Where Be We??

A good question for a mild Tuesday morning on the outskirts of the Classic City.

Before I go on I must tell you that it is already in the 50's with highs reaching into the 70's today. We've had 3 days of decent rain and the fescue is growing an will soon need cutting. The sun is filtering through the pines to the east southeast of us and will no doubt cause me a bit of squinting til I put on the shades. So there is nothing dreary to cloud my vision or my outlook. I know I'm better off than some people and worse off than others, as is proper considering the choices I've made for better or worse over more years than seems real to me......for at the core I feel I'm still young enough to be hopeful and optimistic, and am really looking forward to the next 133 years. Just think of the things I'll see.


Where indeed are we? A question which occupies much of my thinking on those rare moments when I can get the voices in my head stilled long enough to let two or more synapses communicate with each other.

You don't have to read far in this compendium of rants, ravings, and occasional forays into introspection to deduce that I may be leaning a little bit more to the right than Attila the Hun or Timur-i-ling. I claim to be a Randian Libertarian with a strong love for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Individual Freedom, Personal Responsibility, and an innate suspicion of anyone or group claiming that "we're from the Government, and we're here to help you".

I read a little each day of the political and economic thinking of several sources I consider to have a little credibility (which leaves out most of the talking heads on the news networks) and I was very interested to read of the following from Roger Wiegand.

I'll paste it here as you may not be moved to click onto the linky thingy. You can read it or not, read part and come back later, or, move on to your morning dose of internet porn......the world will likely keep on spinning around our middle class star some where in the outer reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy whatever you decide. If you care to comment on where you think we are....I'd be glad to know.




On Returning To Our Founding Fathers' Concepts


By Roger Wiegand Printer Friendly Version
Mar 9 2009 2:41PM


www.webeatthestreet.com

The United States of America was founded upon the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. After 233 years it appears we have strayed dangerously close to ruination of these ideas. Somebody measured the average life span of empires and said its 250 years. It seems to me if this nation would endure we better get busy reversing our stupid disasters and reinvent 1776. This is not an easy task and it cannot be done over night. However, if the will of the people is strong enough and they can recognize our precarious position there still might be a chance. We can endure going broke and the grinding fallout from our new and Greater Depression. This is what comes next. What we cannot endure is the loss of liberty, freedom and the old American way of capitalism and free enterprise.

The new U.S. Obamination has set us on a path of socialism decidedly pointed toward communism. Our highly regarded salesman president lacks critical skills to lead this country particularly with foreign problems and statesmanship. Give him credit for one honest statement: He told Joe the Plumber he wanted to “spread it around” and that is exactly what he is doing. The Obama budget is heavy on taxes, wasteful spending, pork and the obvious implementation of the Nanny State as practiced with remarkable failure in Europe. And, all of this shows total disregard for the ability to pay the money back using taxpayers’ funds. There is no hope of that whatsoever.

To clarify where we stand and be certain of definitions, (American Heritage Dictionary) please note the following key types of economic and political government:

1. Capitalism: “An economic system characterized by freedom of the market with increasing concentration of private and corporate ownership of production and distribution means, proportionate to increasing accumulation and reinvestment of profits. A political or social system based upon”…these concepts, rules and ideas.

2. Fascism: “A philosophy, or system of government that advocates, or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through merging of state and business leadership, together with the ideology of belligerent nationalism.”

3. Socialism: “A social system in which the producers possess both political power and the means of producing and distributing goods. Also known as “The theory of practice of those who support such a system. Note this: Socialism also says “In Marxist-Leninist theory, the building, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, of the material base for communism.”

4. Communism: “A social system characterized by the absence of classes and by common ownership of the means of production and subsistence. A political, economic and social doctrine aiming at the establishment of a classless society.

With the Obama doctrine we have moved forward to the last giant step before communism. In our view, fascism has been actively practiced for years by the US government with military forces permanently stationed in over 100 countries. Further, political power has been the hand maiden of big banks and corporations using their shills the IMF and the Federal Reserve. This faction of extreme right idealism has swung the political pendulum to the left inducing Obama’s new socialist state. The last sentence of that Socialism definition says “the building, under the dictatorship of the proletariat of the MATERIAL BASE FOR COMMUNISM.

On Fox News in a recent broadcast, Alan Keyes, a former pol and media type guy said, Obama is a communist and must be stopped. What is your opinion considering these definitions? In our view, the Obama election was more a vote against the Bush-Cheney fascism than a vote for Mr. Obama and his socialist policies. The new regime now has the power as they got the votes. And, as one wag has said, “the voters have spoken and they are going to get it good and hard.” We hope not.

If you agree with the foregoing we are one step from being a Marxist-Leninist communist society. Should this be true and as an American you yearn for the pure capitalism of yesteryear, what can we do to turn the tide and avoid a disaster of an American Communist State and regain our freedom?

Formula for Resurrection Of A Free United States

It has to begin at the ballot box at the grass roots level. Within this nation there remain larger and solid pockets of citizens who love and practice liberty. We can assure you these types are hard to find most anywhere on the politically liberal east and west coasts. Those Kicky-Hip New Yorkers and New England liberals along with our sneering Washington establishment view political libertarians as uneducated hicks who should be relegated to the hinterlands of our lost middle states in this union.

The Kicky-Hips are not faring so well these days with the rejection of their financial mess on the east coast and those fallen liberal angels in Hollywood no longer receiving the reverence they once enjoyed. Phonywood is primarily adored by bored teenagers, inactive housewives, and other socially lost individuals with too much time on their hands and little self esteem. For now, it seems the actors cannot find financing for their $150mm movies. Guess the banksters that funded them screwed-up.

In our opinion the best thing we can do as liberty loving hicks from the hinterlands is to ignore them and deny their pitiful, surreal, fictional existence. We suspect that before this sad financial episode is over perhaps some of the banksters and their political gang members will be arriving at the crossbars hotel. Andrew Cuomo in New York is beginning to get serious. He and his constituents are very angry. And, unfortunately for these banksters, this is where they live and work.

The gun-totin’ Bubbas rural and mid-American are ready to fight and have said so. If this should occur there is nothing peaceful, religious citizens can do but use the power of words and the media. These oral and written tools as peaceful weapons are more useful particularly when used on the internet. We agree with the Bubbas and like them and understand them. But, we would prefer to do things peacefully. Our Washington, D. C. crowd is afraid of Bubba and well they should be.

The anger and distress levels are nearing the breaking point. Should violence breakout, we do not expect Americans, except for the local and state police, would fire on rioters with weapons. New battalions of U.S. soldiers are being formed as the pols and their gangs understand what’s coming. There’s been talk of using UN foreign soldiers for riot control as they would have no compunction about shooting at Americans. We would suggest that if they do it, they will be mowed down like a summer lawn from the Bubba squirrel shooters using them for seasonal target practice. This then opens new doors to further violence and is something to assiduously avoid.

Government is supposed to serve the people not intimidate them. Politicians of all varieties desire power and money. Control of them must be tightened to the extent they clearly know and understand that if they stray one iota from our citizen wishes they are political history. It is time to take back control and use it where it belongs and that is with good, honest American citizens. Most Americans are afraid of big government and this not only, not right but our system was designed otherwise.

How can we change this? We need to implement an internet computer platform containing simple accurate reporting and management of

1. An elected officials’ plan of action. When elected they should be handed a citizens agenda and told to go vote for it, and

2. Keep a monitor, or reporting leash on them to ensure they vote the wishes of the constituents and,

3. Ensure that they do not miss casting any key votes and,

4. We have a measuring yard stick telling us how their votes are helping those they represent and,

5. Should they miss voting on key bills or stray from the plan, they will be publicly embarrassed in front of those they purport to serve and tossed out in the next election.

6. As part of this politician regulation, any pol offering a new bill would first run it by his constituents and attach three bills already in law that must be repealed. In other words to get one new law passed, the pol would have to find three more to toss out (delete) for good. This system would clean out years of garbage and bad bills at a much faster pace. Sadly, once passed into law, lots of the old crap lives on creating expensive problems for years.

7. We reported in our Trader Tracks newsletter last week that 29 states are either involved with or are passing legislation to control the out-of-control federal government overstepping their authority. We find this significant and cannot remember in our lifetime another similar episode. This event signals all is not well in the hinterlands never mind what the two coasts and their Kicky-Hips prefer.

This monitoring system could be designed to foil bad ideas and negative bills from quick, or sneaky approval. While some would go into law anyway, most of the worst would be rebuked.

It would take millions of dollars of investment and a large group of managers to run the operation but this watchdog patriotic citizens organization could use folks from all political parties but they would have to unanimously adhere to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights with their ideas and votes reflecting their constituents.

Rules and regulations of this Political Monitoring Management Group would by definition mostly drive out those with a socialist or communist agenda. The United States was not founded on “Spreading it around” as Mr. Obama says. The Pilgrims soon learned that community gardens do not work as there always exists a percentage of loafers that ride on the hard labor others. If welfare rules were tougher the numbers of loafers would diminish rapidly.

Those on the dole taking food, shelter, medical services and other perks who cannot find work should have to donate 40 hours of weekly service work to receive these daily needs. Under that type of system, those truly in need would be fed, housed and cared for but they would contribute and earn their way. In our view, most would soon obtain a real job and earn more. Under the Michigan welfare system, there are multiple generations encouraged to exist on welfare. Some welfare relatives are working on their third, generational, 20 years’ receipt of state money in Michigan.

Our Northern Advisor Reviews The Current State Of Affairs

While our Northern Advisor gives us too much credit in the first paragraph below, we must say this man is probably the most intelligent person we’ve had the pleasure to ever know. His forecasting has been uncanny and often contains ideas within ideas and situations no one has even considered. We agree with his prediction that the die is cast and we have no alternative but to grind through years of economic hell designed not only by New York banksters, central governments and their banks; but we also understand social attitudes in the progression of time have produced another bad K-Wave we must painfully endure.

Cycles and time are critical and never seem to go away. There is no escape in our mutual view under the current conditions. It’s going to get much worse.

“Rog...As you know, my thing is forecasting the future. A few years ago it became obvious that the most important input to a future forecast was the influence of the bottoming of the economic K-wave cycle. My focus turned to all things affecting the economy which I was grossly lacking in both experience and knowledge. The learning curve was very, very steep. Much of the help in learning about the economy was the result of our extensive e-mail correspondence the past few years. There is no way I can thank you enough for that jump start on learning about how the economy really works.”

“Stepping back at this point, it appears most of the main negative changes in the global economy are locked in place now. About all that remains is figuring out how deep the depression will be, and how long it will last. With Hussein (Obama) following in the steps of FDR creating more debt in an attempt to fix what is basically a debt problem, there is likely to be the same end result.”

“That is, the current depression will be deliberately, artificially, and forcefully be extended for several years, exactly as FDR did the last time around. Only the economic scale is bigger this time. The last depression extended into WWII, and the global economy didn't really recover back to normal until after WWII.”

“So, my focus on the future will be shifting more to the geopolitical changes driven by the economic convulsions now underway. An extended depression will make stuff even worse. The plan is to analyze the social and political instability caused by this depression, particularly in those nations that would be challengers to the USSA. This means primarily Russia and China, but also the other rogue nations, such as North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela.”

“I am absolutely convinced that the coming global social and political upheavals caused by this economic crisis are going to be, by far, the most important changes that will affect a forecast of the future. Only a major freak natural disaster, global epidemic, or sudden climate change could become more important. (There is) Lots of stuff to keep track of.” - Yer Northern Advisor

We absolutely agree and believe precious metals, currency, grain, and energy trading offer the way out. Personal independence will not be something to be played around with. You will either get tough and handle business, or get smashed and sink with the preponderance of the Sheeple.

Time is ticking and we see the first of the really bad stuff hitting this spring with a very hot, rioting summer. Then, we better cheer-up as fall will be worse. This is no time for socialism. Let’s rebuild America together using the 2010 mid-term elections. We suspect by then the bloom is off the Obama Socialism Rose; its welfare petals squashed in a cacophony of riots, unemployment and hordes of angry unemployed people.

Roger Wiegand
Editor Trader Tracks Newsletter
The Jay & Rog Blog at webeatthestreet.com

Fuck the Veterans

We'll get them to pay for the budget shortfalls that SPBO and his ilk are causing this country.

Check it out HERE.


I think they should consider that most Veterans know how to use a gun, a knife, their hands and most importantly their heads........seeing as how they didn't loose theirs while some of their comrades lost all.

I really strongly suggest they ponder on that single fact for a long time......
.....Maybe even rent Rambo on DVD since they are so fond of giving movies as gifts.

Democracy or a Republic

Having no qualms about stealing a good idea or thought from anyone, I swiped the below video from GuyK.....and since he gave credit to someone else, I figure he might not mind so much if I borrow it.




This is simple enough for a first grader. I would hope my grandchildren get to see it.

an "end to the old way of doing business."

Do you have any questions about where your tax money is being spenT????

Well in Tax-a-chusetts.......here's where it GOES

I wonder if that HYWIC (high yellow what's in charge) up in the white house realizes how stupid saying things like this make him sound?

To a little girl

I shamelessly have stolen the below link from AD (the Ambulance Driver) with the fervent wish that I could write, or hell, even verbally express myself, half as well.

Often we find ourselves with that need to say more than we can...to encourage and uplift loved ones, family and friends. Words from the mouth are not adequate. Words from the heart have a power far beyond our meager strength.

So go Here.....lean away from the keyboard, maybe have a hanky at hand.

Enjoy.

I've got to learn a new language

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. CONCLUSION

Eat and drink wh at you li ke.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you

Whatta Change

A few minutes make.

One minute I'm outside trying to get the blue out of the yellow, and 10 minutes later I decide that I'm not going back out for a while.



We've not had this much white precipitation in several years. In fact I don't think we even had an accumulation for the last 2 years at all.

But the squirrels are loving it.

The Sparrow

Which I stole from over at Sparrow’s.

Enjoy, and remember.

Rainy Day

It's a rainy day in the neighborhood boys and girls. Actually it rained all night and most of yesterday was either rainy or cloudy.

We need the rain though....although I could do without the pains in my wrists and shoulders that the moisture brings. Sometimes I think that life would move along a whole lot better if we were fitted with grease zerks so we could get a little slickum to the joints to keep out the rust.

Not much will get done with this steady rain keeping me inside. I might go up to the J & J to see if the foreign money guy is there. My buddy James found some Mexican coins in a storage locker and the money guy will buy them at some price. Most aren't worth much as the Gov't's south of the border keep declaring the old money worth less and issue new money at a rate of 10 to 1 or more on the old.....in effect allowing them to pay off debts for pennies on the peso. Just wait until they do that here. I figure it won't be long now. Even if they don't announce it on the boob tube it will happen as they're printing new greenbacks at a rate never before imagined.

I guess if we have any lead we can trade that back and forth. It's gonna be like the Hatfield's and McCoy's around her before long I reckon. Freedom lovers like me can only take so much, and freedom haters never know when to stop trying to take from me. Only one way to ensure that they'll quit and never do that again.
It makes a mess but is good fertilizer.

Just for a moment last night...

...had I not been able to reason.......

.......I might have thought that SPBO (sitting president barack obama) actually understood whereof he spoke.

But that didn't last long.




We still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before. In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.

That's right! The only real and lasting path to prosperity is shedding our debt-centric economy and growing our domestic savings. And the only way to do that is to remind people they have to be responsible for themselves and they can't continue to live at the expense of their neighbors. Let's get rid of Social Security and stop government support of the FDIC and the banking industry. Stop printing money and taking on still more debts to save bankrupt companies. After all, how could we solve a debt crisis by simply spending more money that we don't have?

But then... only a minute or two into his speech... OBAMA! began to promise all of the things every politician promises, namely benefits without any costs. You know the drill: something for nothing. And most importantly, more debt!

The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins. You see, the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy. The ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to a college education; how stores stock their shelves, farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll.

Wait a minute. While I have borrowed money to buy a house, I have never borrowed money to buy anything else. That's the way I was raised. My parents taught me what their parents taught them: If you want something you have to work hard and save your money to buy it. Isn't that what Americans have done for generations? Isn't that what the hard-working people of Asia are doing right now? And isn't that the real problem? We've spent the last 30 years borrowing money from around the world, to buy things we were too lazy to work for and to save to buy.

OBAMA! went on to repeat the old saw about our dependence on foreign oil. But that's not the real problem: The real problem is our utter dependence on foreign credit. Without all the money we've borrowed from the Japanese and the Chinese, we wouldn't have any cash to buy oil from the Middle East.

And then... at the end of the speech, my favorite part...

How will we pay for all of the spending the government is now promising? The truth is, of course, we won't pay for it at all. We will continue to borrow still more money from foreigners because as a nation we've lost the moral and ethical standards that made us a free people. We tolerate our leaders spinning lies and burdening our children and grandchildren with unpayable obligations. We tolerate our neighbors walking away from their obligations. We allow our government to use the threat of imprisonment to collect tax and then use our capital to support corporations whose managers and owners have acted irresponsibly for decades.

But rather than making decisions based on the sound principles of economics or in the spirit of the American tradition of small government, personal liberty, and personal responsibility, we now have a government that constantly seeks public acclaim and the contributions of special interests. And what does the public clamor for? OBAMA! knows all too well.

In order to save our children from a future of debt, we will also end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans...


We will eat the rich!

Keep in mind, America doesn't currently impose a wealth tax. So... it's not clear what OBAMA! means. But if you want to see an exodus of capital from the United States, try taxing people's net worths. On the other hand, if OBAMA! was speaking of people's incomes (which is much different than their wealth), the highest 2% of American wage earners already contribute about 35% of the government's expenditures. How much more blood can you wring from those stones?

And keep this in mind. OBAMA! is promising to reduce his first year's estimated $1.8 trillion deficit by 50% over the course of his four years in office. But he makes no promise to actually reduce the total outstanding debt, which this year will grow by more than the total government debt in 1982.

Our debts are piling up now at a pace that will leave us insolvent within a generation. We will not cure this problem by taking still more money from the highest wage earners in the country. The more OBAMA! promises, the more money he'll have to print or borrow. (And incidentally, the price of gold will go higher, too – it's already gone from $800 an ounce to $1,000 since the election.)

America is going bankrupt.

Wouldn't ya know

First I go off complaining about my blog disappearing for a little while and then I abandon it my-own-self for nearly a week.

Which in it's self is not too unusual.....I'm often at a loss for coherent thought and am likely to become so engrossed in the antics of others that I forget to let fingers do the walking.....but am never short of breath to talk your ear off in person. I'll often catch my wife rolling her eyes as I go on, and on, and on, and on....kinda like that rabbit with his stupid drum.

Anyhooooo......not so much going on around here. I did a little treasure hunting last friday and spent the weekend trying to separate the dross from the glitter. I hauled some metal for underpinning of the ol' Grumps rental trailer up to Carnesville so the Son and his wife could put it up for him to replace the tattered vinyl that had been there.

Folks....take it from me....vinyl underpinning may look good when first installed, but will lose to a weedeater every time.

For that kind deed I reaped the benefit of the excess metal that he'd ordered. Almost enough to underpin my storage and shop building completely. That's good. I did however learn that bending over and getting up and down does not come as easily as once they did. Forty pounds of excess belly will do that to you.

But I am making headway on my diet. The wife bought me a new set of digital bathroom scales to let me see how much weight I'm not losing. Just Damn.

The politicians are as venal and stupid as ever......I don't even want to think of that much.

I seem to recall that during my brief attendance at Dacula Elementary and High School back during the dark ages the Darwin Theory was brought up and we learned that mankind had steadily evolved from out of the primordial muck and was surely headed for great things......why, we might even venture off this rock and go visit some of our celestial neighbors, setting foot on that big wedge of green cheese we see in the sky at night sometimes.

The men in my basic training unit back in the summer of '69 thought that event was just the first step forward in a giant leap of evolution. That, however, sputtered out less than 10 years later and we've seemingly lost the urge toward greatness that we once had. Devolving into endless partisan bickering and squabbling like a pack of hyenas over the carcass of a, once mighty, now toothless and starved lion. Unable to match him even at less than his prime, they laugh and howl with delight as they snatch rotting bits to sate their grotesque appetites, delighting in his fall, rolling about in the fetid refuse of ruptured intestines and fecal matter, as if to carry away with them some steaming stench as proof of their supposed superiority.

Just Damn, no wonder that I gaze upon and cherish bits of yesteryear.

Wha........What th......

Where'd my blog go??

I click over there to check up on any comments (hardly anyone ever comments 'cept a very few, must be my bad breath) and there is nothing to be seen.

I can click on my archives and it's all there.......so WTH??

It could be that I'm going blind....but if that was the case you'd think it would have happened in my teens or twenties at the latest. Maybe there's a delayed reaction. I haven't had to shave my palms in years.

Don't guess many will miss me.

Think I'll go out and eat worms.

UPDATE; There it is......must have looked at it crosseyed.

545 to 300 million

545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ

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

There are no insoluble government problems.

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

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

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

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

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Why do they do this?

Why do all the talking heads and so called leaders in this country strive so to keep us upset and worried?

Does it get you down at times?

"Do you imagine the universe is agitated?" asked Lao Tzu a few thousand years ago. "Go into the desert at night and look at the stars. This practice should answer the question."

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Lupercalia day Lovers and seekers.

I hope you all are out this evening eating prime rib washed down with expensive wine in the hopes of a chocolate covered dessert when you get home.

Me......I'm sitting her resting my tired ol' feet and thinking about a bed to sleep in.

I was up early (for me) at 5 am in order to go the the Peach State Archeology Society Show in May-retta (Marrieta GA) this morning.

In my never ending quest to garner shekles to pay the green grocer and other tradesmen for some of the necessities and niceties of life, I've jumped in the deep end of the pool once again and opened a website arrowheadantiques.com to move some of the (some would call junk, others fine collectibles) Stuff that I come in contact with. Today was an opportunity to Network as the youngun's say.

I'm always finding something that sparkles, and like a crow, I swoop down and snatch it up to carry away to my nest....where there it remains neither eating nor sleeping, but like the unworthy servant it also doesn't earn any return on the talents given for it.

We had a fine ol' time. Lots of dealers and members from the society. Unfortunately there were few buyers......whether due to the economy, or not enough people informed of where we were, ie, lack of advertising.... to sample our wares.

Still fun was to be had. I introduced young Serenity (all of a grown up 9 years old) to the pleasures of eating lamb, which made her go.........ooooohhhhh, wrinkle her nose up, and then chow back down with a hearty appetite. (Good girl)

One of my pieces of Pottery won the certificate for best pottery piece. I also cleaned up at the raffle held just before we wrapped up for the day, bringing back to the table a very nice Anasazi pot (small but extremely nice), and a replica pipe donated by the Etowah Indian Museum.

So a fine day.

The Missus and I will likely go out for Chinese on the morrow to celebrate at least 42 Valentines days, afterward to waddle back to the Kudzu Grotto stuffed to the gills........and later.....who knows? Maybe somebody will get lucky.

Ideas for a Stimulus Program


1. Payroll Tax Stimulus. With a temporary new tax credit to offset 50% of the payroll tax, every small business would have more money, and all Americans would take home more of what they earn.

2. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief. Reduce the marginal tax rate of 25% down to 15%, in effect establishing a flat-rate tax of 15% for close to 9 out of 10 American workers.

3. Reduce the Business Tax Rate. Match Ireland’s rate of 12.5% to keep more jobs in America.

4. Homeowner’s Assistance. Provide tax credit incentives to responsible home buyers so they can keep their homes.

5. Control Spending So We Can Move to a Balanced Budget. This begins with eliminating Congressional earmarks and wasteful pork-barrel spending.

6. No State Aid Without Protection From Fraud. Require state governments to adopt anti-fraud and anti-theft policies before giving them more money.

7. More American Energy Now. Explore for more American oil and gas and invest in affordable energy for the future, including clean coal, ethanol, nuclear power and renewable fuels.

8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains. Match China, Singapore and many other competitors. More investment in America means more jobs in America.

9. Protect Our Right to Vote in the Workplace. We must protect a worker’s right to decide by secret ballot whether to join a union.

10. Replace Sarbanes-Oxley. This failed law is crippling entrepreneurial startups. Replace it with affordable rules that help create jobs, not destroy them.

11. Abolish the Death Tax. Americans should work for their families, not for Washington.

12. Invest in Energy and Transportation Infrastructure. This includes a new, expanded electric power grid and a 21st century air traffic control system that will reduce delays in air travel and save passengers, employees and airlines billions of dollars per year.


Whadda YOU think??

What are you going to do??

I was talking with the ol' Grump at the lunch table today and he said something to me that caused me to start thinking, "Ya know, I'm not so sure this country is in as bad a shape as everyone is saying it is."

To put that in a little perspective you'd have to know that he's 80 years old, with a 3rd grade education, 6 years in the army during the mid-fifties, ran a plumbing business when I first met his daughter (a master card), and was the second ranking plumbing inspector for Dekalb county (GA) when he retired about 15 years or so ago.

Today with about 20% heart function he mostly sits around watching the TV news, or Judge Judy, and whiles away the time sharpening his little pocket knife and watching the great grand children when they come to visit. All that and keeping up with his doctor visits which come about once every 6 months since the wife got his eating habits and medication timing straightened out.

So taking to heart the counsel that "He who walketh with wise men, shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed" I thought at some little length on the matter.

I concluded that if a person had a steady job, or a secure income, this period of time is not very concerning to him. Many there are that have not yet come to the point of fear about the future. Indeed there are many who are optimistic and anxious to see the new days coming. Perhaps we should be asking them for their opinion rather than those who see nothing but Armageddon ahead, or at least would have you think it is coming so as to more easily deceive you, or control you.

Now... if you have just lost your job or had your hours or wages cut back, perhaps you might be feeling just a bit of anxiety. Does weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth get you anywhere......or does rolling up your sleeves and buckling down at whatever work or tradeskill you possess and maybe taking a job that pays less than half of what you used to make and cutting back on some of the un-necessities make more sense?

Me thinks the ol' Grump is not as stupid as might be thought.

Below can be found some ideas to consider.....not mine...but people who council together, whatever their leaning politically, and try to apply principals that work.

Bullshit

The world awaits with pregnant anticipation the implementation of the SPBO's (sitting president barack obama's) economic package and like many another hopeful fool I turned over to his little harangue on many of your local channels last night.

I see many ads on the internutz saying his IQ is 122 and inviting you to come check your own IQ. I have no earthly idea if is IQ is really that high or not. If it is, the last check of mine placed it significantly above his........maybe not...who really trusts those things anyway??

All I know is that I was raised on and owned a dairy farm for a number of years, and I've got damn near 6 decades of bad and good decisions behind me.

Trust me.....(or not).....what I heard last night was BULLSHIT of the finest type. I mean they reached 5 feet up that bulls ass to get the best they could for SPBO to spout last night.

A sixth grader would have more sense than that. Let one do the math (if you can find one that knows how to use a pencil and even let them cheat by using a calculator) and they'll tell you what a load of shit he was spouting.

Just answer me one question. Why has his message of hope and change suddenly switched to Doom, Despair and Agony on Me??

Buy all the precious metals (both shiny and leaden) while you still can. Plan those Victory Gardens now. Start scratching up the ground to put in a few peas and tomatoes.

Just sayin'

Go ....

Go now over to www.velociworld.com and read the words of the mighty lion of the blog-o-sphere, V-man his-own-self.

Stop the Change We Can Believe in

Belief leads one to think of Faith, which, I think it was Paul, described as "knowledge of things unseen".

I'm not from Missouri.....but I've always been of the "show me" persuasion.

Nothing I've heard coming out of the POTUS's mouth has appealed to what little common sense and experience that I have and made me believe the that the so called "stimulus package" of almost a Trillion dollars will help us dig out of the current economic doldrums.

Perhaps......if we could keep some of our own money...or maybe be given some of what has been taken from us.......we could do some real stimulating.

Consider..

Just Sad

After the wife and the pooch have given it up for the night and hit the sack, I come creeping into the computer room in stockinged feet to catch up on the news and activities of some of the other denizens of the world wide web.

I'm trying to flush out the garbage I watched as the Bill O'rielly show was broken into to show the new sitting POTUS addressed the elite of the Dim-0-crit party at their soiree down in Virginia and harranged them to quickly pass his spending bill lest the so called recession (really depression) becomes in reality a depression (really TEOTWAWKI).

All I could find on The Drudge Report was This little tidbit to assure me that our public officials are doing any thing productive at all.

We are not going to allow ourselves to have the sacred roles of women in our society usurped by a couple of plastic women........well, considering the amount of plastic and silicone on TV these day....we may possibly be too late.

Which makes one wonder........why can't a man have a consensual relationship with an inflatable date? Do we fear that some of the ladies going in and out of the Publix would be put out of business and have to start applying for food stamps or other methods of Stimulus ?

Well, we certainly don't want to put law enforcement officials, jailers, magistrates and lawyers out of business. Me thinks maybe this is a time for an enterprising young attorney to do a bit of advertising (trolling) for customers who might have a similar problem with John Q. Law.

Gives me hope for the whole human race, that does.

Cold

Colder'n an Eskimo witch's tit in a brass Büstenhalter.

That's what it felt like around here today.

Of course I know that the states north of here have been colder......but I don't care about them.......they deserve to be colder.....I on the other hand....because of my genteel Southern Nature am like a delicate orchid......beauteous, fragile, deserving of nurturing in a hot house....sprinkled with warm water and fed on bull shit from the talking heads in Washington........Well, 2 outa 3 ain't so bad.

But then, on the other hand, by the weekend it'll be getting up into the 60 degree range or better.......So all you Yankees.....kiss my ring.

Wanna Do Something

Then don't let these be the only voices heard. Add your voices to them in directly contacting your Senators.

For Immediate Release Contact: Alex Rosenwald

February 4th, 2009 Phone: (703) 383-0880

“The tide is clearly turning against the

Obama trillion dollar debt stimulus plan.”

—ALG President Bill Wilson.



ALG President Joins Conservative Leaders in Urging Senate to Defeat Trillion Dollar Spending Bill



February 4th, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today in a letter joined with 18 free market and limited government leaders in strongly urging members of the Senate to defeat the spending bill that “will total some $1.2 trillion when interest is calculated over the next decade, and represents an unsustainable growth of government.”



The joint letter is critical of provisions in the legislation already passed by the House of Representatives, and leaders believe it will not boost the economy.



“The irresponsible expansion of the budget to bail out state governments from their own budget deficits, expand Medicaid, boost education spending, food stamps and unemployment benefits, build federal buildings, provide more for public housing, construct climate change supercomputers, erect trade barriers overseas, create refundable tax credits, and make special interest payouts will not stimulate sustainable economic growth,” according to the letter.



The letter calls for permanent tax relief for businesses and individuals. The leaders believe that “individuals and businesses only change their spending and investment habits significantly when they expect policy changes to be permanent.”



Specifically, the letter advocates “[p]reventing tax increases on individual income, capital gains and dividends, changing the tax code to allow full-cost, first-year expensing for business equipment rather than the arbitrary IRS depreciation schedule, and lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate, among the highest in the world, would yield much more bang for the buck in ensuring a rapid economic recovery than the current package of massive spending with a sliver of targeted tax cuts.



The letter portends that the U.S. “is running the serious risk that it will default on its financial obligations, as the nation's creditors during the current economic downturn may be unable to continue sustaining the uncontrolled growth of spending, leaving the nation in financial ruin.”



The current national debt is $10.7 trillion. That includes $4.3 trillion owed for Social Security, Medicare, and other commitments, and $6.4 trillion held privately, $3 trillion of which is held overseas. 40 percent of the debt held privately comes due this year.



“The only way for the government to pay [the debt coming due] is to borrow yet more money,” the letter reads.



The organizations represented disagree with the idea that additional spending is not necessary to stimulate economic growth.



As an alternative the free market and limited government organizations call upon the Senate to deliver “a real plan for change, to finally set the nation's fiscal house in order, to provide permanent tax relief to businesses and individuals, to free the American people from the boom-to-bust economic cycle, and to at last retire the national debt.”



Wilson believes that the legislation can be defeated in the Senate.



“The tide is clearly turning against the Obama trillion dollar debt stimulus plan,” said Wilson in a statement.



“It is now up to Senators who do not wish to engage in generational theft to stand up and make their voices heard, and vote 'no' on the 'stimulus,'” Wilson concluded.



# # #



Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.



###



Americans for Limited Government is a non- partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms,private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please call us at 703-383-0880 or visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.

Do You Know?

Words

.
..on a page...

.....on a monitor..

What is it about words??

Damnifiknow.

I was fortunate to be raised in a family of readers.....back before TV made of ours a world of visual images....dominated by the boob tube, the silver screen, Pong and video games, Entertainment Tonight...I watched my dad read the Atlanta Constitution, Hoard's Dairyman, Sports Afield and Progressive Farmer. My mom read Readers Digest, Redbook and anything else she could get her hands on. I once found some of her old books from before she married.....Raymond Chandler's Perry Mason, H.P. Lovecraft's horror tales, syrupy romance novels, classics and mind candy, short stories, Hemingway and Encyclopedia Brittanica.

As soon as we could read Run, Spot, Run or Dick and Jane we were off to the public library in Lawrenceville, a one room building set on the Northeast corner of the Courthouse Square, and allowed to check out as many books as we thought we might read during the next week. Some weeks I'd have six to ten and run out before the next trip to town. Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, outdoor adventure books, books on war, Ian Fleming's 007, cartoons in the Sunday edition of The Atlanta Journal...
..Lil' Abner, Snuffy Smith...

....words......I still luv 'em....books don't have commercial breaks every 5 minutes, and no talking head is trying to convince me the world is going to end if we don't pass this or that stimulus package of pork.

Lest I start ranting, I'll just click down a few that caught my eye this evening...
...and while they are almost 2000 years old, still cause the gray matter twix' my ears to clatter and clank together, sending up sparks and puffs of smoke from burning electrical connections.

Who said this??

"What's the matter, mortal
with you,
that you coddle yourself with all this sorrow?
Why moan and wail at death?
If your life's benn happy and blessed,
and all those blessings haven't been poured into a leaky pot
to spill away, with nothing left to give thanks for,
why not, as a man who's feasted full of life,
retire contented - fool - and rest in peace?


There's more, that I'll strain my eyes to see, ere I switch off the light and drop the mask down over my face, and
Sleep

The economist

They say that an expert is anyone over 50 miles from home ( for no prophet is recognized in his own land), with a briefcase and the audacity to proclaim that "he knows what to do".


The economist that everyone should be paying attention to is
Gideon Gono.

Inflation is coming back in style. And Gideon Gono is its star. While
other central bankers flounder, he’s proven that you can have
inflation...and have it more abundantly than you want.

Gono, if you haven’t heard of him, is Robert Mugabe’s right hand man. And
Robert Mugabe is the number one man in Zimbabwe, an African country with a
real ‘riches to rags’ story. It was one of the wealthiest and safest
countries in Africa when it was run by Ian Smith in the ’70s. But the
meddlers and world-improvers couldn’t leave well enough alone. They helped
put Mugabe in power. Since then, the place has gone to Hell.

Gideon Gono, 47 years old, lives in a 47-bedroom mansion in Harare. He
says he doesn’t drink, only sleeps 4 hours a night, and runs regularly. He
is known as “Mr. Inflation” for his Olympian efforts to increase the
country’s money supply. He does this the old fashioned way – by printing
pieces of paper will lots of zeros on them. Newsweek Magazine seems to
have found him in a talkative mood:

Asked what he thought of the worldwide credit crash, he replied:

“I sit back and see the world today crying over the recent credit crunch,
becoming hysterical about something which has not even lasted for a year,
and I have been living with it for 10 years. My country has had to go for
the past decade without credit... Out of the necessity to exist, to ensure
my people survive, I had to find myself printing money. I found myself
doing extraordinary things that aren’t in the textbooks. Then the IMF
asked the US to please print money. I began to see the whole world now in
a mode of practicing what they have been saying I should not.”


I haven't met Mr. Gono, wouldn't know him if I ran into him......but I've been hearing from a lot of his litter mates for a while now on all the boobtube information (or dis) broadcasts.

Starting off a little rainy

here at the KGHQ (kudzu grotto headquarters).

Of course yesterday the gray clouds never let the sun shine through either. Mid-winter blahs seem to be settling in and my inner-most child cries, "I wanna go to the beach".
No sand and surf for the wicked though.....although I'll be heading north to Toccoa "the beautiful" in a little while in an effort to stay away from CNN, which the ol' Grump says, "Shows everything over and over for at least 3 days".
Even with the black wand of power in his hand, he'll be mesmerized by the 62" wide eye into the world and sit there till his eyes glaze over and his head falls sideways, as his jaw drops to his chest and soft rumbling come from his inner-most regions.

The following caught my eye as I trekked mightily through the badlands of the interweb emails and other stuff..........





Scary stuff right there.....that's what that is.

But what does it mean for the humble and lowly??? Hmmmmm???

As I've stated before........stock up on food, guns, precious metals (both the brass, and glittery stuff.....keep your head down and your powder dry.

Oh yeah......if you have a chance......pick up a few extra Big Texas Cinnamon Rolls (they'll last 2 or three weeks if'n you don't mind them getting a little bit hard, and maybe a few extra rolls of Charmin. Maybe even some hip waders and rain gear since the amount of BS coming out of TAOTP (the asylum on the Potomac) is gonna continue to get a doctorate....Phd......(piled higher and deeper).

Twilights gone

and dusky dark envelopes me......

as I sit on the squirrels nut cracking stump.

Above the sky has turned to steel gray, with five condensation trails drifting slowly northward, as a sealed, pressurized, aluminum cylinder crossed them to the southwest, heading to Atlanta, or maybe Birmingham at 6 miles high, doing roughly 7/10's the speed of sound. Too high to hear, it's only companion in the night, Venus, shining steadily in the western sky, maybe 25 degrees above the horizon.

The squirrels will likely have larger and plumper kits come spring. The acorn crop was tremendous in the back right quarter of the lot this year. While the treerats have been busily running up and down the trees socking provisions away for the winter, winter it's self has crept up on them and seemingly passed them by, as today it got into the lower 60's. Surely there'll come a colder spell in the next few weeks which will make them curl up with their tails across their nose as they snuggle down into their beds of leaves.

I'm later outside than usual. I'm trying to get my work to a point where it can settle overnight and I can start again as soon as the sun tries to push it's self above the eastern horizon.

I don't mind the onward creep of dark tonight. It's quite except for an occasional car hurrying it's occupants home after a day of work or school. Nothing to intrude into my head except to check on progress every once in a while. After 15 years it's almost automatic.

Soon I'll put the lid on......weigh it down with a rock and step gingerly back to the house. My feet hurt and I look forward to kicking back in the recliner and watching the grand daughter and Nanny making things with the Play-doh.

Doing a little prospecting this morning

I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy -- I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it --
Came out with a fortune last fall, --
Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn't all.

Robert W. Service, The Spell of the Yukon



"There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting; it's luring me on as of old. But it's not the gold that I'm wanting, so much as just finding the gold."-Robert Service, 18-th century miner/poet.

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/bluffs/8336/robertservice/spell.htm


You have to be careful the 'Gold Fever' don't grab you by the 'nads and never let go.

From the Daily Reckoning

Comes this little bit of gristle to gnaw on...


O! Bama! Where is thy bounce? Perhaps it is already over. From their low
in November, to their high a couple weeks ago, stocks worldwide recovered
about a quarter of what they had lost. Now, they seem to be going down
again.

We don’t know what the stock market sees, but we see a lot more trouble
coming.

Houses in Southern California are down 35% from their peak.

Japan says its economy is “worsening rapidly.”

“Air France warns loss is likely” is one headline in Europe this morning;
“German retailer to cut as many as 15,000 jobs,” is another.

But the big news is in the banking sector.

U.S. banks are “effectively insolvent,” says Nouriel Roubini. He figures
losses in the United States might rise to $3.6 trillion – most of it in
banks and broker-dealers. Which leaves the sector a little short. The
banking system in the United States only has $1.4 trillion in capital.

Last week, Bank of America posted a quarterly loss of $1.79 billion...the
first loss it’s taken in 18 years. Citigroup out-did it, with a loss of
$8.29 billion for the last quarter of ’08.

As in Japan in the ’90s, the economic boat cannot right itself until this
bilge is dumped overboard. But the feds are against it – fighting the
correction with every tool they’ve got.

Obama says his team with be “bold and swift” in its efforts to deal with
the problem. But the action they take will be timid and slow. That is,
they will try to hold on...to protect what we have...to prevent change at
all costs. “Yes we can!” they will say. But they can’t make the mistakes
of an entire generation disappear – especially if they try to prevent a
correction.

The truly bold and swift solution, on the other hand, would probably get
him impeached. It would be to simply announce that the Obama government
was letting nature take her course. No more bailouts. No more stimulus
packages. No more federal guarantees or ‘refund checks.’

“Keynes is dead,” Obama should say; “the bankers will get what they
deserve.”

In a matter of days, the whole banking sector would go bust...along with
GM (more about that, below)...and thousands of businesses all over the
country. Millions of people would lose their jobs. Stocks would crash down
to 3,000 on the Dow...maybe lower. There would be keening by widows, whose
husbands had jumped in front of trains or slit their wrists...there would
be gnashing of teeth by millions, whose hopes of getting something for
nothing were suddenly dashed...there would be mobs in the street and
revolution in the air.

A few days later, banks that were still solvent would pick up the pieces
of those that had gone bust. And gradually, the economy would pick
up...building on a much more solid base.

But don’t trouble yourself about it, dear reader. That won’t happen.
Instead, Mr. Obama will take the more cautious route... More below.

*** What can the Obama team really do? He plans a rescue for banks – above
and beyond the $825 billion fiscal stimulus. He will “reform” health care
– our guess is that he will want to make a system of European-style
national health care his legacy contribution. He will offer more
guarantees, more bailouts, more stimulus. He will probably turn the banks
into quasi-public utilities...heavily regulated, with little appetite for
risk and little taste for capitalism.

“Creeping nationalization,” is how Bloomberg describes the process. In
Britain, the Royal Bank of Scotland will serve as a ‘guinea pig.’ It’s
lost 3/4 of its share value in the last two days. The government will keep
it alive...but it will become a ‘zombie’ – more dead than alive...more
ward of the state than independent financial institution.

Of course, these fixes will do more harm than good. They will retard,
delay, and detour the inevitable correction. Which will cause the Obama
Administration to turn to other, more desperate measures. Here’s the real
story...

Yesterday’s front page headline from the Financial Times:

“Treasury gives go-ahead to ‘print money.’”

We felt like saving the paper. Like the Times edition that announced the
German invasion of Poland in 1940, it is probably the start of something
big. Something catastrophic.

*** GM announced yesterday that it would probably run out of money in
March. As to a bailout, we turn to a letter that appeared last week in the
Manufacturing and Technology Journal. It is from a man who seems to have
grease under his nails and a brain under his hat. Greg Knox, president of
Knox Machinery in Franklin, Ohio, explains why he is not in favor of a
bail out for Detroit.

“Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same
entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in UAW halls
for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this
nation, awaiting our new ‘messiah’, Pres-elect Obama, to wave his magic
wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing
our once great nation to keep ‘living the dream’... Believe me folks, The
dream is over!

“This dream where we can ignore the consumer for years while management
myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that
our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant,
ignorant and laziest entitlement minded ‘laborers’ without paying the
price for these atrocities...this dream where you still think the masses
will line up to buy our products for ever and ever.

“Don’t even think about telling me I’m wrong. Don’t accuse me of not
knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi,
Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM’s
throughout the Midwest during the past 30 years and what I’ve seen over
those years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting. Troy
Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: ‘There is
widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and
especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the
result of bad management which it certainly is not.’

“You’re right Mr. Clarke, it’s not JUST management...how about the
electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making
people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass...so they can
come in on the weekend and make double and triple time...for a job they
easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work week. How about
the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare
tactics...for putting out too many parts on a shift...and for being too
productive (We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been
getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must
we?!?)

“Do you folks really not know about this stuff?!? How about this great
sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke’s sad plea: ‘over the last few years
...we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors.’
What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!? Did we
really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and
them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go
on? What a joke!

“We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United
States auto industry for decades. It’s time to pay for your sins,
Detroit.

“I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan
Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research, surprised the crowd when
he said he would not have given the banks a penny of ‘bailout money’.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘this would cause short term problems,’ but despite what
people like politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the
sun would in fact rise the next day... and the following very important
thing would happen...where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new
efficient ones would pop up...that is how a free market system works...it
does work...if we would only let it work..."

“But for some nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the
world is right and that capitalism doesn’t work – that we need the
government to step in and ‘save us"’...Save us my ass. Hell – we’re
nationalizing...and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation’s
citizens don’t even have a clue that this is what is really
happening...But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports
teams...yeah – THAT’S really important, isn’t it...

“Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing
vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country?... How can
that be??? Let’s see... Fuel efficient... Listening to customers...
Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul...

“Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr. W. Edwards Deming
four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of
management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce
costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent
planning... Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like
‘the enemy’... Efficient front and back offices... Non union
environment...

“Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn’t be telling anyone
anything they really don’t already know down deep in their hearts. I have
six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone
to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into – my children
do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did when I was their age. I
do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by
the way) – I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the
consequences of their actions and work through it. Radical concept, huh...
Am I there for them in the wings? Of course – but only until such time as
they need to be fully on their own as adults.

“I don’t want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are
unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and
government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins. Bad
news people – it’s coming whether we like it or not. The newly elected
Messiah really doesn’t have a magic wand big enough to ‘make it all go
away.’ I laughed as I heard Obama ‘reeling it back in’ almost immediately
after the final vote count was tallied...‘we really might not do it in a
year...or in four...’ Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was
RUNNING for office.

“Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks ... That house in Florida
really isn’t worth $750,000... People who jump across a border really
don’t deserve free health care benefits... That job driving that forklift
for the Big 3 really isn’t worth $85,000 a year... We really shouldn’t
allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a
country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most
atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe...

“That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn’t
be living in that $485,000 home... Let the market correct itself folks –
it will. Yes it will be painful, but it’s gonna’ be painful either way,
and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it all, is
a nation that appreciates what it has...and doesn’t live beyond its
means...and gets back to basics...and redevelops the patriotic work ethic
that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world...and
probably turns back to God.

“Sorry – don’t cut my head off, I’m just the messenger sharing with you
the ‘bad news’. I hope you take it to heart.

“Gregory J. Knox, President, Knox Machinery, Inc. Franklin, Ohio”

The Audacity of Hope

Now that I have your attention.......

I totally missed the inauguration today. We were in the truck with the radio on and could hear the crowd cheering and the announcer, announcing.......I looked over and asked, "do you want to hear this""? To which I received a firm "no". So over to the country station we flipped.

Then we drove and hour south to find some snow flurries and a Property for sale that we had been trying to get info on for almost a month now.

A Plantation house with 29 acres. Built around 1830, so we were told. We were in a freaking graveyard so far as cell phone reception was concerned, but using the new # posted on the for sale sign got the owner/agent to call us as we were knocking at the front door.

Long story short, she told us where to look for the key and we let ourselves in for a visit.

Needs one hell of a lot of work and money. I figured the land at about 3K per acre and after looking at all the work needed.......complete rewiring which will require that all interior walls have to come off and of course a complete new set of plumbing which was jury-rigged to begin with.......rebuilding of all of the chimney and fireplaces......AND the installation of any kind of heating and air conditioning, plus of course, insulation, of which there was never any except the application of newspaper on the walls under either paint or wallpaper.

I decided the house could either be rebuilt for around $300,000 or refurbished for approximately the same.........take your pick.

The Agent/owner wants half a mil and owes $300K.

I started to tell her we'd take it.......if they would pay me $350,000.00 and reduce the price to 200K.

That is Audacity of Hope right there......that's what that is. They are going to need a lot of luck.

Old times

As I stopped in the living room to cadge a handful of popcorn (not enough salt to my taste) from the wife, I saw that she was watching the PBS show 'Vietnam'. As chance would have it they were showing the part about the battle for Khe Sanh in '68.

It was interesting for a couple of minutes to point out various locales that I'd visited (albeit a couple years later, when we went back and rebuilt it......then I remembered a few other things and decided to bug out.

Supposedly those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. I'm too old to repeat it, and don't particularly like thinking in depth about it.



I've never found an audience who appreciate the humor in the story of the wheel coming off a landing HC 130 Hercules.....bouncing through the refueling area where we were taking on JP-4 and landing in the swimming hole below the waterfall just to the south.

Maybe I don't tell it right.

It many not be justice....

.......but it is Mercy.

I'll not say more as it'd probably devolve into a rambling rant.

Just a little bit more

.
......if this lemon pie and I'll probably have to go put the PJ's on since they have a stretchy waist band.

I readily admit that I didn't cook it myself. WTH I'm at the top of the freaking food chain.....there is someone on the next rung down to do the cooking....

Actually....that's not exactly true. I can cook..and frequently do....just not very well. I'm much better at just eating whatever hasn't turned green in the refrigerator.

We were looking tonight..the wife and I...she settled on something and I got the two boiled eggs sitting there in a little sandwich bag. "Oh goody", I gushed, "I can have egg salad without those damned relish pickles being in it, or celery".

Anyhoo........is there anything more satisfying that being to go to the pantry or Refrigerator and being able to pick from among a variety of items something that strikes your fancy as being edible without too much preparation. Starving waifs in UN protected countries in Africa can't do that. No.....they have to have sex with the piece keepers before that happens. Just goes to show you that there is no free lunch anymore. Well, for another day and a half or so, according to some bitch lawmaker from Maryland I saw on TV news this evening. They're looking for a Federal Government stimulus package to help them out.
Good luck with that.

Well, I better wash that last bite down with a gulp or two of cows milk.

Ya'll have a good night.

Classify this!

It seems that I have spent most of my adult life trying to figure out where I fit in exactly.....and seem no closer to having an answer than at any other time in which I engage in a bit of navel gazing (the belly button kind, not watching ships at the port in Savannah).

Husband, father, son, brother, smart, stupid, Soldier, aviator, world traveler, dairyman, cow inseminator (artifically ya perverts), farmer, redneck, real estate mogul, former foreclosed upon real estate mogul, explosive expert....well really I just packed what I thought was enough dynamite in the holes and let it rip...with sometimes unfortunate consequences.......(Honest boss I thought the curb would look better on the other side of the street), house builder (most of which still stand) reluctant advocate for selling people who really needed a job more life insurance they didn't want and wouldn't pay for, killer of trees both evergreen and decidious, cutter of same into boards that were almost smooth, finder of lost, forgotten and unwanted treasures, seller of some and hoarder of others that serve no useful purpose The trail has led to some unexpected places of pleasure and others of pain.

This weekend found me working at some of the latest insanity.....taking pictures of and posting items for sale on eBay. The mix seems to follow the path already worn in that it is an eclectic mix of things. To wit......

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=110338909264

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT&item=110338976630

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT&item=110339707090

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT&item=110339627058

There should be a time when a man decides what he wants to be when he grows up. I reckon I've still a little more growing up to do. On the other hand....in another 143 years when I'm ready to shed this skin....maybe heaven will need a handyman. Either that or I'll wind up just one more stoker of the fires in Hades. Maybe I can install some air conditioning.

Sorry, I guess you'll have to do a bit of copying and pasting on the links. Suck it up.....I'm not the PEBO......I'm not going to do everything for you.

Join Up Here

Too Much........Ya think

I am really trying to not get all het up 'bout the up-coming coronation of His Most High Glorious Re-incarnation of Honest Abe, Emancipator of million....Nay Billions, the Most Magnificent Arab-Kenyan-Kansasian-Hawaiian-Indonesian-Muslim-Neo-Christian, All things to All People, the Right Awesome-Reverend Wright Protege, husband to her Worship Mistress Michelle-the Once and Future Queen-Bee, The High Browed-Big Ear-ed PEBO His Own Self.

But the fact that the country has to declare a state of Emergency to help pay for the Swearing in of this High Yeller Crook from Chicago causes a RCOB (Red Coating of Blood) to fall over my eyes, and I want to scream and shout that, "The Emperor has no Clothes", till I'm blue in the face.

This is Lunacy on a scale never before imagined by anyone with an IQ of 50 or greater.

Before we are over it, the current World Wide Economic Crisis (WWEC) will make the depression of 1929 and subsequent seem like loosing $2.00 at Keno.......
........and they want to spend H.O.W M.U.C.H????

One Hundred and Ten Million Pounds

I don't know what that is in Monopoly Money but to spend that much at this time should cause any sane American to weep, gnash their teeth and pick ol' Betsy from over the mantle and march on The Asylum on the Potomac shooting politicians and bureaucrats from the local stripe on up, leaving them writhing on the ground in a tangle of their intestines and blood (I was going to say brain cells 'til I remembered that they have none.

If there was ever a time for REVOLUTION in this country it is now.

I would ask God to help us................but am convinced that they have seen into our hearts and have decided that we are not worthy of saving, and have turned their collective backs on us.

Ask me if I care....

.
......Not much.

I guess that PEBO made a rousing speech over the weekend talking about all the great things he'll be doing in just over a week to get us out of the current economic mess.

I didn't listen....

And Lame Duck George Bush made a speech today, talking about his accomplishments and failures.

I didn't listen again........

Not because I'm not interested.......I am......passionately. Rather it's because I've determined to live my life as disconnectedly as possible from the edicts and pronouncements to emanate from AOP (The Asylum on the Potomac). I've learned from much past experience that they are guaran-damn-teed to do just the opposite from what good ol' common sense would show as the correct course. For instance....

75 years of history proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that socialism will cause even a huge country with natural resources coming out of their ears (see former USSR) to fail.

70 years ago a government tried Fascism (see Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy) and followed a madman into the bowels of hell on earth.

Since the 60's the government has paid unwed mothers to birth bastards or to murder them before birth at government expense, and we have both more bastards and murderers.

Since the 70's our schools have tried to pull up the incompetent or unwilling at the expense of the competent and willing, and we have more unwilling incompetents, and higher paid teachers and exponentially more supervisors.

We got all these things by listening to those who told us they knew what to do for us, so we abandoned Common Sense in favor of believing The Leaders of the Cult of No Personal Responsibility.

My Question is.......are we willing to once again take up the mantle of personal Resonsibility?

Hot off the presses

And 52 years later...

The Wall Street Journal writes about it......

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years


*

By STEPHEN MOORE

Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster.

Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.

Rand, who had come to America from Soviet Russia with striking insights into totalitarianism and the destructiveness of socialism, was already a celebrity. The left, naturally, hated her. But as recently as 1991, a survey by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?

These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act." Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.

The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."

When Rand was writing in the 1950s, one of the pillars of American industrial might was the railroads. In her novel the railroad owner, Dagny Taggart, an enterprising industrialist, has a FedEx-like vision for expansion and first-rate service by rail. But she is continuously badgered, cajoled, taxed, ruled and regulated -- always in the public interest -- into bankruptcy. Sound far-fetched? On the day I sat down to write this ode to "Atlas," a Wall Street Journal headline blared: "Rail Shippers Ask Congress to Regulate Freight Prices."

In one chapter of the book, an entrepreneur invents a new miracle metal -- stronger but lighter than steel. The government immediately appropriates the invention in "the public good." The politicians demand that the metal inventor come to Washington and sign over ownership of his invention or lose everything.

The scene is eerily similar to an event late last year when six bank presidents were summoned by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to Washington, and then shuttled into a conference room and told, in effect, that they could not leave until they collectively signed a document handing over percentages of their future profits to the government. The Treasury folks insisted that this shakedown, too, was all in "the public interest."

Ultimately, "Atlas Shrugged" is a celebration of the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect. Critics dismissed the novel as simple-minded, and even some of Rand's political admirers complained that she lacked compassion. Yet one pertinent warning resounds throughout the book: When profits and wealth and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear -- leaving everyone the poorer.

One memorable moment in "Atlas" occurs near the very end, when the economy has been rendered comatose by all the great economic minds in Washington. Finally, and out of desperation, the politicians come to the heroic businessman John Galt (who has resisted their assault on capitalism) and beg him to help them get the economy back on track. The discussion sounds much like what would happen today:

Galt: "You want me to be Economic Dictator?"

Mr. Thompson: "Yes!"

"And you'll obey any order I give?"

"Implicitly!"

"Then start by abolishing all income taxes."

"Oh no!" screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. "We couldn't do that . . . How would we pay government employees?"

"Fire your government employees."

"Oh, no!"

Abolishing the income tax. Now that really would be a genuine economic stimulus. But Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Washington want to do the opposite: to raise the income tax "for purposes of fairness" as Barack Obama puts it.

David Kelley, the president of the Atlas Society, which is dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas, explains that "the older the book gets, the more timely its message." He tells me that there are plans to make "Atlas Shrugged" into a major motion picture -- it is the only classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie. "We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now."

Mr. Moore is senior economics writer for The Wall Street Journal editorial page.


You can find the article above at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html

Ain't it th' truth

To all those who have been by my side.........or need me to be by theirs, watch this and see if you don't feel goooood.



Maybe you'll say you don't need any Kum-by-ya in your life.........
........just wait, you will.

I'm so embarassed

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!


I only scored 14 on the Obama Test

Ouch!!!

Drove for two days.....

My ass is tired and numb.



Feels kinda like he looks...............but then..... he can carry a tune.

Money

SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!!

That's what every one is shouting these days. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme

G.I.V.E..........M.E.

Besides as ol' Everret Dirkson (I think) once said, "A Billion here, a Billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.
I suppose it's not difficult to substitute T's for B's.

It seems to me, that one of the things that got us into the economic mess that we find ourselves in today is the creation of trillions of new $ bills and throwing them out into a market place where they artificially jacked up the price of everything from houses to hookers. Easy money is like power.......it corrupts.
Throwing more (like they are going to do, I guaran-damn-tee it), is just going to corrupt even more. The fruit has been drawing fruit flies for a while......it has a way to go before the mold gets fuzzy and the stench drives you out of the house.

We are a long....long....long......long.............long way from seeing the bottom of this particular cesspool. Hope you have your snorkel on.

A New Years Wish

This is a New Years Wish that I can really get behind.

Go Here

We often don't think of what the wounded go through either physically or mentally. One thing that is as true now as 40 years ago is a burning desire to rejoin your unit and comrades, no matter how tough the fight they are in.

God Bless Them.

Here at last

Let's hope that 2009 has a lot of goodies in store for us.

I rang in the new year last night about 9:30 in the traditional way...Wish it was more than once a year...........just kidding.

The wife cooked a huge pot of Collard greens and another huge pot of blackeyed peas yesterday......then today after they were safely ensconced in the freezer we went down to the SIL's and ate their peas and collards. No ham hocks though.........had a delicious rotisserie yard hen for the protein portion. Served with a lovely vintage.....well really, stirred together today, lemonade.......we chowed down till a little more than full.

Hope we can afford to eat so well next New Years Day.

I'll not bore you with prognostications of the future, nor with wildly unattainable goals for the coming annual circuit around Sol.

I'll just say that I'm gonna do whatever I can to make sure me and mine are warm and well clothed in 2009. If that involves actually going out and looking for what we need......so be it.......damned if I'm gonna wait for the idiots on the Potomac to dictate what I should do or tell me how much they feel my pain.

I bought some scrap on the last day of 2008, which will ensure that there was no profit to be shown on the 1040 so they can suck wind over getting anything more than sales and fuel taxes outa me, and I'm gonna do everything I can to do the same in this year. Maybe I will buy a bit more precious metal for the SKS, the Marlin .22, the Franchi .20 guage and some of the other bits of antique iron works I don't have.

Let's make this the year we pass The Fair Tax bill.