NOT.
He didn't have to worry about paying for his education or getting and working jobs to pay for it. By the time he finished his schooling he had met more people that would help him through his "self made" career than 100 average people had met, or would meet, in their whole lives.
Calling him "Self Made" is insane.
My Grandson would love to have just a tenth of the help that Mitt had. Bradley is working three jobs and going to college, And that is with his parents, grandparents and great grandparents helping him. He has been saving up his pocket money and baby sitting money and Birthday and Christmas money for some 10 years - he is 19 - just like Mitt doubtless did. NOT.
Calling someone who started off near the top and made it to the top is not the story of a self made man.
In fact with the kind of help that he had how could he possibly fail?
Monday, October 8, 2012
Take our country back.
The Republican war cry. But just where is they are going to take us back to? How far back? To a time when women and blacks could not vote or own property or speak up? Back to when no one paid taxes and the wealthy owned slaves? When we had dirt roads, worked dusk to dawn seven days a week, had no unions, no rights, no Social Security, no formal education?
That seems to me what they would like AND what they are working towards.
Obama is fighting for fairness for everyone. Rob me is fighting for the rich. The Republicans want to Remove Obama - not help him save America. They want to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act - not improve it.
They want to put God into Government, which our forefathers specifically wanted to keep separate. They want to make rape OK, send jobs abroad, trash our environment, eviscerate the EPA, Clean Air and Clean Water, and get rid of Soc Sec and Medicare.
I hope and pray that they fail - just like their hero Rush said about Obama when the people of the United Sates voted him to be their President. And the Republicans have tirelessly fought to bring Rush's words to fruition, even if it would mean destroying America, voting down eveything that would help our country and the economy. It is the Republicans who are sabotaging our recovery.
Just saying.
That seems to me what they would like AND what they are working towards.
Obama is fighting for fairness for everyone. Rob me is fighting for the rich. The Republicans want to Remove Obama - not help him save America. They want to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act - not improve it.
They want to put God into Government, which our forefathers specifically wanted to keep separate. They want to make rape OK, send jobs abroad, trash our environment, eviscerate the EPA, Clean Air and Clean Water, and get rid of Soc Sec and Medicare.
I hope and pray that they fail - just like their hero Rush said about Obama when the people of the United Sates voted him to be their President. And the Republicans have tirelessly fought to bring Rush's words to fruition, even if it would mean destroying America, voting down eveything that would help our country and the economy. It is the Republicans who are sabotaging our recovery.
Just saying.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Retarded Mosquitos?
Is there such a thing? If there is I encountered one last night. Sleeping soundly - a real rarity for me - I awoke to a an itch or even a pain in my hand. It was almost immediately apparent that I had been bitten on my wrist, which was itching, but the palm of my hand was hurting more. Now even at 71 years old I work every day, if not in my garden or the yard at Dock Road, then in my workshop or around the house. So my palms are quite hard. In fact I cannot ever remember being bitten on the palm before. I have been bitten by mosquitos many, many times, in fact I am a veritable Mosquito Magnet! So with all that soft delicious flesh available, why would the creature choose my tough palm? I can only assume that it was retarded.
On a more calm note as we lay on the bed in the early morning and watched The Lake together Julia was moved to say, in her soft beautiful voice, "Mirror Lake." I agreed. The Lake was indeed a perfect mirror.
A small bird was perched on one of the pilings at the end of the pier. It was unusual enough that I was prompted to pick up the binoculars for a closer look, it was a Banded Kingfisher. Quite small and apparently common here, according to the bird book that I looked at. It was about 12" long and I think that I have seen one here before but it was definitely worth a mention. Heck ANY bird is worth a mention nowadays!
On a more calm note as we lay on the bed in the early morning and watched The Lake together Julia was moved to say, in her soft beautiful voice, "Mirror Lake." I agreed. The Lake was indeed a perfect mirror.
A small bird was perched on one of the pilings at the end of the pier. It was unusual enough that I was prompted to pick up the binoculars for a closer look, it was a Banded Kingfisher. Quite small and apparently common here, according to the bird book that I looked at. It was about 12" long and I think that I have seen one here before but it was definitely worth a mention. Heck ANY bird is worth a mention nowadays!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Getting a few facts straight in my head.
Mr Romney tells us that 47% of Americans pay no taxes. This is correct in only one small area - Federal Income taxes. They do of course pay other taxes such as payroll taxes, State taxes, sales taxes, property taxes etc.
Now, of the 47%, sixty percent work. The other 40% is mainly made up of retired people, military people, students etc.
The people who pay no Federal income tax range in income levels from those who earn very little to more than 3,000 people who earn more than $3 million a year!
And in fact it is very likely that most of the 47% who "Pay no tax" actually pay a larger percent of their income in taxes than Mitt Romney pays! For starters if they work - and 60% do - they pay 6.2% in SS payroll tax alone. Mr Romney doesn't pay this -actually he does but it is 6.2% of $110,000, not 6.2% of all his income, which is what you pay. As his income last year was $21 million, 6.2% of $110,000 represents .0003% of his income, compared to the 6.2% that you pay!(21,000 times more than he pays - as a % of income!)
Mr Romney also thinks that President Obama wants to "Redistribute wealth". This has already been done. By the rich. The "top" 1% of Americans own 50% of its wealth! Lets use a simple little story to give an idea of what this means. There are 100 people in a room. They order a pizza. When it arrives it is cut in half - 50% - and that half is given to one person in the room. The other 99 people in the room get to share the other half of the pizza. That is how the wealth in America is "Distributed".
And it is getting worse :-
The "top" 1% owned :-
in 1960 10% of America's wealth.
in 1976 35%
in 1982 40%
in 1992 43%
in 2002 65%
Seems pretty inequal to me. Obviously these wealthy 1% have much more access to lawmakers than the other 99% and so are able to get laws passed that favor them.
Another little fact - while the top 1% own 50% of America's wealth, the bottom 50% of Americans own just 1% of it's wealth! That is HALF of ALL Americans TOGETHER own just 1% of America's wealth!
One more comment here, Mr Romney has been saying for some time cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes, now that the result of what this policy would do is shown - that less and less people would be paying taxes - which is what he keeps advocating, he gets all disgusted that there are people "Not paying taxes". Just what does he expect if taxes get cut? That more people will be paying taxes? I also suspect that he is one of the people who pay no taxes - why else would he refuse to show his tax returns? Every other President and Presidential aspirant has shown their taxes - but not Mitt ! ! Hmmm.
Now, of the 47%, sixty percent work. The other 40% is mainly made up of retired people, military people, students etc.
The people who pay no Federal income tax range in income levels from those who earn very little to more than 3,000 people who earn more than $3 million a year!
And in fact it is very likely that most of the 47% who "Pay no tax" actually pay a larger percent of their income in taxes than Mitt Romney pays! For starters if they work - and 60% do - they pay 6.2% in SS payroll tax alone. Mr Romney doesn't pay this -actually he does but it is 6.2% of $110,000, not 6.2% of all his income, which is what you pay. As his income last year was $21 million, 6.2% of $110,000 represents .0003% of his income, compared to the 6.2% that you pay!(21,000 times more than he pays - as a % of income!)
Mr Romney also thinks that President Obama wants to "Redistribute wealth". This has already been done. By the rich. The "top" 1% of Americans own 50% of its wealth! Lets use a simple little story to give an idea of what this means. There are 100 people in a room. They order a pizza. When it arrives it is cut in half - 50% - and that half is given to one person in the room. The other 99 people in the room get to share the other half of the pizza. That is how the wealth in America is "Distributed".
And it is getting worse :-
The "top" 1% owned :-
in 1960 10% of America's wealth.
in 1976 35%
in 1982 40%
in 1992 43%
in 2002 65%
Seems pretty inequal to me. Obviously these wealthy 1% have much more access to lawmakers than the other 99% and so are able to get laws passed that favor them.
Another little fact - while the top 1% own 50% of America's wealth, the bottom 50% of Americans own just 1% of it's wealth! That is HALF of ALL Americans TOGETHER own just 1% of America's wealth!
One more comment here, Mr Romney has been saying for some time cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes, now that the result of what this policy would do is shown - that less and less people would be paying taxes - which is what he keeps advocating, he gets all disgusted that there are people "Not paying taxes". Just what does he expect if taxes get cut? That more people will be paying taxes? I also suspect that he is one of the people who pay no taxes - why else would he refuse to show his tax returns? Every other President and Presidential aspirant has shown their taxes - but not Mitt ! ! Hmmm.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Scary.
A Presidential hopeful who cannot think before he speaks.
This man insulted our closest ally, the United Kingdom.
A Consulate employee sent a tweet saying that the policy of the United States is for freedom of all religions. This was sent BEFORE the attack on the Consulate. Mr Romney immediately interpreted this somehow as an apology by President Obama!
At a time when we were being attacked, a time that most politicians stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder, support each other and the country, Mr Romney instead attacked the President without even waiting to find out the facts.
I am really scared that if this man gets into The White House we are toast. He speaks and acts before he thinks, before he has the facts. Not even caring if the people he is speaking to or about are our allies or our enemies!
This is no way for the most powerful man in the world to act. Nuclear weapons by the thousand are pointed at every country on the globe. A stupid statement by a stupid man like Romney and we are back to the Stone Age.
Just saying.
This man insulted our closest ally, the United Kingdom.
A Consulate employee sent a tweet saying that the policy of the United States is for freedom of all religions. This was sent BEFORE the attack on the Consulate. Mr Romney immediately interpreted this somehow as an apology by President Obama!
At a time when we were being attacked, a time that most politicians stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder, support each other and the country, Mr Romney instead attacked the President without even waiting to find out the facts.
I am really scared that if this man gets into The White House we are toast. He speaks and acts before he thinks, before he has the facts. Not even caring if the people he is speaking to or about are our allies or our enemies!
This is no way for the most powerful man in the world to act. Nuclear weapons by the thousand are pointed at every country on the globe. A stupid statement by a stupid man like Romney and we are back to the Stone Age.
Just saying.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Hell Yes!
The question was - from Mitt Romney, "Are we better off than we were 4 years ago?"
And I repeat Hell Yes. If you don't agree then you must have a VERY short memory.
I remember 4 years ago we were : -
Losing around 800,000 jobs a MONTH!
Involved in 2 wars.
Terrorism was rampant.
Our economy was headed downhill, fast, in fact we were headed for a depression.
The DOW was under 7,000.
Gas was over $4 a gallon.
Our auto industry was ready to collapse and close down.
Corruption was rampant on Wall Street and in the banks.
Banks were failing.
Mortages were failing.
Home prices were dropping.
The military budget had almost DOUBLED in the 8 years of the Bush 2 administration.
The National Debt had DOUBLED.
In spite of the HUGE deficits Bush had cut taxes on the richest Americans.
Now we have some hope : -
When he came into office President Obama found a worst mess than almost any President has ever found. He has worked to stop the depression, and succeeded, at least in part, despite a determined Sabotage by the Republican party, who were determined not to compromise or co-operate to help save the country at all.
Without any help at all from Republicans, in spite of President Obama reaching accross the aisle repeatedly, he has : -
Changed from Losing 800,000 jobs a month to Adding jobs for the last 30 months in a row - a total of 4 1/2 million jobs, with no help at all from the Republicans. In fact with them voting down every attempt by the President to improve the economy. Never has there been such a disgusting show of non co-operation in our entire history.
Ended one war and ending the second one.
Acts of terrorism greatly reduced. And several dozen terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden, killed. (More than all other presidents combined)
Economy stabilized, again with NO help from the Republicans.
DOW over 13,000.
Gas prices down. Oil imports at their lowest in years. Oil and gas production in the US the highest ever.
The auto industry back on track. And well over a million jobs saved. Republicans called for the industry to be allowed to go bankrupt.
Wall Street, banks and mortgages, well some improvement, maybe. Some controls imposed - which the Republicans are determined to remove as soon as they get into office! And in fact to remove many regulations on banks, Wall Street, Clean Air, Clean Water, and all forms of Big Business. Which will put us right back where we were before, only worse. The businesses that almost caused our complete demise will be given free rein to rape us again. Unless you are very rich, in which case you will have your taxes cut even more.
Home prices seem to have finally stabilized and are even creeping up slightly, along with sales.
Attempts are being made by President Obama to get military spending under control. With half of all military spending on the planet we are spending an insane amount of money. And don't forget that most of the other half of the worlds military spending is by our allies!
Yes the National Debt is climbing. But not as much as it will if the Republicans get into power. They want to raise military spending even more. They don't want to get out of Afghanistan. They seem to want to start a war with Iran. They want to cut taxes to the richest Americans even more. And how will they pay for this largesse? None of them will say, except for some vague promises to cut loopholes. Many think these "Loopholes" mean cutting the mortgage deduction and the health insurance deduction. Which will affect the middle classes.
Mitt is also determined to end The Affordable Health Care Act. Which he seems to hate, which is strange to say the least as it was first proposed by Republicans and was introduced, successfully by Mr Romney in his home State of Massachusetts! Basically it was copied by President Obama! Surely a compliment? Revoking the Affordable Health Care Act will put millions of Americans where they were 4 years ago with no affordable health insurance. Anyone born with a defect, illness or disease will be denied health insurance for life. Anyone having the temerity to get sick will once again find that their insurance company doesn't want to cover them any more! "Yes we know that you have paid every month for 20 years and hardly ever made a claim. But now you have cancer/AIDS/some other dread disease and we don't want to cover you any more! And we don't have to!"
Same for Medicare, gone, same for Social Security, gone. Yep you paid in for your whole life, but we spent the money on tax cuts for the rich and now we can't afford to pay you!
Just a couple of Facts - 2/3 of the National Debt was incurred under Republican Presidents.
The cost of Health Care rose 4% last year, and 4% the year before - the LOWEST rise in over 50 YEARS ! !
My 19 year old grandson helped me with some work today. Under Bush he would have been getting blown up by IED's in Iraq or Afghanistan. I hope and pray that Mitt Romney does not get elected as he is determined to get us into another war and my 4 Grandsons look just fine with all their arms and legs.
Please do not vote for these extreme Republican Politicians. They really are crazy. Fundamentalists. If they are Christians then GOD help us.
And I repeat Hell Yes. If you don't agree then you must have a VERY short memory.
I remember 4 years ago we were : -
Losing around 800,000 jobs a MONTH!
Involved in 2 wars.
Terrorism was rampant.
Our economy was headed downhill, fast, in fact we were headed for a depression.
The DOW was under 7,000.
Gas was over $4 a gallon.
Our auto industry was ready to collapse and close down.
Corruption was rampant on Wall Street and in the banks.
Banks were failing.
Mortages were failing.
Home prices were dropping.
The military budget had almost DOUBLED in the 8 years of the Bush 2 administration.
The National Debt had DOUBLED.
In spite of the HUGE deficits Bush had cut taxes on the richest Americans.
Now we have some hope : -
When he came into office President Obama found a worst mess than almost any President has ever found. He has worked to stop the depression, and succeeded, at least in part, despite a determined Sabotage by the Republican party, who were determined not to compromise or co-operate to help save the country at all.
Without any help at all from Republicans, in spite of President Obama reaching accross the aisle repeatedly, he has : -
Changed from Losing 800,000 jobs a month to Adding jobs for the last 30 months in a row - a total of 4 1/2 million jobs, with no help at all from the Republicans. In fact with them voting down every attempt by the President to improve the economy. Never has there been such a disgusting show of non co-operation in our entire history.
Ended one war and ending the second one.
Acts of terrorism greatly reduced. And several dozen terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden, killed. (More than all other presidents combined)
Economy stabilized, again with NO help from the Republicans.
DOW over 13,000.
Gas prices down. Oil imports at their lowest in years. Oil and gas production in the US the highest ever.
The auto industry back on track. And well over a million jobs saved. Republicans called for the industry to be allowed to go bankrupt.
Wall Street, banks and mortgages, well some improvement, maybe. Some controls imposed - which the Republicans are determined to remove as soon as they get into office! And in fact to remove many regulations on banks, Wall Street, Clean Air, Clean Water, and all forms of Big Business. Which will put us right back where we were before, only worse. The businesses that almost caused our complete demise will be given free rein to rape us again. Unless you are very rich, in which case you will have your taxes cut even more.
Home prices seem to have finally stabilized and are even creeping up slightly, along with sales.
Attempts are being made by President Obama to get military spending under control. With half of all military spending on the planet we are spending an insane amount of money. And don't forget that most of the other half of the worlds military spending is by our allies!
Yes the National Debt is climbing. But not as much as it will if the Republicans get into power. They want to raise military spending even more. They don't want to get out of Afghanistan. They seem to want to start a war with Iran. They want to cut taxes to the richest Americans even more. And how will they pay for this largesse? None of them will say, except for some vague promises to cut loopholes. Many think these "Loopholes" mean cutting the mortgage deduction and the health insurance deduction. Which will affect the middle classes.
Mitt is also determined to end The Affordable Health Care Act. Which he seems to hate, which is strange to say the least as it was first proposed by Republicans and was introduced, successfully by Mr Romney in his home State of Massachusetts! Basically it was copied by President Obama! Surely a compliment? Revoking the Affordable Health Care Act will put millions of Americans where they were 4 years ago with no affordable health insurance. Anyone born with a defect, illness or disease will be denied health insurance for life. Anyone having the temerity to get sick will once again find that their insurance company doesn't want to cover them any more! "Yes we know that you have paid every month for 20 years and hardly ever made a claim. But now you have cancer/AIDS/some other dread disease and we don't want to cover you any more! And we don't have to!"
Same for Medicare, gone, same for Social Security, gone. Yep you paid in for your whole life, but we spent the money on tax cuts for the rich and now we can't afford to pay you!
Just a couple of Facts - 2/3 of the National Debt was incurred under Republican Presidents.
The cost of Health Care rose 4% last year, and 4% the year before - the LOWEST rise in over 50 YEARS ! !
My 19 year old grandson helped me with some work today. Under Bush he would have been getting blown up by IED's in Iraq or Afghanistan. I hope and pray that Mitt Romney does not get elected as he is determined to get us into another war and my 4 Grandsons look just fine with all their arms and legs.
Please do not vote for these extreme Republican Politicians. They really are crazy. Fundamentalists. If they are Christians then GOD help us.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Poor Dave.
I try not to do a lot of complaining - well except about politicians! I do try to do a lot of that!
No, I mean I try not to complain about my lot in life, because let's face it, I am indeed blessed. I cannot imagine a more beautiful wife, my daughter is almost as beautiful as my wife, and my grandchildren are all, well, Grand! My house is almost perfect, with a view to take your breath away. I have a myriad of friends, well several anyway, and I could go on and on. But I won't.
The area of my life that I refer to in the title is of course my health. Now I am not completely unaware that there are many, many people out there that are far, far worse off than I am. However, that does not make me personally feel any better or healthier than I am, which is not very.
This is made worse by the fact that I have generally been in good, even excellent, health for most of my life. Apart from the usual minor maladies, like chicken pox, (twice!), and a bunch of other non-deadly diseases I have of course had my appendix and tonsils removed. I suffered less than your average number of broken bones as a child, plus of course a few scratches, cuts and abrasions - all worthy of nothing more than a few band aids, kisses from my mother, uplifting words and stories of horrific injuries to his poor body "when he was my age" from my father.
But as time went on and I saw my contempories slowing down, getting, and looking, older I instead continued on without slowing down at all. In fact in my 40's and 50's I had no trouble at all out-working my employees who were in their 20's. The golden years approached and I (silly boy) thought that they were indeed going to be "my golden years".
I, unlike all those other overweight, cigarette smoking, drug taking, unhealthy looking senior citizens, was obviously going to be doing all kinds of intense, athletic, virile things well into my 90's. What else could I think when here I was at age 59, hale, hearty, robust and yes. even tough. I was convinced that I would be one of the miracles that we read about, running marathons at 100. Hmm, I think I may be going a bit far there, as I had never run a marathon at any age let alone 100. But you get the idea, I felt great.
Then bang - literally - I was lifting a heavy stove when there was a loud "bang", I fell to the floor screaming, the man 3 or 4 feet away helping me lift the stove said "What was that?" referring to the bang, and life as I knew it ended there and then.
The bang had been two of my vertebrae collapsing. I was suddenly an inch or two shorter. An ambulance transported me to hospital where I was met by my wife and daughter. Osteoporosis was diagnosed.
I would like to interject a reccomendation here that when you go to a hospital you need a spokesperson with you like my daughter. Perhaps she would be available for hire? The nurses and doctors thought I might have osteoporosis. My daughter asked "Well how can you tell?" They said "There is a test where you drink a special liquid, we wait for it to get to your bones and then we do a special nuclear x-ray, blah, blah, blah" So Sarah said "OK when are you going to do it?" To which they replied, "Well it takes a long time."
Here is where Sarah came into her own. I am lying there squirming in pain, not paying a whole lot of attention to what was going on around me, just trying to get the nurses attention to get some more of that Morphine, please! When I almost sat straight up as Sarah said, loudly, with authority, "Well you had better get started then hadn't you? The sooner you get started the sooner we will know. What do you need to do first?" Which galvanised them into action!
More Morphine was administered, thank you, thank you, to whoever discovered Morphine. A nasty container of "Nuclear waste" or some such, was poured down my throat, and after 2 hours or so, during which time Sarah organised the staff of the Annapolis hospital that I had been transported to, to produce chairs and coffee for everyone, more painkillers for her father, a description of what was happening, and what was going to happen over the next few hours, I was tended to.
I am sure that no collection of hospital workers has ever been so glad to see the back of someone as those poor scrubs were of Sarah.
Suffice to say that I WAS diagnosed with severe osteoporosis. And so my life began to change. I started to see myself as I had seen all those other "Oldies".
One thing led to another. I won't bore you except to say that the brain tumor was no fun. And continues to be a real pain - so to speak! Literally! My torn knee, with two tears in the cartilege and a cracked femur makes me even more of a "Gimp" as I hobble around with my crutches and cane. And so on.
It is a flare up of the brain tumor pain which brought about this post - Poor Dave - and prompted me to ask for sympathy. But I think just writing about it has cured that! So no need to send sympathy. (But money would be nice!)
Well gotta get on, things to do.
Have a nice day.
God Save The Queen.
Call your mother.
No, I mean I try not to complain about my lot in life, because let's face it, I am indeed blessed. I cannot imagine a more beautiful wife, my daughter is almost as beautiful as my wife, and my grandchildren are all, well, Grand! My house is almost perfect, with a view to take your breath away. I have a myriad of friends, well several anyway, and I could go on and on. But I won't.
The area of my life that I refer to in the title is of course my health. Now I am not completely unaware that there are many, many people out there that are far, far worse off than I am. However, that does not make me personally feel any better or healthier than I am, which is not very.
This is made worse by the fact that I have generally been in good, even excellent, health for most of my life. Apart from the usual minor maladies, like chicken pox, (twice!), and a bunch of other non-deadly diseases I have of course had my appendix and tonsils removed. I suffered less than your average number of broken bones as a child, plus of course a few scratches, cuts and abrasions - all worthy of nothing more than a few band aids, kisses from my mother, uplifting words and stories of horrific injuries to his poor body "when he was my age" from my father.
But as time went on and I saw my contempories slowing down, getting, and looking, older I instead continued on without slowing down at all. In fact in my 40's and 50's I had no trouble at all out-working my employees who were in their 20's. The golden years approached and I (silly boy) thought that they were indeed going to be "my golden years".
I, unlike all those other overweight, cigarette smoking, drug taking, unhealthy looking senior citizens, was obviously going to be doing all kinds of intense, athletic, virile things well into my 90's. What else could I think when here I was at age 59, hale, hearty, robust and yes. even tough. I was convinced that I would be one of the miracles that we read about, running marathons at 100. Hmm, I think I may be going a bit far there, as I had never run a marathon at any age let alone 100. But you get the idea, I felt great.
Then bang - literally - I was lifting a heavy stove when there was a loud "bang", I fell to the floor screaming, the man 3 or 4 feet away helping me lift the stove said "What was that?" referring to the bang, and life as I knew it ended there and then.
The bang had been two of my vertebrae collapsing. I was suddenly an inch or two shorter. An ambulance transported me to hospital where I was met by my wife and daughter. Osteoporosis was diagnosed.
I would like to interject a reccomendation here that when you go to a hospital you need a spokesperson with you like my daughter. Perhaps she would be available for hire? The nurses and doctors thought I might have osteoporosis. My daughter asked "Well how can you tell?" They said "There is a test where you drink a special liquid, we wait for it to get to your bones and then we do a special nuclear x-ray, blah, blah, blah" So Sarah said "OK when are you going to do it?" To which they replied, "Well it takes a long time."
Here is where Sarah came into her own. I am lying there squirming in pain, not paying a whole lot of attention to what was going on around me, just trying to get the nurses attention to get some more of that Morphine, please! When I almost sat straight up as Sarah said, loudly, with authority, "Well you had better get started then hadn't you? The sooner you get started the sooner we will know. What do you need to do first?" Which galvanised them into action!
More Morphine was administered, thank you, thank you, to whoever discovered Morphine. A nasty container of "Nuclear waste" or some such, was poured down my throat, and after 2 hours or so, during which time Sarah organised the staff of the Annapolis hospital that I had been transported to, to produce chairs and coffee for everyone, more painkillers for her father, a description of what was happening, and what was going to happen over the next few hours, I was tended to.
I am sure that no collection of hospital workers has ever been so glad to see the back of someone as those poor scrubs were of Sarah.
Suffice to say that I WAS diagnosed with severe osteoporosis. And so my life began to change. I started to see myself as I had seen all those other "Oldies".
One thing led to another. I won't bore you except to say that the brain tumor was no fun. And continues to be a real pain - so to speak! Literally! My torn knee, with two tears in the cartilege and a cracked femur makes me even more of a "Gimp" as I hobble around with my crutches and cane. And so on.
It is a flare up of the brain tumor pain which brought about this post - Poor Dave - and prompted me to ask for sympathy. But I think just writing about it has cured that! So no need to send sympathy. (But money would be nice!)
Well gotta get on, things to do.
Have a nice day.
God Save The Queen.
Call your mother.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Spend more, get less.
I wonder what that refers to? Well it refers to the US Health System (Or as I like to call it The US Health Business)
The WHO - World Health Organisation - has a report comparing the health systems of the world's countries. Herewith some of the figures. (John Boehner says that the US has the best health system in the world)
The WHO says : -
The US is FIRST - highest in cost. No contest.
The US is 37th - in performance.
The US is behind, France (1st), most countries of W. Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, the Middle East and even Columbia, Cyprus, Morrocco, Dominica and Costa Rica. We did beat Slovenia - by 1.
The US is 39th - in infant mortality.
The US is 42nd - in adult male mortality.
The US is 43rd - in adult female mortality.
The US is 36th - in life expectancy.
So we spend more, and get less.
Oh and we are 72nd in health!
And 46% of personal bankruptcies in the US are from medical debt. (Most countries that have a national health system have no bankruptcies from medical debt.)
Just saying.
The WHO - World Health Organisation - has a report comparing the health systems of the world's countries. Herewith some of the figures. (John Boehner says that the US has the best health system in the world)
The WHO says : -
The US is FIRST - highest in cost. No contest.
The US is 37th - in performance.
The US is behind, France (1st), most countries of W. Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, the Middle East and even Columbia, Cyprus, Morrocco, Dominica and Costa Rica. We did beat Slovenia - by 1.
The US is 39th - in infant mortality.
The US is 42nd - in adult male mortality.
The US is 43rd - in adult female mortality.
The US is 36th - in life expectancy.
So we spend more, and get less.
Oh and we are 72nd in health!
And 46% of personal bankruptcies in the US are from medical debt. (Most countries that have a national health system have no bankruptcies from medical debt.)
Just saying.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
An amazing story about bad timing!
Our neighbors decided to take their grandson on a short break to Ocean City. Feeling a little nervous about taking her jewlery to Ocean City and having visions of seeing it washing away in the breakers but at the same time not wanting to leave it at home either, she decided to take it to the bank and put it in their safe deposit box. Her husband having recently had surgery after an horrendous injury suffered while playing Raquetball had lost weight, so his wedding ring was loose. He too decided this would be a good time to leave his ring behind.
So, on the way Downey Ocean, they stopped at their bank - M&T to deposit the valuables. (Have you ever thought what a ridiculous name that is for a bank? Empty Bank!)
Anyway, they deposited said valuables into their safety deposit box and headed off to OC relieved to know that their prized possesions were safe in the vault.
They awoke the next morning to big thunder and lightning storms. And news that their bank The Empty Bank had burned!
Can you imagine their frustration and horror? So Can I. Here they were stranded in Ocean City 150 miles away from home and their burned down bank.
Phone calls at 3.00am? produced an answering machine - of course. Their call was returned the next day and assurances made that their
"stuff" was probably OK as it was in the vault! And anyway it was insured for up to $5,000 !
Needless to say they did not have a good time.
To follow up, as of now, almost 2 weeks after the fire they have still not received a letter or any notification of the fire. If they had not seen the news story they still would not know about it. As they did see the story they have kept in touch by phone. There is still no access to their box as the building is considered dangerous. Good job they don't need their passports or anything else important.
So, on the way Downey Ocean, they stopped at their bank - M&T to deposit the valuables. (Have you ever thought what a ridiculous name that is for a bank? Empty Bank!)
Anyway, they deposited said valuables into their safety deposit box and headed off to OC relieved to know that their prized possesions were safe in the vault.
They awoke the next morning to big thunder and lightning storms. And news that their bank The Empty Bank had burned!
Can you imagine their frustration and horror? So Can I. Here they were stranded in Ocean City 150 miles away from home and their burned down bank.
Phone calls at 3.00am? produced an answering machine - of course. Their call was returned the next day and assurances made that their
"stuff" was probably OK as it was in the vault! And anyway it was insured for up to $5,000 !
Needless to say they did not have a good time.
To follow up, as of now, almost 2 weeks after the fire they have still not received a letter or any notification of the fire. If they had not seen the news story they still would not know about it. As they did see the story they have kept in touch by phone. There is still no access to their box as the building is considered dangerous. Good job they don't need their passports or anything else important.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
My Cat.
It amazes me that my cat cannot understand that there is an invisible barrier between her and that moth outside of the window. She will frustrate herself for hours pawing, scratching and attacking the glass. On and on with no hope, and never learning. When the next moth appears she is at it again having learnt nothing from the futility of all her previous attempts.
And in a similar way I am amazed that Republicans and Democrats cannot understand that they and us and the country and indeed the whole world would be so much better off if they would co-operate with each other.
Such a simple concept.
But their simple minds just cannot grasp it.
So like Muffey they paw, scratch and attack each other, wasting their time and energy and our time and money in a futile attempt to - what?
When, by co-operating, they - well obviously not them as there is not an atom of brain power between the whole lot of them - but some of us could sit down, put the problems on a table, a very large table because there are a very large number of problems, almost all of which were created by those same politicians, and figure them out.
Hey we do have intelligent people who can figure out problems. We just put an SUV on Mars! We just found The Higgs-Bosun, one of the basic building blocks of the Universe. We know why the Sun "Comes up".
Even I know when my lawn needs mowing, the cat needs feeding and to slow down when I see a police car following me. And yet as intelligent as most Americans, British, and all human beings are, we allow ourselves to be ruled by the least intelligent, greediest, most selfish, most dishonest, lying theives in that Universe - the average Politician.
Of course it doesn't say much about us that we put up with them.
Just saying.
And in a similar way I am amazed that Republicans and Democrats cannot understand that they and us and the country and indeed the whole world would be so much better off if they would co-operate with each other.
Such a simple concept.
But their simple minds just cannot grasp it.
So like Muffey they paw, scratch and attack each other, wasting their time and energy and our time and money in a futile attempt to - what?
When, by co-operating, they - well obviously not them as there is not an atom of brain power between the whole lot of them - but some of us could sit down, put the problems on a table, a very large table because there are a very large number of problems, almost all of which were created by those same politicians, and figure them out.
Hey we do have intelligent people who can figure out problems. We just put an SUV on Mars! We just found The Higgs-Bosun, one of the basic building blocks of the Universe. We know why the Sun "Comes up".
Even I know when my lawn needs mowing, the cat needs feeding and to slow down when I see a police car following me. And yet as intelligent as most Americans, British, and all human beings are, we allow ourselves to be ruled by the least intelligent, greediest, most selfish, most dishonest, lying theives in that Universe - the average Politician.
Of course it doesn't say much about us that we put up with them.
Just saying.
Friday, August 10, 2012
My Mother is 92 years old.
When I was talking to my mother the other day about poetry, one of her great loves, along with Shakespeare and other eminent authors, I happened to speak a quote - "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." - a famous poem called "The Daffodil." by William Wordsworth that most of us read in school. My Mother, 92 years old remember, then proceeded to quote the whole 4 verses word for word. And I mean word for word, I had the book in front of me and she recited it word for word, not missing one word! Four verses.
I then asked her what she'd had for lunch - no more than one or two hours ago, she smiled at me and asked my father what she had had for lunch. He rolled off the meal along with all of the extras.
I could have asked her 5 minutes after she had eaten it and she would not have been able to tell me. But mention a line from Shakespeare's Tempest, or Hamlet and she would continue it without hesitating for as long as I wanted!
Go figure. The miracle and tragedy of the human mind.
My mother has forgotten more than most people ever learned. For most of her life, until a horrendous automobile accident changed her and everyones life aound her, she knew the answer to almost anything I or anyone else would ask her. I almost never knew her to not know the answer. She knew more than all of my friends and family put together.
Now she can still remember things from her schooldays with incredible accuracy, but she can't remember what happened 5 minutes ago.
A tragedy of the first order, whatever that is. And a loss to us and the world.
I then asked her what she'd had for lunch - no more than one or two hours ago, she smiled at me and asked my father what she had had for lunch. He rolled off the meal along with all of the extras.
I could have asked her 5 minutes after she had eaten it and she would not have been able to tell me. But mention a line from Shakespeare's Tempest, or Hamlet and she would continue it without hesitating for as long as I wanted!
Go figure. The miracle and tragedy of the human mind.
My mother has forgotten more than most people ever learned. For most of her life, until a horrendous automobile accident changed her and everyones life aound her, she knew the answer to almost anything I or anyone else would ask her. I almost never knew her to not know the answer. She knew more than all of my friends and family put together.
Now she can still remember things from her schooldays with incredible accuracy, but she can't remember what happened 5 minutes ago.
A tragedy of the first order, whatever that is. And a loss to us and the world.
Energy idea.
Just an idle thought really. I have seen the "Ads" on TV for "Clean Coal", which of course I do not believe. I guess you can call anything, anything you want to call it - like "Dry Rain", "Fast Snails", or even "Clean Coal".
But, I also believe that we are being devastated financially by the amount of money we send abroad to buy oil, much of it to our enemies.
It seems to me that yes, coal is dirty, but surely so is oil? Maybe not AS dirty as coal, but at least part way there.
So, my suggestion is this. I hear that we have enough coal in this country to supply our energy needs for centuries. Why don't we work on producing that energy from coal as cleanly as possible? We may not be able to produce Clean Energy from Coal, but surely with our technology - going to the Moon and Mars etc - we can at least produce Cleaner Energy from Coal?
Let's just say that we manage to clean it up to where it is only twice as dirty as oil, I really have no idea if that is possible or not. I do know that Britain survived for hundreds of years using nothing but coal, and very dirty coal at that, and they are still around. We should be able to use "Scrubbers" or whatever to greatly reduce the pollution. This would give us a huge amount of money back in our pockets - not being sent abroad - that we could use to develop a clean energy, from Solar, Wind, Wave, Geo Thermal, Hydrogen etc - all produced in our own country, by our own people. Millions of jobs, here, in the US.
Also we all know that we waste a HUGE amount of energy in the US. One of the reasons for that is that in spite of its cost, energy is still cheap here. Why else would people leave their cars running when they are not even in them, heat their homes to 75 or 80 degrees in the winter and cool them to 65 to 70 degrees in the summer? And of course we were raised to be wasteful.
So the second step in becoming more energy independant would have to be to Use Less Energy. This would have the effect at the same time of producing less pollution. Cut your energy use by 20% - easy - and you reduce pollution by 20%.
But how do you get people to use less energy? I see people waiting by schools for their children, sitting inside of their big SUV's with the engine running! Even when it is not very hot or very cold. Why not instead shut off the engine and get out into the air - which would be less polluted and more breathable right away by having shut off their engines! The only way I can think of to reduce gas use would be to raise the price. Not a very palatable thought. How could it be made more palatable?
How about if the government explained that a $1 a gallon tax on gasoline would educe pollution which would save everyone money in pollution reduction costs and health costs and also reduce the amount of money being sent abroad which would also reduce everyones taxes elsewhere. The money collected could be put into a fast track clean energy development organization. There are hundreds of thousands of out of work NASA engineers and scientists who could work on it. These are people capable of putting men in Space and sending them to the Moon and Mars. I am sure that they could solve this problem. The rewards would be huge. Cheap, Clean, Domestically produced Energy, less pollution, cleaner air and water, healthier children and adults.
Another way to reduce energy produced from foreign oil without it necessarily costing us more would be to have a progressive price on electricity prices. I envision actually Reducing the price of electricity but then increasing it the more you use. This would strongly encourage people to use less electricity. Turn off lights, turn down the heat, turn up the A/C, install Solar etc.
It could be set up so that the total income to power companies was the same, but less power would be used because people would be encouraged to reduce wasteful use.
Here is a possible way to go. We use about 1,500 units of electric per month - a 1500 sq ft home with 2 people - at 10 cents per unit, price is $150/ month. Lets say we drop the price to 3 cents per unit for the first 100 units, then raise it by a penny a unit for each 100 extra units we use. So the second 100 units would be 4 cents per unit, the next 100 would be 5 cents per unit and so on. By the time I reached my 1500 units I would be paying 17 cents per unit for the last 100 units. This would actually make my bill EXACTLY $150 if I used the same 1500 units of electric.
BUT, obviously I would be using way less than I was before because every time I saved a unit I would be saving 17 cents instead of only 10 cents, so I would be busy saving as much as possible. (Well I would anyway. Maybe very rich people wouldn't, but that would be OK too because when they got to 4,000 units they'd be paying 43 cents a unit! Which would be subsidizing the rest of us!).
However this would not work out for the electric company as their income would drop substantially. We'd probably need to start at 5 or 6 cents a unit and go up from there. Or maybe start at 1 cent a unit and go up a penny every 50 units instead of every 100 units. So I would be at 30 cents a unit by the time we reached our 1500 unit figure. That would still be good, at an average of 15 cents a unit my bill would be $225 if I continued to use 1500 units, which of course I would not!!
If I were saving 30 cents a unit you had better believe that I would be saving every bit of electric that I possibly could. This would most likely give me a bill about the same as I was used to. But of course the country would be doing well because we would be importing considerably less less energy and putting considerably less pollution into our air and our water and our lungs.
And again we'd be sending less money abroad, have more jobs at home and have a cleaner environment. Who would object to that?
But, I also believe that we are being devastated financially by the amount of money we send abroad to buy oil, much of it to our enemies.
It seems to me that yes, coal is dirty, but surely so is oil? Maybe not AS dirty as coal, but at least part way there.
So, my suggestion is this. I hear that we have enough coal in this country to supply our energy needs for centuries. Why don't we work on producing that energy from coal as cleanly as possible? We may not be able to produce Clean Energy from Coal, but surely with our technology - going to the Moon and Mars etc - we can at least produce Cleaner Energy from Coal?
Let's just say that we manage to clean it up to where it is only twice as dirty as oil, I really have no idea if that is possible or not. I do know that Britain survived for hundreds of years using nothing but coal, and very dirty coal at that, and they are still around. We should be able to use "Scrubbers" or whatever to greatly reduce the pollution. This would give us a huge amount of money back in our pockets - not being sent abroad - that we could use to develop a clean energy, from Solar, Wind, Wave, Geo Thermal, Hydrogen etc - all produced in our own country, by our own people. Millions of jobs, here, in the US.
Also we all know that we waste a HUGE amount of energy in the US. One of the reasons for that is that in spite of its cost, energy is still cheap here. Why else would people leave their cars running when they are not even in them, heat their homes to 75 or 80 degrees in the winter and cool them to 65 to 70 degrees in the summer? And of course we were raised to be wasteful.
So the second step in becoming more energy independant would have to be to Use Less Energy. This would have the effect at the same time of producing less pollution. Cut your energy use by 20% - easy - and you reduce pollution by 20%.
But how do you get people to use less energy? I see people waiting by schools for their children, sitting inside of their big SUV's with the engine running! Even when it is not very hot or very cold. Why not instead shut off the engine and get out into the air - which would be less polluted and more breathable right away by having shut off their engines! The only way I can think of to reduce gas use would be to raise the price. Not a very palatable thought. How could it be made more palatable?
How about if the government explained that a $1 a gallon tax on gasoline would educe pollution which would save everyone money in pollution reduction costs and health costs and also reduce the amount of money being sent abroad which would also reduce everyones taxes elsewhere. The money collected could be put into a fast track clean energy development organization. There are hundreds of thousands of out of work NASA engineers and scientists who could work on it. These are people capable of putting men in Space and sending them to the Moon and Mars. I am sure that they could solve this problem. The rewards would be huge. Cheap, Clean, Domestically produced Energy, less pollution, cleaner air and water, healthier children and adults.
Another way to reduce energy produced from foreign oil without it necessarily costing us more would be to have a progressive price on electricity prices. I envision actually Reducing the price of electricity but then increasing it the more you use. This would strongly encourage people to use less electricity. Turn off lights, turn down the heat, turn up the A/C, install Solar etc.
It could be set up so that the total income to power companies was the same, but less power would be used because people would be encouraged to reduce wasteful use.
Here is a possible way to go. We use about 1,500 units of electric per month - a 1500 sq ft home with 2 people - at 10 cents per unit, price is $150/ month. Lets say we drop the price to 3 cents per unit for the first 100 units, then raise it by a penny a unit for each 100 extra units we use. So the second 100 units would be 4 cents per unit, the next 100 would be 5 cents per unit and so on. By the time I reached my 1500 units I would be paying 17 cents per unit for the last 100 units. This would actually make my bill EXACTLY $150 if I used the same 1500 units of electric.
BUT, obviously I would be using way less than I was before because every time I saved a unit I would be saving 17 cents instead of only 10 cents, so I would be busy saving as much as possible. (Well I would anyway. Maybe very rich people wouldn't, but that would be OK too because when they got to 4,000 units they'd be paying 43 cents a unit! Which would be subsidizing the rest of us!).
However this would not work out for the electric company as their income would drop substantially. We'd probably need to start at 5 or 6 cents a unit and go up from there. Or maybe start at 1 cent a unit and go up a penny every 50 units instead of every 100 units. So I would be at 30 cents a unit by the time we reached our 1500 unit figure. That would still be good, at an average of 15 cents a unit my bill would be $225 if I continued to use 1500 units, which of course I would not!!
If I were saving 30 cents a unit you had better believe that I would be saving every bit of electric that I possibly could. This would most likely give me a bill about the same as I was used to. But of course the country would be doing well because we would be importing considerably less less energy and putting considerably less pollution into our air and our water and our lungs.
And again we'd be sending less money abroad, have more jobs at home and have a cleaner environment. Who would object to that?
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Redwoods.
My Grandson Bradley just spent two weeks in Nevada and California. He reports that he travelled the coast of California.
I am jealous. Route 1 up, and down, the coast of California has got to be one of my favorite roads in the whole world. If not my very favorite.
When he reported that he saw the Coastal Redwoods, I remembered.
It is difficult to describe seeing the Redwoods for the first time, or the second time, or even the third or more times. Just thinking about them now I want to go visit again. Yes it is time for a Redwoods fix.
Some people want a drug fix, I want a California coast road and Redwoods fix!
Seeing, standing next to and touching a Redwood is a very sobering experience. Knowing that that tree was there long before your grandparents and even their grandparents were born, and that it will still be there long after you and all of your grandchildren and their grandchildren are gone seriously humbles you.
In a way they are time travellers.
They are awe inspiring.
They are silence personified.
Their size and stature and color are unbelievable.
I love them.
I am jealous. Route 1 up, and down, the coast of California has got to be one of my favorite roads in the whole world. If not my very favorite.
When he reported that he saw the Coastal Redwoods, I remembered.
It is difficult to describe seeing the Redwoods for the first time, or the second time, or even the third or more times. Just thinking about them now I want to go visit again. Yes it is time for a Redwoods fix.
Some people want a drug fix, I want a California coast road and Redwoods fix!
Seeing, standing next to and touching a Redwood is a very sobering experience. Knowing that that tree was there long before your grandparents and even their grandparents were born, and that it will still be there long after you and all of your grandchildren and their grandchildren are gone seriously humbles you.
In a way they are time travellers.
They are awe inspiring.
They are silence personified.
Their size and stature and color are unbelievable.
I love them.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Party or Country?
Let's see, Who could I possibly be thinking about? Partisanship ahead of Patriotism every time. Let me give you a couple more clues, if you need them! Extreme in the extreme, NO compromise, no attempt to comprehend the facts, scorns science. Got it yet? Of course you have.
There is NO attempt at compromise at all. Even George W Bush met with Ted Kennedy and met him halfway on education, And he met up with Harry Reid and Joe Biden to fight AIDS, TB, Malaria and ignorance. Richard Lugar too!! And it happened. Not anymore. Richard Lugar was forced out because he was too ready to compromise. Too moderate. A big no no in todays Republican party.
Obama is ready to compromise, maybe too ready. He praises businessmen, and women, including Warren Buffet. He hosted Steve Job's widow. What do the Republicans do? They speak contemptuously of Liberals, of Unions, they call public schools factories, they mock community organisers, they demonize schools, Social Security and every other public enterprise including firefighters, police, libraries, family planning, health care, anything to help your neigbors ,you name it they hate it and would destroy it. They see compromise as evil.
But compromise is oil and is needed to keep the gears of progress turning. Without the oil of compromise we will seize up. The Republican Party seems to be determined that will happen.
What happened to the balance that we enjoyed for the last 100 years? Both parties could talk, they could discuss, come together, compromise, we were the same country, one people, we fought against tryanny and oppression together. Now the Republican Party and especially the Tea Party are determined to have no compromise, no discussions of any kind.
a
We need to vote out these our way or no way "politicians", these politicians who even give politicians a bad name! A government of compromise is the way to go. Certainly it is way ahead of no government as the Republicans seem to prefer.
There is NO attempt at compromise at all. Even George W Bush met with Ted Kennedy and met him halfway on education, And he met up with Harry Reid and Joe Biden to fight AIDS, TB, Malaria and ignorance. Richard Lugar too!! And it happened. Not anymore. Richard Lugar was forced out because he was too ready to compromise. Too moderate. A big no no in todays Republican party.
Obama is ready to compromise, maybe too ready. He praises businessmen, and women, including Warren Buffet. He hosted Steve Job's widow. What do the Republicans do? They speak contemptuously of Liberals, of Unions, they call public schools factories, they mock community organisers, they demonize schools, Social Security and every other public enterprise including firefighters, police, libraries, family planning, health care, anything to help your neigbors ,you name it they hate it and would destroy it. They see compromise as evil.
But compromise is oil and is needed to keep the gears of progress turning. Without the oil of compromise we will seize up. The Republican Party seems to be determined that will happen.
What happened to the balance that we enjoyed for the last 100 years? Both parties could talk, they could discuss, come together, compromise, we were the same country, one people, we fought against tryanny and oppression together. Now the Republican Party and especially the Tea Party are determined to have no compromise, no discussions of any kind.
a
We need to vote out these our way or no way "politicians", these politicians who even give politicians a bad name! A government of compromise is the way to go. Certainly it is way ahead of no government as the Republicans seem to prefer.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
It's time for that test again.
Yes it has been 10 years since I had that test done. Ten happy carefree years. My doctor reminded me of this just last week and told me that it that time again. She gave me the doctors address and phone number and told me to call him and set it up.
Now surely she MUST know that I am not going to do that. Why would I? I imagine myself making the call to their office, "Hello this is Drs Mengele, Himmler and Eichman's office, can we help you?" Me, "Hello is that Dr Eichman? I'd like you to stick a tube the size of a large drainpipe up my rear end and then charge me a lot of money for doing it. Is that OK with you?"
Why don't they do it the smart way? "Dr Eichman will call you to set up an appointment." That would be a much better way. You know you should have it done and if he calls you, well you might as well set it up.
I can remember the last time. First they give you a five gallon jug of Atomic Laxative that tastes as though it was something dredged up out of my neighbors septic tank and tell you to drink it all down within 3 hours. They also tell you to stay close to home! Well after a short while "home" was my downstairs toilet. I had cleared any obstacles that were in the way of a fast trip to said toilet. I had set up a small TV in there along with disposable newspapers and magazines and a large economy sized roll of super absorbent Bounty. I covered the floor with a thick layer of old newspapers. Later I even taped papers to the walls to a height of about two feet. Even later I made that four feet.
Day dragged into night. Daytime arrived and I went to meet my tormentor. The deed was done.
Clean up time. Over the next week or so I cleaned up the bathroom. Over the following weeks I found more areas that needed cleaning, such as behind the toilet, the walls above four feet high, inside of closets. Finally somewhere around 6 months to a year later I glanced up at the ceiling! Surely not? How could that possibly be?
I am wondering if the next time I should rent a hotel room for the ordeal. It would need to be a hotel chain that I don't normally use. And I would need to use a false name.
What to do, what to do? The thought occupies my every waking moment. I can't work, I can't sleep. I try to think how the Doctor lives with it but it does not help.
Eventually it must be done. But not yet.
Now surely she MUST know that I am not going to do that. Why would I? I imagine myself making the call to their office, "Hello this is Drs Mengele, Himmler and Eichman's office, can we help you?" Me, "Hello is that Dr Eichman? I'd like you to stick a tube the size of a large drainpipe up my rear end and then charge me a lot of money for doing it. Is that OK with you?"
Why don't they do it the smart way? "Dr Eichman will call you to set up an appointment." That would be a much better way. You know you should have it done and if he calls you, well you might as well set it up.
I can remember the last time. First they give you a five gallon jug of Atomic Laxative that tastes as though it was something dredged up out of my neighbors septic tank and tell you to drink it all down within 3 hours. They also tell you to stay close to home! Well after a short while "home" was my downstairs toilet. I had cleared any obstacles that were in the way of a fast trip to said toilet. I had set up a small TV in there along with disposable newspapers and magazines and a large economy sized roll of super absorbent Bounty. I covered the floor with a thick layer of old newspapers. Later I even taped papers to the walls to a height of about two feet. Even later I made that four feet.
Day dragged into night. Daytime arrived and I went to meet my tormentor. The deed was done.
Clean up time. Over the next week or so I cleaned up the bathroom. Over the following weeks I found more areas that needed cleaning, such as behind the toilet, the walls above four feet high, inside of closets. Finally somewhere around 6 months to a year later I glanced up at the ceiling! Surely not? How could that possibly be?
I am wondering if the next time I should rent a hotel room for the ordeal. It would need to be a hotel chain that I don't normally use. And I would need to use a false name.
What to do, what to do? The thought occupies my every waking moment. I can't work, I can't sleep. I try to think how the Doctor lives with it but it does not help.
Eventually it must be done. But not yet.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Don't shoot.
"Don't shoot please." I said to the young boy with his BB gun trained on a small bird. He stopped and looked at me. "Can we talk for a couple of minutes? " I said and he just sort of nodded.
You may not believe this but when I was your age we would wake up in the morning to the sounds of hundreds of birds. We called it The Dawn Chorus and sometimes we actually got annoyed at them, it could be so loud. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of different birds singing seemingly trying to outdo each other. There were Larks, Flycatchers, Chickadees, Wrens, Thrushes, Waxwings, Warblers, Finches, Blackbirds, Bluebirds, Tanagers, Orioles, Grosbeaks, Sparrows, Starlings, Swallows, Jays, Nuthatch, Robins, Hummingbirds, Cardinals, Buntings, Goldfinch, and a whole bunch more.
I cannot remember the last time that I saw many of these birds. Some may already be extinct, certainly they are all greatly reduced in number and range. Even the common sparrow of which there must have been millions or even billions has been declared almost extinct in parts of the United Kingdom and I can't recall seeing one for years here in the US.
Yours may be the last generation to see birds. I daresay some of the tougher more commom ones like the Grackles and Crows will survive for a while longer, but even you may not get to see many of the brightly colored small perching songbirds that I mentioned.
You may wonder where they have gone. No, they were not shot by small boys with BB guns. Most have been killed by insecticides that are produced by giant chemical companies.
When I was a child we had an "Insecticide" called birds. Birds ate insects, but not all of them, there is a balance in nature. Surely the birds are not intelligent enough to know that if they eat every last insect there will be nothing for breakfast tomorrow! But sometimes it seems that way.
Every once in a while there would be an outbreak of insects that even the birds could not keep up with. Nature balanced this situation too. When there was a plague of insects they would eat up all the food - and die. Of course that was not a satisfactory balance for farmers!
So the Chemical Companies came up with poisons to kill the insects. These were of course called Insecticides. They worked well. Unfortunately there were now many dead insects laying around on the ground and this was of course a bonanza for the birds. Instead of having to fly from plant to plant and hop from leaf to leaf to eat their meal of insects all they had to do was eat them up right off of the ground.
The manufacturers assured us that the insecticides were not toxic to humans, or pets, or birds, or fish, or you name it. And we believed them!! But of course they were. A bird cannot eat hundreds of dead insects that died by ingesting poison and not be affected. Some died right there and then, others were affected in other ways such as changing their ability to mate, changing their sex, reducing the number of their offspring and the offspring's viability. The eggs of some birds were so thin that they broke when the females sat on them. Other problems gradually reduced the numbers of birds. So of course with less birds to keep their numbers down insects proliferated.
This was a huge bonanza for the chemical companies who were now "Forced" to produce more insecticides.
Soon the insects became immune to the poisons. No problem. More and stronger insecticdes came out. Now they were not just used when insects were a problem they were used even before there was a problem - "Just in case", or "To prevent an outbreak from happening."
Before the advent of insecticides there was never a real problem with insects. Nature had natural balances. There were the birds. There were also "Good" insects that ate "Bad" insects and doubtless there were other natural controls. Yes sometimes there would be an outbreak that would very costly to farmers, but insecticides are costly too. If you have an insect problem every 10 years would it cost more than buying and applying insecticides for 10 years?
In my garden if I see a larger than usual number of insects like Japanese beetles or caterpillars I take a small can, put an inch or two of water in it and a few drops of cooking oil on top of the water (Not engine oil) then I walk around picking off the offeneding insects and dropping them into the can where they quickly drown. In my case I then give the insects to my chickens who greatly appreciate them but you could just drop them onto your bird table - you do have a table for feeding the birds right?
There are still some birds around, mostly Blackbirds, Grackles and Crows and there is still the occasional songbird to be seen. But not many.
So, the insecticides have killed off our bird population. The insecticdes, weedkillers and fertilizers that we put onto our lawns and garden wash into the rivers and then into the Bay where it kills our underwater grasses and our fish (Fish are highly susceptible to insecticides and weedkillers.)
I doubt if they are doing us any good either. Our children seem to suffer from an unusually large number of ailments that I don't remember when I was a kid such as asthma, ADHD, ear infections, etc.
So to reiterate, they kill birds, fish and maybe even us, but they don't kill insects!!
How do insects overcome poisons? It is a simple matter of selection. Insects have very short life cycles. There can be several generations in a single season. This is what can happen. The poison is sprayed. A few insects don't die, maybe ones on the outside of the spray area get a smaller dose. Most die, some don't. The ones that survive mate. Some of their offspring are more resistant to the poison. Next spray cycle the same thing happens, a few of the more resistant insects survive. Next time even more. Only the ones that are resistant survive to breed, the others die. Each time the survivors are more and more resistant and there are more and more of them. Soon, very soon, it is time to use heavier doses to kill the insects. This also kills more birds - our natural "insecticide" and more fish and makes us and our children sicker.
But again of course that is fine with the Chemical Companies because they have armys of people producing more and stronger and more varied poisons. At higher prices and greater profits.
The American Consumer helps the Chemical companies out because they will only purchase "Perfect" fruits and vegtables, anything with a blemish is rejected. So the farmer is forced to use more and more poisons to be sure that there are NO apples, or beans, or squash with the slightest blemish on them or we won't buy them.
Consider my feelings on this - if an insect does not want to take a bite out of that apple or tomato why should I want to? Apparently the insect finds the fruit or vegetable unappetising, because it has been sprayed with poison, or all the insects that would bite it are dead from the poison. Now I am going to eat what the insect didn't or couldn't eat?
Just saying.
Anyway please don't shoot that bird.
You may not believe this but when I was your age we would wake up in the morning to the sounds of hundreds of birds. We called it The Dawn Chorus and sometimes we actually got annoyed at them, it could be so loud. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of different birds singing seemingly trying to outdo each other. There were Larks, Flycatchers, Chickadees, Wrens, Thrushes, Waxwings, Warblers, Finches, Blackbirds, Bluebirds, Tanagers, Orioles, Grosbeaks, Sparrows, Starlings, Swallows, Jays, Nuthatch, Robins, Hummingbirds, Cardinals, Buntings, Goldfinch, and a whole bunch more.
I cannot remember the last time that I saw many of these birds. Some may already be extinct, certainly they are all greatly reduced in number and range. Even the common sparrow of which there must have been millions or even billions has been declared almost extinct in parts of the United Kingdom and I can't recall seeing one for years here in the US.
Yours may be the last generation to see birds. I daresay some of the tougher more commom ones like the Grackles and Crows will survive for a while longer, but even you may not get to see many of the brightly colored small perching songbirds that I mentioned.
You may wonder where they have gone. No, they were not shot by small boys with BB guns. Most have been killed by insecticides that are produced by giant chemical companies.
When I was a child we had an "Insecticide" called birds. Birds ate insects, but not all of them, there is a balance in nature. Surely the birds are not intelligent enough to know that if they eat every last insect there will be nothing for breakfast tomorrow! But sometimes it seems that way.
Every once in a while there would be an outbreak of insects that even the birds could not keep up with. Nature balanced this situation too. When there was a plague of insects they would eat up all the food - and die. Of course that was not a satisfactory balance for farmers!
So the Chemical Companies came up with poisons to kill the insects. These were of course called Insecticides. They worked well. Unfortunately there were now many dead insects laying around on the ground and this was of course a bonanza for the birds. Instead of having to fly from plant to plant and hop from leaf to leaf to eat their meal of insects all they had to do was eat them up right off of the ground.
The manufacturers assured us that the insecticides were not toxic to humans, or pets, or birds, or fish, or you name it. And we believed them!! But of course they were. A bird cannot eat hundreds of dead insects that died by ingesting poison and not be affected. Some died right there and then, others were affected in other ways such as changing their ability to mate, changing their sex, reducing the number of their offspring and the offspring's viability. The eggs of some birds were so thin that they broke when the females sat on them. Other problems gradually reduced the numbers of birds. So of course with less birds to keep their numbers down insects proliferated.
This was a huge bonanza for the chemical companies who were now "Forced" to produce more insecticides.
Soon the insects became immune to the poisons. No problem. More and stronger insecticdes came out. Now they were not just used when insects were a problem they were used even before there was a problem - "Just in case", or "To prevent an outbreak from happening."
Before the advent of insecticides there was never a real problem with insects. Nature had natural balances. There were the birds. There were also "Good" insects that ate "Bad" insects and doubtless there were other natural controls. Yes sometimes there would be an outbreak that would very costly to farmers, but insecticides are costly too. If you have an insect problem every 10 years would it cost more than buying and applying insecticides for 10 years?
In my garden if I see a larger than usual number of insects like Japanese beetles or caterpillars I take a small can, put an inch or two of water in it and a few drops of cooking oil on top of the water (Not engine oil) then I walk around picking off the offeneding insects and dropping them into the can where they quickly drown. In my case I then give the insects to my chickens who greatly appreciate them but you could just drop them onto your bird table - you do have a table for feeding the birds right?
There are still some birds around, mostly Blackbirds, Grackles and Crows and there is still the occasional songbird to be seen. But not many.
So, the insecticides have killed off our bird population. The insecticdes, weedkillers and fertilizers that we put onto our lawns and garden wash into the rivers and then into the Bay where it kills our underwater grasses and our fish (Fish are highly susceptible to insecticides and weedkillers.)
I doubt if they are doing us any good either. Our children seem to suffer from an unusually large number of ailments that I don't remember when I was a kid such as asthma, ADHD, ear infections, etc.
So to reiterate, they kill birds, fish and maybe even us, but they don't kill insects!!
How do insects overcome poisons? It is a simple matter of selection. Insects have very short life cycles. There can be several generations in a single season. This is what can happen. The poison is sprayed. A few insects don't die, maybe ones on the outside of the spray area get a smaller dose. Most die, some don't. The ones that survive mate. Some of their offspring are more resistant to the poison. Next spray cycle the same thing happens, a few of the more resistant insects survive. Next time even more. Only the ones that are resistant survive to breed, the others die. Each time the survivors are more and more resistant and there are more and more of them. Soon, very soon, it is time to use heavier doses to kill the insects. This also kills more birds - our natural "insecticide" and more fish and makes us and our children sicker.
But again of course that is fine with the Chemical Companies because they have armys of people producing more and stronger and more varied poisons. At higher prices and greater profits.
The American Consumer helps the Chemical companies out because they will only purchase "Perfect" fruits and vegtables, anything with a blemish is rejected. So the farmer is forced to use more and more poisons to be sure that there are NO apples, or beans, or squash with the slightest blemish on them or we won't buy them.
Consider my feelings on this - if an insect does not want to take a bite out of that apple or tomato why should I want to? Apparently the insect finds the fruit or vegetable unappetising, because it has been sprayed with poison, or all the insects that would bite it are dead from the poison. Now I am going to eat what the insect didn't or couldn't eat?
Just saying.
Anyway please don't shoot that bird.
Monday, July 23, 2012
21 TRILLION Dollars.
A new report out in Britain says that there is at least 21 Trillion dollars in tax havens around the world today. And probably more.
Twenty one Trillion dollars is a lot of money.
Here's one way of imagining it. If you had 21 Trillion dollars you could give $3,000 to every single one of the 7 Billion people in this world! That is every one of the 1.3 billion Chinese, every one of the 1 billion Indians, every one of the billions in Africa, the Americas and every other country in the world. $3,000 to every single one of them. And still have $3,000 left over for yourself.
Another way to look at it, you could give $70,000 to every single one of the 300 million in the US. So my daughter with her husband and 4 sons would receive 6 times $70,000, or $420,000.
From this it is apparent to me that the Very Rich are not using their immense fortunes to create jobs as we are constantly being told. Instead they are hoarding it, and hiding it, in tax havens. And if we cut their taxes even more, if that is possible, as 150 million Republicans want to do, they would not create more jobs, they would sock away even more money into tax havens.
For some very obscure reason this is perfectly OK with the majority of Republicans. Is this because they expect one day to be in a similar situation, with millions, or billions to hide from the tax man? Or because they think that it is fair for one percent of the population to own 50 % of its wealth? Do they really think that it is OK for the average person in the top 1% in income to pay on average 16% in tax while the other 99% pay an average 30 % tax? Or are they just plain stupid?
Twenty one Trillion dollars is a lot of money.
Here's one way of imagining it. If you had 21 Trillion dollars you could give $3,000 to every single one of the 7 Billion people in this world! That is every one of the 1.3 billion Chinese, every one of the 1 billion Indians, every one of the billions in Africa, the Americas and every other country in the world. $3,000 to every single one of them. And still have $3,000 left over for yourself.
Another way to look at it, you could give $70,000 to every single one of the 300 million in the US. So my daughter with her husband and 4 sons would receive 6 times $70,000, or $420,000.
From this it is apparent to me that the Very Rich are not using their immense fortunes to create jobs as we are constantly being told. Instead they are hoarding it, and hiding it, in tax havens. And if we cut their taxes even more, if that is possible, as 150 million Republicans want to do, they would not create more jobs, they would sock away even more money into tax havens.
For some very obscure reason this is perfectly OK with the majority of Republicans. Is this because they expect one day to be in a similar situation, with millions, or billions to hide from the tax man? Or because they think that it is fair for one percent of the population to own 50 % of its wealth? Do they really think that it is OK for the average person in the top 1% in income to pay on average 16% in tax while the other 99% pay an average 30 % tax? Or are they just plain stupid?
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Rain.
We recently went to the UK for 3 weeks. While there it rained every day. Except the last day when it was 73 degrees - the warmest day of our visit. Even for the UK this was some kind of record.
The stories of the storms are too numerous to list, but a few are worth mentioning - like the storm that had over 100,000 lightning strikes. Like the heavy rains that produced landslides, washed railways and roads out and flooded towns and villages that had never been flooded before.
The TV showed scenes of houses half under water, cars completely under water, people swimming for their lives, people paddling around their neighborhoods in kayaks, canoes and boats.
While it did rain every day, except the last, it did not rain all day and we were able to visit with friends and relatives. There were days with sunny spells and even days with more sun than rain. But overall it was a pretty damp trip. We did have to cancel a visit to our friend Gill Coyne who lives in the beautiful Dartmoor National Park. We did not cancel because the main road to Devon was closed because of floods. It was, and for more than a week. Or even because of other roads on the way there closed by more floods and even landslides. No we had to cancel because of a bad knee, my left knee, which forced me to limp around with a cane, take lots of anti-inflamatory and pain killing drugs and visit the A&E (Accident and Emergency) Department of the local hospital - in the middle of the night. Other "exciting" episodes of our trip includeed taking my father to the hospital in an ambulance. The same hospital that I had gone to the previous day, after he fell and hit his head badly. I stayed with him until 4.00 am at which time they admitted him. We picked him up the next day. Meanwhile it would appear that because the UK had aquired the rights to all the worlds rainfall, the USA had fallen into its worst drought in 60 years. (I should maybe mention here that earlier in the year the UK was also in a bad drought and had a hosepipe ban in force. In the UK! The ban was not raised until the reservoirs were filled - which took 2 months of virtually continuous rain!) Two days after we left for our trip to England a massive storm hit the East Coast of the the US and more than 3 million homes in the Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland area were without power for up to 8 to 10 days. At the same time, wouldn't you know it, a heat wave struck and temperatures soared to over 100 degrees. No A/C and temperatures of as much as 105 and more! Our daughter's home was among the 3 million affected. In an unusual, and fortuitous, case our house did NOT lose power. (In any weather or accident situation our community is usually the first to lose electricity), so our daughter was able to come over and borrow our generator. Luckily they had a window A/C, which they installed in their bedroom window, so the whole family was able to spend cool nights together in one bedroom. During our 3 weeks of rain in the UK the Maryland weather managed to produce less than an inch of rainfall. So while the UK had it's wettest time ever, the US had it's driest period in 60 years. Go figure. We returned to a dry landscape with shriveled shrubs, dead flowers and window boxes and a brown lawn. That was Tuesday night. On Thursday night we had a big wind, lightning and rain storm at about 9 pm. The rain was so heavy that we could not even see the other side of The Lake and at times we could not see The Lake, which is less than 100 feet from our house. At about 11 pm we had another similar storm. The wind was lashing the trees about so badlly that I fully expected to lose a lot of them. In fact we only had a few branches down. The next morning I went out and checked buckets that are scattered around the property. We had received 4 1/4 inches of rain from the 2 storms! Friday dawned wet. It rained several times on Friday. But it was only minor - maybe a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch in all. Today, Saturday, it is raining again. Checking the weather in the UK I see that it is expected to be sunny with temperatures in the 70's. Is the rain following us? Should we think about renting ourselves out to drought stricken areas?
The stories of the storms are too numerous to list, but a few are worth mentioning - like the storm that had over 100,000 lightning strikes. Like the heavy rains that produced landslides, washed railways and roads out and flooded towns and villages that had never been flooded before.
The TV showed scenes of houses half under water, cars completely under water, people swimming for their lives, people paddling around their neighborhoods in kayaks, canoes and boats.
While it did rain every day, except the last, it did not rain all day and we were able to visit with friends and relatives. There were days with sunny spells and even days with more sun than rain. But overall it was a pretty damp trip. We did have to cancel a visit to our friend Gill Coyne who lives in the beautiful Dartmoor National Park. We did not cancel because the main road to Devon was closed because of floods. It was, and for more than a week. Or even because of other roads on the way there closed by more floods and even landslides. No we had to cancel because of a bad knee, my left knee, which forced me to limp around with a cane, take lots of anti-inflamatory and pain killing drugs and visit the A&E (Accident and Emergency) Department of the local hospital - in the middle of the night. Other "exciting" episodes of our trip includeed taking my father to the hospital in an ambulance. The same hospital that I had gone to the previous day, after he fell and hit his head badly. I stayed with him until 4.00 am at which time they admitted him. We picked him up the next day. Meanwhile it would appear that because the UK had aquired the rights to all the worlds rainfall, the USA had fallen into its worst drought in 60 years. (I should maybe mention here that earlier in the year the UK was also in a bad drought and had a hosepipe ban in force. In the UK! The ban was not raised until the reservoirs were filled - which took 2 months of virtually continuous rain!) Two days after we left for our trip to England a massive storm hit the East Coast of the the US and more than 3 million homes in the Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland area were without power for up to 8 to 10 days. At the same time, wouldn't you know it, a heat wave struck and temperatures soared to over 100 degrees. No A/C and temperatures of as much as 105 and more! Our daughter's home was among the 3 million affected. In an unusual, and fortuitous, case our house did NOT lose power. (In any weather or accident situation our community is usually the first to lose electricity), so our daughter was able to come over and borrow our generator. Luckily they had a window A/C, which they installed in their bedroom window, so the whole family was able to spend cool nights together in one bedroom. During our 3 weeks of rain in the UK the Maryland weather managed to produce less than an inch of rainfall. So while the UK had it's wettest time ever, the US had it's driest period in 60 years. Go figure. We returned to a dry landscape with shriveled shrubs, dead flowers and window boxes and a brown lawn. That was Tuesday night. On Thursday night we had a big wind, lightning and rain storm at about 9 pm. The rain was so heavy that we could not even see the other side of The Lake and at times we could not see The Lake, which is less than 100 feet from our house. At about 11 pm we had another similar storm. The wind was lashing the trees about so badlly that I fully expected to lose a lot of them. In fact we only had a few branches down. The next morning I went out and checked buckets that are scattered around the property. We had received 4 1/4 inches of rain from the 2 storms! Friday dawned wet. It rained several times on Friday. But it was only minor - maybe a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch in all. Today, Saturday, it is raining again. Checking the weather in the UK I see that it is expected to be sunny with temperatures in the 70's. Is the rain following us? Should we think about renting ourselves out to drought stricken areas?
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The Snake on The Lake.
As you know my beautiful wife Julia and I live on The Most Beautiful Lake in the Whole Wide World. Well maybe. Certainly it is very beautiful.
Anyway, to facilitate exploring The Lake we have two kayaks and two paddle boats. A few days ago our neighbors Mike & Christine came over and asked if their daughter and her boyfriend could use the kayaks.
Of course we said yes, and the young couple climbed into the kayaks, without falling into the water, a not inconsiderable accomplishment. I myself usually fall in once out of every 2 or 3 times that I use a kayak! Once you are seated in the boat, no problem, getting in, without falling into the water, problem.
They set off. After 20 minutes or so they returned, and exited the kayaks, again without falling in. (We were standing by with cameras at the ready.)
Next they launched our "Racing Paddle Boat", after first remembering to put the twin drain plugs in place, were this couple not going to screw up at all?
Now, did I forget to mention that Holly's boyfriend is afraid of snakes? Apparently that may be an understatement, it seems he is absolutely, unnaturally, terrified of them. As an aside here, Holly is afraid, but not terrified, of spiders.
They climbed into the boat, which is quite stable, (and doubtless full of spiders.) it wobbles, but remains firmly upright, and they set off. When they were no more than 15 or 20 feet from the pier I spotted a small snake swimming through the water in the typical snake way - a sort of wriggling sinuous swimming motion. Now I like snakes, unless they are actually biting me that is. This one was cute, maybe 18 inches long and not at all agressive looking, Certainly not what I would call a serpent. We see so little of wildlife in our day to day living nowadays that whenever I do see something, anything, in any way connected with nature, I feel compelled to draw everyone's attention.
I did so. Completely forgetting about Brians fear of vipers. To be fair to myself I had only just learned of this phobia mere minutes before, how could I be expected to keep such useless information in my already overloaded, and old, brain, about the foibles of strangers? I did what I usually do in such circumstances, I shouted out "Look a snake", at the same time pointing at the little creature. Maybe I should have said quietly "Hey look a cute, harmless, non-poisonous little snake who is just swimming along doing no one any harm." but I didn't, I shouted "Look a snake." From Brian's reaction you would have thought I had just screamed out "Watch out, a huge venemous Anaconda about 20 feet long, or maybe it's a Mamba, but whatever it is, it's chasing your boat, overtaking you at a rapid pace, and will shortly catch and eat you both. Oh and did I mention that this Python will crush you first before it drags you down to it's underwater lair where it will devour you?"
Well as I said, from his reaction that is at least what he heard! His hand went to his chest. Heart attack? No problem I was trained in CPR. He started to stand up, the boat rocked. Surely he wan't planning on exiting the boat. That would mean entering the water, the water that contained his arch enemy, the villain, Snakeman. But he didn't, instead he thought better of it and sat down.
Everyone tried to calm him, with soothing pleas, explaining that IT was swimming in the opposite direction to them. That IT was small and harmless and couldn't hurt him. All designed to calm him down. Of course in his mind we were safe on dry land, while he was floating on a sea of venemous snakes, whose sole reason for being, was to get Brian.
Well I MIGHT have said something about it possibly being a Cottonmouth, one of America;s most poisonous snakes, but I didn't mean it. No I didn't.
Anyway, he evntually got himself under control with the help of Holly. It did occur to me after seeing the ministrations of Holly, that Brian might be putting the whole thing on! But I don't think so.
They paddled off. With Brian's head anxiously swivelling from side to side. One never knew when a Sea Monster would rise from the depths of The Lake. (Deepest point thought to be six feet, but mostly 3 to 4 feet.)
They returned safely in another 20 minutes or so. Brian departing the environs of The lake with obvious relief.
I later heard from Mike that Brian's story to his friends included a monstrous snake at least four feet long.
What are people thinking of when they exagerate things? I, of course, would never even dream of doing anything like that.
David.
Anyway, to facilitate exploring The Lake we have two kayaks and two paddle boats. A few days ago our neighbors Mike & Christine came over and asked if their daughter and her boyfriend could use the kayaks.
Of course we said yes, and the young couple climbed into the kayaks, without falling into the water, a not inconsiderable accomplishment. I myself usually fall in once out of every 2 or 3 times that I use a kayak! Once you are seated in the boat, no problem, getting in, without falling into the water, problem.
They set off. After 20 minutes or so they returned, and exited the kayaks, again without falling in. (We were standing by with cameras at the ready.)
Next they launched our "Racing Paddle Boat", after first remembering to put the twin drain plugs in place, were this couple not going to screw up at all?
Now, did I forget to mention that Holly's boyfriend is afraid of snakes? Apparently that may be an understatement, it seems he is absolutely, unnaturally, terrified of them. As an aside here, Holly is afraid, but not terrified, of spiders.
They climbed into the boat, which is quite stable, (and doubtless full of spiders.) it wobbles, but remains firmly upright, and they set off. When they were no more than 15 or 20 feet from the pier I spotted a small snake swimming through the water in the typical snake way - a sort of wriggling sinuous swimming motion. Now I like snakes, unless they are actually biting me that is. This one was cute, maybe 18 inches long and not at all agressive looking, Certainly not what I would call a serpent. We see so little of wildlife in our day to day living nowadays that whenever I do see something, anything, in any way connected with nature, I feel compelled to draw everyone's attention.
I did so. Completely forgetting about Brians fear of vipers. To be fair to myself I had only just learned of this phobia mere minutes before, how could I be expected to keep such useless information in my already overloaded, and old, brain, about the foibles of strangers? I did what I usually do in such circumstances, I shouted out "Look a snake", at the same time pointing at the little creature. Maybe I should have said quietly "Hey look a cute, harmless, non-poisonous little snake who is just swimming along doing no one any harm." but I didn't, I shouted "Look a snake." From Brian's reaction you would have thought I had just screamed out "Watch out, a huge venemous Anaconda about 20 feet long, or maybe it's a Mamba, but whatever it is, it's chasing your boat, overtaking you at a rapid pace, and will shortly catch and eat you both. Oh and did I mention that this Python will crush you first before it drags you down to it's underwater lair where it will devour you?"
Well as I said, from his reaction that is at least what he heard! His hand went to his chest. Heart attack? No problem I was trained in CPR. He started to stand up, the boat rocked. Surely he wan't planning on exiting the boat. That would mean entering the water, the water that contained his arch enemy, the villain, Snakeman. But he didn't, instead he thought better of it and sat down.
Everyone tried to calm him, with soothing pleas, explaining that IT was swimming in the opposite direction to them. That IT was small and harmless and couldn't hurt him. All designed to calm him down. Of course in his mind we were safe on dry land, while he was floating on a sea of venemous snakes, whose sole reason for being, was to get Brian.
Well I MIGHT have said something about it possibly being a Cottonmouth, one of America;s most poisonous snakes, but I didn't mean it. No I didn't.
Anyway, he evntually got himself under control with the help of Holly. It did occur to me after seeing the ministrations of Holly, that Brian might be putting the whole thing on! But I don't think so.
They paddled off. With Brian's head anxiously swivelling from side to side. One never knew when a Sea Monster would rise from the depths of The Lake. (Deepest point thought to be six feet, but mostly 3 to 4 feet.)
They returned safely in another 20 minutes or so. Brian departing the environs of The lake with obvious relief.
I later heard from Mike that Brian's story to his friends included a monstrous snake at least four feet long.
What are people thinking of when they exagerate things? I, of course, would never even dream of doing anything like that.
David.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
A dissapointment, or not?
A dissapointment, or not? We will never know. Monty just found out that his brother Walter, is a girl!
How could this happen?
A brief Biography of Monty's life. He was born on the Eastern Shore to a wayward stray named Naomi after being found by friends wandering shamelessly around the neighborhood cohorting with any Tomcat that would have her. But they took her in anyway. Our friends thought she was a little sort of pudgy looking but it took their 18 year old son to point out that she was pregnant!
Anyway, Naomi susequently gave birth to 4 little balls of fur that were as cute as anything. Julia went to see them and the one who was later to be separated from his siblings and emigrate to our home on the Western Shore and be named Monty - after her first cat (Because she thinks this will be her last cat, and that would tidy things up nicely.) and also after Field Marshall Montgomery of World War II, El Alamein, North Africa fame. Quite a reputation to live up to! But he is proving that he would have made an excellent Field Marshal had he had the chance!
Anyway the same friends who could not diagnose a pregnant cat it turns out could also not tell the difference between male and female cats! Thank God neither of them are doctors.
Meanwhile Monty has had his manhood taken away - which has not slowed him down at all.
I wonder if Walter is gay? There are two other unfortunate brothers/sisters, will their genders ever be known? Has their mother been fixed? Is the world flat? All questions for people far more intelligent than those who live on the Eastern Shore.
Just kidding.
How could this happen?
A brief Biography of Monty's life. He was born on the Eastern Shore to a wayward stray named Naomi after being found by friends wandering shamelessly around the neighborhood cohorting with any Tomcat that would have her. But they took her in anyway. Our friends thought she was a little sort of pudgy looking but it took their 18 year old son to point out that she was pregnant!
Anyway, Naomi susequently gave birth to 4 little balls of fur that were as cute as anything. Julia went to see them and the one who was later to be separated from his siblings and emigrate to our home on the Western Shore and be named Monty - after her first cat (Because she thinks this will be her last cat, and that would tidy things up nicely.) and also after Field Marshall Montgomery of World War II, El Alamein, North Africa fame. Quite a reputation to live up to! But he is proving that he would have made an excellent Field Marshal had he had the chance!
Anyway the same friends who could not diagnose a pregnant cat it turns out could also not tell the difference between male and female cats! Thank God neither of them are doctors.
Meanwhile Monty has had his manhood taken away - which has not slowed him down at all.
I wonder if Walter is gay? There are two other unfortunate brothers/sisters, will their genders ever be known? Has their mother been fixed? Is the world flat? All questions for people far more intelligent than those who live on the Eastern Shore.
Just kidding.
Friday, June 8, 2012
June 6th D Day.
Well two days ago was June 6th, D-Day. I mentioned it to someone that day and they said "What is that?"!
No Comment.
It just so happened that our new cat Monty - how appropriate is THAT name for June 6th?! - was going to the vet for his own "D-Day"! We dropped him off at 8.00 am for his operation. He'd had nothing to eat or drink since 10.00pm the previous night, poor little guy.
Julia named him Monty because Monty had been her first cat and she figured that this Monty would be her last cat! And yes the first Monty WAS named after Field Marshall Montgomery of World War II fame.
We picked him up from the vets at 4.00pm. He was a little sleepy, but not as much as we expected. He was shall we say, subdued, until the next morning, at which time you would not have known anything had happened, although Julia swears that he doesn't "Talk" to her now!
Anyway, all seems to be pretty much back to normal now.
Today, Friday June 8th, was Graduation Day for our number four grandson Jonny. He recived The Presidents Award - for having a GPA over 3.5 and also another award which I am not sure about. It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 80 degrees.
We just heard that this spring was the warmest since they started keeping records.
No Comment.
It just so happened that our new cat Monty - how appropriate is THAT name for June 6th?! - was going to the vet for his own "D-Day"! We dropped him off at 8.00 am for his operation. He'd had nothing to eat or drink since 10.00pm the previous night, poor little guy.
Julia named him Monty because Monty had been her first cat and she figured that this Monty would be her last cat! And yes the first Monty WAS named after Field Marshall Montgomery of World War II fame.
We picked him up from the vets at 4.00pm. He was a little sleepy, but not as much as we expected. He was shall we say, subdued, until the next morning, at which time you would not have known anything had happened, although Julia swears that he doesn't "Talk" to her now!
Anyway, all seems to be pretty much back to normal now.
Today, Friday June 8th, was Graduation Day for our number four grandson Jonny. He recived The Presidents Award - for having a GPA over 3.5 and also another award which I am not sure about. It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 80 degrees.
We just heard that this spring was the warmest since they started keeping records.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Miscellaneous.
Well it has finally got very hot, we were hoping to wait until June 1st before we finally broke down and turned on the A/C. But that was not to be. It reached 90 degrees plus over the weekend. We held out until Monday (May 28th) when we had visitors coming over, so we had to turn on the A/C. We have found 78 degrees to be a comfortable setting for us. It removes the humidity which is the major problem with the Maryland heat. Due to the even worse ecomomy, well as far as we are concerned anyway, we have turned our unit up to 80 degrees. This is not too bad, we dress very lightly and if someone comes to visit we turn it down to 78 which seems very comfortable. We turn it up to 80 at night. It has been cooler than that at night anyway. And if there is any kind of a breeze we turn the A/C off, or up to 85 so that it won't come on, and open the windows, which have screens, for a through draft.
News from The Lake is that we now have three Swans! This has happened before, but not for long as the male Swan has attacked the intruder and driven him (her?) off. This time however the three seem to have made a truce and are living a peaceful co-existance. Once again there is no sign of any offspring from the pair. I took one the paddle boats and one of the kayaks out a few weeks ago, along with a grandson to see if the Swan was on her nest, and she was. But I think they have given up on any hope of a young swan Cygnet. As usual I am sure that the DNR oiled the egg(s) again. Julia is very dissapointed as she would love to see some baby swans on The Lake, but I think she understands that it is not to be. They are non-native and do considerable harm to the environment, eating a lot of weed that the Bay simply has too little of already.
The 60th Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second is to be held this week in London, so I am sure that we, along with millions of other ExPat Brits will be glued to their TV's. It should be interesting and enjoyable.
Gas prices in the area continue to drop. Today at the local Giant Supermarket it could be had for $3.38 a gallon.
A scam was attempted on us today. As I was preparing my second cup of coffe,e I noticed a FedEx truck out in the road. He drove off and I went out to see if he had made a delivery to us. He had. A large FedEx envelope was laying on the porch floor. It contained a check for $912.36 with instructions for me to be a Secret Shopper. I was told to cash the check at my bank, go to Walmart, spend $50.00, note a bunch of stuff like cleanliness, helpfulness etc. Take the $50.00 that I had spent and $150.00 for myself for my trouble and send the other $712.00 on to someone in Massachusetts. As I was not born yesterday, I realized that it was a scam. Even if there was such a thing as a Secret Shopper program (Which there is) they were not about to send me the money FIRST! I called the FBI, who were not interested . "You didn't lose anything, tear up the check and forget it." "What do you want us to do?" My reply was "I want you to go and arrest these people. Do your job. I may not have lost anything but hundreds or maybe thousands will" I then called the FedEx tracking system and found that the package was mailed in Virginia - it had a Canadian address on it. The check - actually a United States Post Office Money Order - had an address in New Jersey on it and I was instructed to send the balance to Massachusetts! The FedEx fraud unit is in Memphis and would not be open until 9.00am. So I called the USPS fraud people who were also not interested. "We get a hundred calls like this a day. Throw it away." They said. When I persisted they asked me to send them the FedEx envelope, the letter and the check to them. (The FBI also asked me to do the same - after I persisted too much. Later, after 9.00am, I called the FedEx fraud people who were the most helpful. When I pointed out that they were the only ones making money because they were being paid to deliver he put me staight on that! It seems that the scammers steal a number from a company that uses FedEx and uses that number to send the packages. When that company, in this case one from Canada, discovers that a bunch of packets were sent out that they did not send they call FedEx and tell them. FedEx then has to eat the charge. He explained to me that the packets did not come from Canada, or even from Virginia, well they did come from Virginia, but the scam company sends the checks labels etc to a payroll company and tell them to mail them. The payroll company thinks they are sending out paychecks. Anyway there are hundreds of these scams going on all the time. He said most likely the perpetrators are in a country like Nigeria. And it is impossible to stop them. The only way to stop them is not to send any money. If people don't send them money they will stop. If they get money they will continue. I showed the Postal Order to the bank. They said that it was a good forgery, they may or they may not have cashed it (And only if I had enough money in my account to cover it.) Later when it bounced they would want the money back from me, plus of course their charges! The Post Office said pretty much the same thing. They took the Money Order from me and would not give it back - or even a receipt for it! I said, "But the FBI want it, also the Fed Ex fraud unit want it." The Post Office employee said "The Post Office is part of the FBI" and kept it. What a lot of fun we have!
News from The Lake is that we now have three Swans! This has happened before, but not for long as the male Swan has attacked the intruder and driven him (her?) off. This time however the three seem to have made a truce and are living a peaceful co-existance. Once again there is no sign of any offspring from the pair. I took one the paddle boats and one of the kayaks out a few weeks ago, along with a grandson to see if the Swan was on her nest, and she was. But I think they have given up on any hope of a young swan Cygnet. As usual I am sure that the DNR oiled the egg(s) again. Julia is very dissapointed as she would love to see some baby swans on The Lake, but I think she understands that it is not to be. They are non-native and do considerable harm to the environment, eating a lot of weed that the Bay simply has too little of already.
The 60th Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second is to be held this week in London, so I am sure that we, along with millions of other ExPat Brits will be glued to their TV's. It should be interesting and enjoyable.
Gas prices in the area continue to drop. Today at the local Giant Supermarket it could be had for $3.38 a gallon.
A scam was attempted on us today. As I was preparing my second cup of coffe,e I noticed a FedEx truck out in the road. He drove off and I went out to see if he had made a delivery to us. He had. A large FedEx envelope was laying on the porch floor. It contained a check for $912.36 with instructions for me to be a Secret Shopper. I was told to cash the check at my bank, go to Walmart, spend $50.00, note a bunch of stuff like cleanliness, helpfulness etc. Take the $50.00 that I had spent and $150.00 for myself for my trouble and send the other $712.00 on to someone in Massachusetts. As I was not born yesterday, I realized that it was a scam. Even if there was such a thing as a Secret Shopper program (Which there is) they were not about to send me the money FIRST! I called the FBI, who were not interested . "You didn't lose anything, tear up the check and forget it." "What do you want us to do?" My reply was "I want you to go and arrest these people. Do your job. I may not have lost anything but hundreds or maybe thousands will" I then called the FedEx tracking system and found that the package was mailed in Virginia - it had a Canadian address on it. The check - actually a United States Post Office Money Order - had an address in New Jersey on it and I was instructed to send the balance to Massachusetts! The FedEx fraud unit is in Memphis and would not be open until 9.00am. So I called the USPS fraud people who were also not interested. "We get a hundred calls like this a day. Throw it away." They said. When I persisted they asked me to send them the FedEx envelope, the letter and the check to them. (The FBI also asked me to do the same - after I persisted too much. Later, after 9.00am, I called the FedEx fraud people who were the most helpful. When I pointed out that they were the only ones making money because they were being paid to deliver he put me staight on that! It seems that the scammers steal a number from a company that uses FedEx and uses that number to send the packages. When that company, in this case one from Canada, discovers that a bunch of packets were sent out that they did not send they call FedEx and tell them. FedEx then has to eat the charge. He explained to me that the packets did not come from Canada, or even from Virginia, well they did come from Virginia, but the scam company sends the checks labels etc to a payroll company and tell them to mail them. The payroll company thinks they are sending out paychecks. Anyway there are hundreds of these scams going on all the time. He said most likely the perpetrators are in a country like Nigeria. And it is impossible to stop them. The only way to stop them is not to send any money. If people don't send them money they will stop. If they get money they will continue. I showed the Postal Order to the bank. They said that it was a good forgery, they may or they may not have cashed it (And only if I had enough money in my account to cover it.) Later when it bounced they would want the money back from me, plus of course their charges! The Post Office said pretty much the same thing. They took the Money Order from me and would not give it back - or even a receipt for it! I said, "But the FBI want it, also the Fed Ex fraud unit want it." The Post Office employee said "The Post Office is part of the FBI" and kept it. What a lot of fun we have!
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