How to cure the Health Care Mess once and for all

Much screaming and shouting, pointing and pontificating has been going on over the last year about what must be done to fix health care in this country.

Hey, I get my health care free from a Government Run Bureaucracy I'm allowed to talk about it.

Everyone on both sides of the political spectrum up in the AOTP (Asylum on the Potomac) has his or her own idea of how best to control the dumb masses back home in every aspect of their daily lives. (Watch them, listen to them, if you don't come to the conclusion that they all think we're too stupid to breath without them pumping on our chests, then you would never make a good scout, or spy and need to rethink your future career path.)

I have been really glad that I'm enrolled with the Veterans Administration for my health care needs. It would have been even better though if I had not needed to pull that little obligation for past services rendered out of my pocket. (Probably most people who have known me over the last 40 years realized it a long time before I did).

I have received what I consider excellent care by caring professionals, but looking closely at things one can see a vast bureaucracy that any private organization would pare by considerable, and you can still hear of instances where substandard treatment is given to Veterans and the facilities are not anywhere near as modern as what we are lucky enough here in Georgia to have.

UPDATE AT 3:42AM

Of course what I neglected to write last night as it was just a severe head cold, I thought, is that I would wake up a few minutes ago with what seems like Pneumonia, and instead of being able to go to the local emergency room for treatment on the government teat as one would be able to you'd think, I as an enrollee in the VA system have to have authorization from my local VA provider to do so, else I can still go to the local emergency room and receive treatment at my own expense, which would be good except that the Budget for this months VA Disability Pension Check has already been spent.

So I wait.....till the hours of normal business times.....when I can try to cadge my way into a visit with my physician at the local Charlie Norwood VA Medical Clinic, but sense I don't have an appointed time will likely either be told that I can wait all day in the waiting room and they will try to fit me in, or I can drive or be driven down to Augusta to the Main VA Medical Center Emergency Care Unit, which will of course necessitate the time to drive and then wait in line until they call me there, during which time no palliative care will be forth coming.

This is Government Run Health Care.......Are you sure this is what you want.

Face it.....people come from all over the world to be treated here in American Hospitals. Would they do that if their own countries health care was up to the task. Sure the expense's are great. Look at the amount of make work they are required to do by a Federal Urge to Control run AMOK.

Perhaps we should read what Ann
has to say in her article today; after that perhaps it could be suggested to youngsters at an early age that they have a responsibility to take care of their own needs starting at and early age both for medical care and the possibility of living to an age where they can earn a living as once they did.

You know, saving a little for a rainy day, not counting on the next generation outside your own family bearing the burden of supporting you. Might make you rethink some of the things you tell your kids, wouldn't it.

Noodling about tomorrow

They say tomorrow never comes......

That's true I suppose in some sort of Alice in Wonderland kind of way, but the present of tomorrow will be completely controlled by the decisions of today and yesterday.

Suffice it to say that the medication I normally take every evening has been enhanced by the various OTC potions and palliatives I'm taking to deal with a nasty head cold, sinus draining and a throat made "So-So" (so sore you can't touch it with a powder puff) by hacking and coughing.

Fortunately apple cider vinegar mixed with raw honey with hot water will give temporary relief, I just hope some one of the medications will knock me out long enough to get a couple hours sleep tonight.

Of course then I might dream of the coming financial tsunami that's right now sucking the water away from the beaches.

A couple of paragraphs of one of the newsletters I read tonight......


If Congress can keep the illusion of Federal solvency
only by inflation, it will inflate. This is as sure a
thing
as there is in politics.

If the FED finally balks at hyperinflation, as I think
it will, and Congress does not nationalize it, then there
will be the other kind of default: the across-the-boards
default. This will take down all of the programs. I think
this is what will happen. I think we will avoid
hyperinflation. Call me an optimist.

When the great default pulls the plug on Social
Security and Medicare, what will you do? Do you have a
plan?

On a more personal note, my Three Blue Star Sister up in the North Woods has been admitted to the hospital because of a series of mini strokes.

If you can send some good thought and prayers her way I would take it as a great kindness.

They still don't get it.....

It's the E.C.O.N.O.M.Y. STUPID.

The Arrogance of our evil Over lords continues to be blatant and in our face more and more every day.

Not only are they damned and determined to ram health care up our collective asses, in a time when American Companies are scrambling for every contract and unemployment is at a very real 17% when you include those whose unemployment has run out before they can find a job or those who have just given up and are either applying for welfare or trading in the under ground economy, the State Dept. orders $5.4 Million of Crystal Glass Ware from foreign companies without taking bids from American Companies.

Yeah, they are really concerned for the citizens who pay their salary.

This is Freakin' Sick

Don't visit this Link if you've just eaten.

If you do look take these precautions first.

1. Set any food or drink aside, well out of reach of the keyboard or monitor.
2. Make sure that you have swallowed any food or drink that may remain in your mouth.
3. If you are on high blood pressure medication be sure you have taken it and it has time to start working.
4. Don't blame me if you clicked before reading all percautions.

We'll discuss the ethics of euthanasia at another time.

"In order to pay for the enormous amounts of food she is eating — her weekly grocery bill is $815 — Ms Simpson makes money by running a website where men pay to watch her consume fast food."

Damn

Blue skies and following seas.

Guyk has hung it up.

I'll miss his shit and wit.

I couldn't think of an Air Force saying for the title, so substituted an old Navy farewell. I do indeed hope he and his sweet thing fare well down there on the left coast of Florida.

The older I get (and I'm not old, just getting a little older every day) the more people I can look back with thankfulness for having them be a small part of my life; especially the ones who I never met except through their writings.

I sometimes think that writers have helped shape my life more than some of the actual people and events I've known and experienced.

Which is not to say that family upbringing and school didn't help shape me, it did in ways that I'm still discovering. A little time spent among the fellowship of warriors in strange and far away places has left it's inevitable mark upon my soul. A mark that is still sometimes hard to ignore.

Raising a family and trying to be a husband and father went a long way towards revealing my inadequacies and teaching me a little bit about love.

Failures, of which there have been many, have taught me much more than any of the successes that came my way. Missed opportunities have tried to teach me to seize the day and not worry about what might of been, only of what is yet to come.

Through all of these though, I have been fortunate enough to have read the works of a few writers which have caused me to think on the nature of humanity and the works of men.

The works of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Homer, Lucretius, Shakespeare, John D. McDonald, Robert Heinlein, Moses, Isaiah, The Gospels, Nephi, Smith.....

Hell I could go on for pages and not give credit to them all. Nowadays a lot of them write blogs that are funny, sad, angry, commensense...too many to get to everyday without neglecting some of the more important things in life.

Funny the things that go into shaping a person.

Guy, for the little bit of shaping that came from you, Thanks.

Obama lies, People die

Every administration in the White House and the Congress are accused of being untruthful once in a while......hell even most of the time.....especially by the opposite party.

And generally the accusations are true to one extent or another.

But I have never before seen such a blatant example of the lying as practiced by the current President and his sycophants. It's as if they are taking the of adage of "repeating the big lie often enough and it becomes the truth" ala Orwell's 1984 to newer and bigger heights.

Andrew Mickey has a few thoughts.

www.q1publishing.com

Too Much Hope and Audacity: Obama’s Budget is Worse than You Thought

Forget the current estimates, the deficits are going to be much, much worse.

Just a few days after Senator Jim Bunning was labeled a “lunatic” for trying to enforce the recently enact Pay-As-You-Go laws, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) releasted its analysis of the Obama Administration’s federal budget proposal.

The CBO forecast the massive deficit spending to add $9.7 trillion to the U.S. government debt. That was $1.2 trillion more than the administration had forecast.

The CBO expects the government debt to increase to 90% of GDP.

(Has any nation ever survived such a ratio?)

The thing is though, these dire estimates are extremely optimistic.

The reason is because the assumptions the projections are based on are absolutely ludicrous.

The generous assumptions include NO recession in the next 10 years (it’s the 90’s boom time all over again! What…nobody told you?), record low inflation, and businesses across the country going on an unprecedented hiring spree, just to name a few.

When these hopeful assumptions never materialize, the ramifications will be widespread.

Although only time will tell how bad the deficit/debt will actually be, we can be pretty sure it will be far worse than both the White House’s and the CBO’s estimates. The reason is because they are based on five assumptions which, quite frankly, just aren’t going to happen.

Unemployment Rate:

Assumed: 6.68% 10-year average

Reality: The current headline unemployment rate is 9.7%. The last time it reached this high was in 1982.

Back then the government was cutting taxes and deregulating businesses. They were making mostly right moves. But even making the right moves still led to an average headline unemployment rate of 7.04% for the following decade.

The booming 80s couldn’t even bring unemployment down as fast as the Obama administration expects over the next 10 years.

(If you've lost your job or are in one that is less than optimal, in your opinion, you'd better create your own source of additional income, because jobs are not going to come back to this country until we enact something along the lines of the Fair Tax to make the economic climate conducive to business.)

As long as the economy fails to ever truly recover, unemployment benefits keep getting extended, and the cost of employment (taxes, mandatory healthcare, higher minimum wage, etc.) keep going up, the next decade averaging 6.68% unemployment is nearly impossible.

Inflation

Official Assumption: 1.61% annual average

Reality: We hear all the regular talk about how inflation isn’t a problem and how the Fed – despite its entire history - will know just the right time to start hiking rates. But if you take a look at the budget assumptions, you can see they truly believe the right moves will be made at just the right time that will lead to the lowest inflation rate in 70 years.

The budget assumption is for inflation in the next decade is lower than any decade since the Great Depression. It’s lower than the 40s, 50s, 60s, and on and on. It’s lower than the long run annual average (1913 to current) of 3.4%.

It’s not impossible, but it hasn’t happened in the past 70 years and none of those decades started off with near-zero interest rates and trillions of freshly printed dollars handed over banks.

10-year T-bond Interest Rate

Assumed: 5.06% average annual rate

Reality: Despite a deficit (as a percentage of GDP) nearly tripling the GDP growth rate and a debt that’s working its way to 100% of GDP, the administration believes it will still be able to borrow money very cheaply.

The assumption, however, is more than 20% below the 57-year average 10-year treasury interest rate of 6.35%.

Unless the government will be able to borrow money at lower rates as its creditworthiness deteriorates, the government’s ability to borrow at the rate of 5.06% is highly doubtful.

Average Interest on 3-Month T-bill

Official Assumption: 3.42% 10-year average

Reality: Same situation as with the 10-year T-Bond. As borrowers credit risk increases, the cost of borrowing does NOT go down.

The assumed 3.42% rate is one of the lowest decade-long average rates in the history of the 3-Month T-Bill.

And to give you an idea of the economic conditions necessary to create such a good environment, you have to go back to the decade between 1997 and 2006. The 90-00s boom years, when population demographics and low inflation were supporting strong GDP growth and low rates, the 3-Month T-Bill yielded an average 3.42%.

Right now, none of those pillars of economic growth are present. But the budget proposal is based on the presumption they are.

Real GDP Growth

Official Assumption: 2.5% annual average

Reality: This is probably the most plausible assumption, but it’s still very optimistic. A quick look at history shows why.

During the stagflationary years between 1972 and 1982 real GDP only grew at a 2.4% annual rate. So 2.5% seems realistic. However, the boom years between 1998 and 2008 was led by 2.66% annual growth in real GDP.

Right now, the government is expecting a return to prosperity despite a massive credit contraction, increased regulation, higher taxes, etc.

Clearly, 2.5% is very optimistic.

(remember, numbers don't lie, but liars will throw out numbers all day to convince you of their expertise)

The budget proposal, which assumes such a strong recovery and an era of unprecedented economic growth, is presenting a “best-case” scenario. And it is still expected to increase the federal debt level by another $9.7 trillion.

It’s yet another case of great expectations. And as we say in our free e-letter, the Prosperity Dispatch, great expectations inevitably lead to great disappointments.

When it comes to the budget, the disappointment will have a widespread impact.

Just think…What happens when the best-case scenario doesn’t materialize, the coming higher tax rates reduce tax revenue, additional entitlement programs get added to the mix, or the economic consequences of a random event like a natural disaster or another major terrorist attack are added into the mix?

None of the answers are good.

For anyone interested in maintaining and growing their wealth in the years ahead, the options will be limited in this kind of environment.

When interest rates rise, the government takes resources away from the most productive areas of the economy, and consumers are paying down debt, it’s going to be a tough run for the most popular investments over the past three decades – stocks and bonds.


Better do what it takes now.....no matter the pain...... to position yourself to survive.

Me and John Wayne

Wow!

What a dream.

Did ya ever wonder what sparks the meandering of the mind during a dream?

I just came thrashing up out of the covers on the bed; ripping anda snatching at the CPAP mask on my face.

John Wayne and I along with a few other including a house of gold-hearted working girls in a bar/meeting hall had established the beginnings of a town in a bucolic valley deep in the mountains way the hell off somewhere. (hey it's a dream there were no road signs, OK?)

Working to build living quarters and protecting the place from nefarious types from far and wide. Claims jumpers, beaters of women, you know the type, we were kept busy just trying to keep the rif-raf out.

Despite our best shooting and efforts the town grew....technology intruded......a sawmill...
roads...new houses...flattening of the mountain tops for the building of new house with the inevitable influx of new people, till.......

....... despite numerous wounds received in battles big and small we were reduced to pensioners waiting of the dividend checks from the electric power station up near the big highway, which John tells me I should be glad to get.

Strange, the things that flash between the bits of gray matter late at night, or depending on how you look at it......early in the morning.

Does it mean anything......or was it that last handful of bugles I washed down with Diet Pepsi before bedtime?

Whatever, John Wayne will always be a hero of mine for one quote...

"Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid."

Borrow and Spend, Borrow and Spend

As the child of parents who were born during the Great depression and grand child of their parents who experienced the boom times of the twenties and the bust of the thirties, I remember well the admonitions of both groups to save my money and prepare for a rainy day. Placing my allowance of 50 cents into a large Welch's Grape Juice can once a week was just one of the many ways they contrived to screw up my young life by not allowing me to obtain what I wanted when I wanted, no matter the cost.

Like so many of my generation we were sure we were smarter than those old fogeys and besides it was the age of Aquarius and free Money had to go hand in hand with Free Love, didn't it?

Despite all their teachings and counsel we chose instead to listen to the siren call of living and investing with OPM (other people's money) and letting the natural process of inflation in the price of everything be paid with ever decreasing value of those green pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them.

Never having learned that the value of the USD $ did not change for one hundred years since shortly after the founding of this Free Nation to the confiscation of real money by Frank Roosevelt and the Creature from Jekyll Island in 1934 and the subsequent declaration after said confiscation that it was suddenly worth 75 % more than they had told us it was worth as they conned us out of it, effectively making them that much richer than the day before.

Every dog has it's day doesn't it?

By convincing us to live for today and they'd insure tomorrow we allowed them to force our industries overseas, assuring us that we'd become a service economy just shuffling paper and enjoying mindless entertainment.

How's that working out for you now? Huummmm??

We don't laugh at the court jesters as much these days when they tell their little stories about the lords and ladies, all done with massive loads of sarcasm and humor so as to blunt the daggers and arrows of scorn which they so richly deserve, making the wounds seemingly minor and diverting our attention away from the trickle of blood which gradually becomes a pulsating torrent of ichor draining down or leg and out through the gutters as we watch dazedly, weakened past the point of reacting, to our doom.

Maybe we ought to laugh, after all, we've all contributed to the bloodletting.

So for your amusement.....

One of the Court Jesters.....



Borrow and Spend Economics to Pay for Borrowing and Spending
by The Mogambo Guru


Okay, I will admit that we had a little accidental gunfire around here recently, but nobody was hurt, and all that really happened is that I wasted a lot of very expensive ammunition and scared the hell out of a lot of people, including myself, a commotion which instantly activated my Amazing Mogambo Reflexes (AMR), making me drop the delicious Hostess Cupcake that I was noisily eating and take cover on the floor, falling, as I did, on top of the aforesaid cupcake, smashing it all over myself, and all over the floor, which made it taste terrible after that.

But the surprising gunfire was not my fault, as I had just read that the Federal Reserve is being as dangerously incompetent as ever by continuing to massively increase the money supply (which is so horrible because it causes inflation in prices) so that they can buy up (monetize) at least a part of the massive, monstrous, mega-moolah Treasury debt issuance that will be necessary to fund the unbelievable sum of, as I understand it, $1.9 trillion in government deficit-spending in the upcoming One Freaking Year (OFY) as a result of the massive spending of the terrible, awful, worse-than-I-had-feared, demon-from-hell Obama administration, plus trillions more for the needs of the private sector, and a trillion or so in Congressional "supplemental appropriations" throughout the year as Congress periodically, almost ritually in a Satanic kind of way, "discovers" that their original estimate of their borrowing needs was inadequate, and - surprise! - that these slimy, lying bastards need LOTS and lots more money!

I can see by rereading that paragraph that I was so wrapped up in heaping Massive Mogambo Scorn (MMS) on the arrogant, radical-Left Obama, on every sniveling Democrat in the place, most of the Republicans, and on the despicable, guilty-as-charged, incompetent Federal Reserve that I never actually got around to telling you how much money and credit the Fed created last week, which was the original point I was going to make for some reason other than decrying such irresponsible expansions of the money supply that will guarantee horrific, economy-destroying, dollar-destroying, soul-destroying inflation in prices, but I forgot what I was planning to say about it, to tell you the truth, but with or without it, the increase in Fed Credit last week was another $5.2 billion, which (although terrifying), is less than his usual increase, and at $5.2 billion, is merely twice the usual weekly rate of money and credit creation by the monster Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, who - single-handedly! - created all the economic mess of the world by merely creating $10 billion-or-so per month of new Federal Reserve money and credit!

Now, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, a clueless academic, still stubbornly hews to that same, tired, insipid-yet-stupid neo-Keynesian econometric theory that has now been shown to be not only wrong, wrong, wrong, but also stupidly and catastrophically wrong, which doesn't say anything at all about the morons, like Ben Bernanke and Alan Blinder, who are themselves mere representative examples of the neo-Keynesian econometric bozos rampant in the world today, all of whom believe in such imbecilities as their precious economic theories in the face of, literally, overwhelming evidence to the contrary! It is absurd on its face! Ya gotta laugh! Hahahaha!

Interestingly, a crucial part of the stupid Keynesian nonsense holds that the government can, by virtue of borrowing the money, replace any perceived lost "consumer demand", in any economic downturn, by merely borrowing and spending money, even if borrowing and spending money was the cause of the original downturn, and that there are no repercussions that cannot be solved by more borrowing and spending, and that inflation in prices has nothing to do with the money supply but with irrational exuberance! Which doesn't even make any sense! Hahahah! It doesn't even freaking make sense!!

Sharp-eyed Junior Mogambo Rangers (JMRs) will recognize the two exclamation points as indicators of something, usually the preceding sentence (as in this case), as being very important, as, now that I notice, it is, in this case, in that it is Beyond Freaking Crazy (BFC)!!!

Horrors! The punctuation using the rare triple exclamation point! You can tell I am on a roll here! I suggest you go to someplace safe in your house where your enemies would have to attempt a painful frontal assault against you, and as you wait, you think to yourself, "Obviously, this is extremely important! As indeed it is, now that I think about it after it has been drawn to my attention, thanks to the Magnificent Mogambo (MM), because you do not get anything except total, unmitigated disaster from inept management by people who cannot be controlled and who are Beyond Freaking Crazy (BFC)!"

I am very proud of you for thinking this, as it shows that it has all become clear: The preponderance of people on this planet, and in our universities, and in our media, and in our governments, and in our central banks are BFC lunatics if they think that borrowing (racking up debt) and spending money will "cure" the bust of the boom produced by borrowing (racking up debt) and spending the money! Hahahaha!

I immediately think of the joke, "Doctor! I've been gorging myself, but I never lose any weight!" but it doesn't seem to fit the conversation, somehow, and it doesn't really seem to have anything to do with anything I was talking about, which makes me think that maybe my subconscious is telling me that I SHOULD have been talking about it, which doesn't make any sense, either, because I don't think anyone needs advice on how to gorge themselves, and in fact, people seem quite disgusted when I do it, although it makes their kids laugh, meaning that the kids like me better than they like their own parents, which is a small victory for me and, although small, is a victory.

So I say to the kids, who just showed how much they love me, "Hey, kids! Tell your parents that they are idiots unless they buy gold, silver and oil right now, because unless they do, they are going to be poor when excessive government deficit-spending and excessive Federal Reserve over-creation of money and credit make prices soar as the buying power of the dollar falls, which means that you will be poor, and you tell them how you don't want to be poor, and how you have been thinking about, in an idle sort of economic self-defense way, the many, many advantages of being too young to be charged with a capital crime should they fail to acquire the aforesaid gold, silver and oil!"

This is where the parents turned around and gave me this "dirty look", which I interpreted to mean, "I surrender, under protest, to your magnificent, powerful presentation of the case for gold, silver and oil, enhanced by the paranoid notion that my own children are threatening to kill me in some bizarre extortion racket involving gold, silver and oil that you have planted in my head, which I realize is all for my own good because I now see that only an idiot would not buy gold, silver and oil when the government and the banks are acting so despicably! Thank you, handsome stranger!"

The name's Mogambo, ma'am. It's my job.

What OBAMA!'s Budget Doesn't Mention

For way too many years now I've ranted and raved about everything from Real Money to Fraudulent Government by Fiat Money to Idiots like the current crew of critters in the Asylum on the Potomac.

Most of my family and friends got tired of listening to me and tuned me out. That's not surprising in retrospect, although it did give me a little bit of cynicism and disgust with the average intelligence of people in large groups. If your IQ is 115 or over just look around; Every other person you see has an IQ of less than 100, that has to scare you just a little bit. Of course as a former Troop Commander in Germany told a group of us at the Officers Club at Grafenveer; "There is a place in the world for the professional private. Some one always has to do the scut work".

Just try to make sure it's not you! Helps if you actually paid attention in grade school.

In part this feeble effort at wit and wisdom is to give an anonymous outlet (well, if you discount the fact that my e-mail is readily available to anyone who wants it) for those disturbing factoids, paranoid phantasys, cobbled together conspiracy theories, and an occasional shout from the watchtower about the imagined hobgoblins bearing down against the unprotected village.

So tonight rather than try to come up with yet another improbable explanation for my agitation I'll let someone else give you their idea of what's coming.

He stated that this article could be shared with any of my friends, as since you are either friends I have met or friends I haven't met yet, here you go.


What OBAMA!'s Budget Doesn't Mention
By Porter Stansberry

Nobody likes bad news.

A few years ago, I got in hot water by insisting General Motors was bankrupt. Supporters of the company (whether investors or unionized employees) got mad at me and said I was exaggerating. They rightly pointed out GM was still servicing its debts and was still owned by its equity holders. Thus, technically at least, GM wasn't bankrupt.

In order to avoid any unnecessary litigiousness, I began to write in parody, pretending to be the chairman of General Motors and warning of the company's impending bankruptcy. One of the few ways you can still speak unpleasant truths in America is by using – or pretending to use – humor. That's why, for example, Chris Rock and Bill Cosby are our most poignant commentators on race relations and why John Stewart is perhaps our most insightful news commentator.

Meanwhile, the bankruptcy of General Motors was far from a laughing matter.

GM had no conceivable way to repay its debts. It was even borrowing money to pay for the interest expense on its existing debts.

Monitoring the company closely between 2006 and 2009 taught me quite a bit about willful self-deception. Here are the three key traits I look for now in companies facing major financial stress...

No. 1. There's never any real tally of the total amount owed. GM used byzantine accounting to hide the truth of its deteriorating fiscal condition for nearly 20 years. It was impossible for any outside analyst to get an accurate, consolidated account of GM's total debt.

No. 2. None of the company's "turnaround" plans include any efforts to actually repay principal amounts owed.

No. 3. The company's spending is out of control. In GM's case, it was also rife with fraud and absurdity – like, for example, its jobs bank where people were paid not to work.

If you don't know how much you owe, if you make no attempt to ever repay your debts, and if your spending is out of control, there's no way to avoid bankruptcy. In retrospect, these facts seem so plain and obvious. But who else was warning about GM? No one.

I bring this up to you today because the exact same things are now true about the United States of America.

We don't know how much we owe. We don't have any plan to repay our debt. And our spending is still completely out of control...

OBAMA! has sent a new budget to Congress. It contains several provisions that will make people unhappy. Taxes are going up on the rich. They're going up on private-equity firms and hedge funds. They're going up on oil and gas companies. And they're going up on multinational companies.

These new taxes are what you'll see people arguing about. They are what the politicians will complain and campaign about. Nobody wants to pay the costs of government, so that's the easy sell. But the taxes aren't the real problem with OBAMA!'s budget...

The real problem is that government spending is literally out of control.

The government is going to reduce its so-called "discretionary" spending by a grand total of $200 billion. Only about $1.4 trillion of the government's $3.8 trillion budget is discretionary. The rest is legally required, thanks to unfunded entitlement programs, like Medicare. So right now, far less than half of the government's annual budget can legally be restrained.

Meanwhile, there's no accurate tally of the government's debt. Supposedly, we owe around $12 trillion. This number is so large that it is meaningless. What does it really mean? According to the IRS, almost 143 million people filed tax returns in 2007 (the most recently reported year).

Of these people, roughly 96 million paid something in taxes – even one penny. Thus, technically, you could say there are basically 100 million taxpayers in the United States. Dividing the total debt ($12 trillion) by the number of taxpayers, you can see our total debt is actually $120,000 per taxpayer. How many people do you know can afford an additional $120,000 in debt?

And the truth is, the $12 trillion figure is only a down payment on our actual debts.

For example, nobody really knows how much more money Fannie and Freddie will require. (My bet is $500 billion each – or $1 trillion.) On Christmas Eve, when no one was looking, Congress approved unlimited funding for the two national mortgage banks.

And that's far from the only "off-budget" item. We have committed to fighting two civil wars – in Iraq and Afghanistan. The costs are likely to be $50 billion or so next year alone. How much over the next 10 years? Maybe $1 trillion? Or maybe more. And there's a new "jobs package" that's estimated to cost $76 billion next year with another $25 billion to bail out cash-strapped state governments.

Even if you only looked at the dollar amounts that have been budgeted today and you ignored all of the rest of the growth of future entitlement spending, you'll discover that we actually owe something around $20 trillion right now.

And if $20 trillion is the real number, then the amount owed by taxpayers is actually $200,000 each. Of course, that's if you're counting all of the taxpayers. Most people, though, pay almost nothing in taxes. Unless you're earning more than $50,000 per year, you're not really contributing to the tax receipts. Roughly 50 million folks are in this category. These people pay less than 10% of all income tax receipts. So you shouldn't count on them to repay much, if any, of these debts – they can't.

What's the real per-capita number? My best estimate – just on the money we actually owe today – is $400,000 per taxpayer. At a reasonable (6%) rate of interest that's $24,000 each – just to pay the interest on these debts each year. How many people do you know that could afford $24,000 a year in higher taxes? How many people can afford additional debts of $400,000?

My point? Our government is bankrupt – right now, today. Sure, it might still have access to the credit markets. And yes, since it owes dollars, it can always simply print more. I realize the government can't go bankrupt they way GM did. Our bondholders won't end up getting title to our national parks and the strategic petroleum reserve. No, that's not going to happen.

What will happen?

I can't say for certain. But here's what I know: It's not a good idea for the world's largest debtor and the world's strongest military power to go broke. Bad things happen in democracies when the government goes broke. At the very least, our creditors will demand much higher interest rates and abandon the use of our currency. That's going to devastate our standard of living.

These facts and figures should cause you to wake up and think about what you're doing with your savings. Here's a hint: Don't save dollars. And don't count on whatever the government has promised to you, whether it is a retirement or medical care. The government is bankrupt. It won't be able to deliver.


If anyone sees a good way out of the coming mess, I'd appreciate a heads up on how to go about avoiding it.

Explaining the Math

Did you ever sit in a math class and watch as one student just could not understand the concept.




Maybe in this case Obama should suspend for a moment his arrogant assumption that he is the All-Wise-All-Knowing Wizard and look behind himself to realize that the curtains have been drawn and he's revealed at the charlatan he really is, standing there pulling levers, blowing smoke, clashing cymbals, while all the time the little boy is pointing, laughing and shouting, "The Emperor has NO clothes".

(sorry for the mixed Metaphors)

Of course it would be easier to expose him were he not surrounded by moonbats like Pelosi, Reid, Rham and the whole of the MSM.

Spring

is only 18 days and a few hours away.

Just a little bit longer than it's been since finger took to keyboard here at the Kudzu Grotto (KG).

We had one of those snowy days that I as a born and bred Southerner like to see. A quick snow shower that lasted from about 8:30am 'til 3:00pm or so. A wet snow that stuck to the ground and roof tops but didn't build up on the trees and power lines. By supper time is was rapidly melting away. What makes it through the night will likely be gone by this time tomorrow.

Nothing much happening around here worthy of talking about; hence the lack of posting. To be true it's not the first time for such a hiatus, and won't be the last I reckon.

It seems our political overlords are damned and determined to ram through a health care bill over the objections of the majority of the citizenry.

This is what happens when we elect politicians who think they know better than we what is good for us. Have you scrapped those Obama/Biden stickers off your car bumper yet?

I'm getting a bad feeling about this folks. It's as if they are determined to force a bloody confrontation between the tit and the tit suckers. The suckers and suckees if you will. I don't know about you but I've been shot at before and am not looking forward giving anyone another chance to ventilate this aging carcass. It's a good thing though that I had the sighting eye adjusted back to 20/15 for those long shots. May be time to invest a few bucks on some range time soon. Send some precious metal down range.

In other news I see that the Postmaster General suggested that drastic changes would have to be made in the postal system soon. Of course no one paid him any attention, but if it would save $8,000,000,000.00 a year to a system to that currently loses $4,000,000,000.00 a year to cut out Saturday delivery, it makes sense to me.

Face it, the USPS is a dying dinosaur. True the Constitution (Article 1. Section 4) calls for the establishment of Post Offices and Post Roads, but it didn't say they had to be continued if new technology and private entities were able to more effectively and efficiently provide the same services. Let it die. It doesn't have to do it tomorrow, but the artificial life support we provide it by subsidizing continual monetary losses will only prolong the agony to little effect. Of course if it were able to downsize and become financially competitive again I'd be a strong supporter and would cheer from the sidelines enthusiastically, but without drastic changes which will be opposed at every turn by the Postal Employees Union I don't see that happening. After all, today I paid this months bills by Bill Pay from my bank, sitting in the comfort of my five way adjustable office chair. No stamps, no envelope, no problem, no muss. Why didn't I do this sooner?


Nancy Pelosi, the harridan from Haight Ashbury has opened her mouth again to say

"Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes. Republicans have left their imprint."

Can you believe the voters in her district keep re-electing her term after term?

If no one from the opposite party votes for it, how is that bipartisan?

Only in the minds of liberals folks.

Eighty-eight and six tenths percent pure

That was the result of the assay on the Alaskan Gold.

About what we were hoping for.....maybe a little less. Still not too bad considering I've seen lower results down in the 70% range.

The young man I got it from (well, young to me, anybody aged 69 who will wrestle a 5 inch dredge in the cold waters of an Alaskan river, wearing a heated wet suit and weighted belt to enable him to suck through 12 feet of over burden to get down to the bedrock, gets to be called young. No fat on he, looked friendly enough but from the looks of his hands and arms not someone I'd be arm wrestling anytime soon) drives up every summer in his Ford 4-door flatbed pulling a camping trailer, accompanied by his girlfriend, to live out in the wilderness, far from tv and cellphones. Now that would have to be an adventure. To come back with any gold would be just icing on the cake in my NSHO.

The older I get the more things I add to the nebulous dreamy sort of wishing things I'd like to try.

Civilization and society......work and all the things necessary to put the necessities on the table for a family can put off any dreams of getting into a hot air balloon and dashing around the world in 80 days.

Still I'm not sure when you reach the point where you start saying it's too late for any of those things you want to do. Depends on what you are willing to do to reach those stars, I guess.

Maybe I'll start looking in my scrap metal pile to see what I have that will work on my personal moon rocket.

What's your dream? Hmmmmmmmm?

Old Time Country Wisdom

Guy over at Charming just Charming sorta squirted oil in amongst the two brain cells in my noggin and got 'em rubbing up against one another and I tried to comment on his post.

Unfortunately for reasons unknown to me, as I'm no computer expert, I was unable to, but he always has something that makes me think in his blog.

He's giving thought to quitting this mental masturbatory mastication, and if he does, while not slowing the turning of the earth around the sun one whit, it will seem to dim the blog-o-sphere for a while to me.

So I'll put my comment here and chew over it for a while.

Ol' Hank spoke truly when he sang, "no matter how we struggle and strive, we never get out of this world alive".

But perhaps the struggle and strive is the purpose of it all. We all get our chance to choose, and those chances and choices determine our paths, for we all walk many paths, not all of which lead to our destination, but perhaps.....preparing us for it.. Or not. Therein lies the mystery. Many there are who claim to know where they are going. I'm just trying to figure out where I'm at.



Do those strivings and struggles determine more than where we are as our finale breath is given back to the universe?

Guess we'll see........each in their own time.

Whatta you think?

UPDATE on the Pooch

We got word from the Vet today that the pooch's knot on the side is benign (as in not malignant).
This is great news as the wife would never let me put him down the old fashioned way and doggie cancer treatment is as expensive as human treatment.
(And NO I have no intention of preforming any such deed on the pooch, although I would if necessary and feel no guilt, only an immense sadness. I have done the deed many times; all necessary and all distasteful, no matter the necessity. Who decides... I do. Didn't you watch Ol' Yeller?)

They say a Dog

.
...will love you even when you kick it.

That may be true, although I haven't kicked one lately, I have been guilty of speaking sternly and even running my dog Gracie off when she wants to be petted and scratched when she becomes annoying or I'm trying to get something else done.

Still when I walk into the back yard she will come flying up to me, bouncing and flouncing, her ears flopping and her bi-colored eyes (one blue, one brown) a-sparkle; to all appearances totally happy to see me and desirous of only being close to me. If I try to shoo her off, she'll wrinkle her nose and pull her lips away from her teeth to show me she's submissive to me, but still wants to be invited closer and petted. Only a deepening of my voice and a stern NO! or Go Away! will convince her to leave off trying to cadge a pet or belly rub.

The wife's dog on the other hand is a little less demonstrative, certainly towards me, as she is the person he's chosen to give his total affection to.

Oh, he'll want me to scratch his back or rub his fat tummy, and if I sit too long here in front of the computer in the evening while he and the wife are watching TV, he'll come in here and give a little growl indicating I'm to follow him, and if I do he'll lead me to the living room and jump up on the couch beside his mistress and watch for me to sit by him.

Not between him and her, by any means. If I do he'll climb over me and get between us. He simply considers me a part of his pack and when it gets along towards bed time he wants everyone together.

For about a week or a little more we have noticed a small knot on one of his left ribs. In the last couple of days it has grown a little larger.

This morning the wife carried him to the Vet. In a couple of days, hopefully, we'll get some word on what might be the problem. I've included him in a couple of heartfelt prayers. Hope someone is listening.



Meanwhile, whenever the wife leaves and he doesn't get to go, he'll sit or stand on the stool by the front window, watching and waiting for her return, whereupon he'll greet her as Gracie greets me.



Some might say they only love us because we feed them.

I'm not convinced

Ah hab a code in my node.

And it's aggra-damn-vating. Starting on the third day of dribblin; and snifflin' my nose is so raw from snortin' and blowin' that I have a blood blister on the end almost. Can't take much more of this.....I needs me some warm weather and a little brown sin-yo-rita with a case of Puff's Plus; somewhere with sunny beaches and lots of diet green tea.

Cold.....well cold for here.....stayed below freezing 'til nearly noon and the wind was snapping flags straight out and giving sharp little pops ever now and then when a particularly strong gust would come by. I was giving serious thought to putting a few cement blocks up on the polyethylene shelter I work under.

Not having a long scarf like my more northern cousins I grabbed an 18 inch long piece of jersey jacket sleeve to put over my nose, holding it in place with the hood of my jacket snugged tightly down and tied below my double chins so I could re-breathe warmer air to avoid the pain from my raw nostrils and sinus cavities.
Woulda been a good day to sleep before a Fisher brand woodstove
I'm just hoping these Tylenol Sinus Congestion and Pain tablets start to work before I turn in.

Gonna meet a lady and her partner from Alaska tomorrow who are bringing down some Alaskan Gold for me to assay. Generally not as pure as what we have here in North GA, but it'll be fun for the exercise. Maybe not as much fun as living in Palin Country during the summer and running a dredge in the creeks and streams, but then I don't have to move south for the winter either.

I've a couple of friends from Central America (one from El Salvador near Metapan and the other from Mexico City but with a farm northeast of Acapulco) who want to make a trip with me to their countries to seek out places to pan or dredge for gold. A little nervous though about getting out in the boonies and maybe tripping over some drug lord's pot field. Picks and shovels are only good for storming Frankenstein Castle and not going up against people with a more valuable commodity to protect.

Still it might be fun to go and see the sights, and if done in the wintertime the warm climes would be nice.

Global Warming Update.

Breaking news......

The local version of Global Warming has dumped a measured 4 1/2 inches of the frozen kind on the ground and decks around the KG (Kudzu Grotto).

All outdoor activities of any kind are forbidden, unless, of course, the pooch needs to go tinkle on a bush, until after I've awakened and had a yard egg or two in the AM tomorrow.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Friday night activities.

Here comes the Snow

While those of you living farther North or West of here have already said that, whether with joy or disgust, we in the upper Piedmont of East Georgia have only just started getting some of the forecast 3 to 5 inches of the rain of a frozen kind. It started maybe 30 minutes ago and has steadily increased in intensity every since.

It has been cold enough for it to stick to the cars, trees and grass all day and I'm sure as nightly steadily approaches we'll see it sticking to the highways and byways soon. The afternoon and evening newscast will be filled with idiots outside talking about all the snow up over their shoe soles and the finder-benders happening on I-285 around Atlanta.

As for me, the wife and ol' Grump.....we're stocked up on propane, heaters and a new camping grill in case the power goes out as it did last year. Of course then we got an honest 9 inches and were without power for 3 1/2 days..

The only thing I'm really concerned about is the polyethylene covered shelter where I work in the back of the lot. Last year saw many of them collapsed as the thin metal poles holing up the roof gave way to the inexorable weight piled upon them. I intend to keep close vigilance until midnight when this stuff is supposed to quit, and keep the snow brushed off.

One good thing about all the frozen parts of the world these days.......it has quietened considerable the eco-moonbats who have been barking about AGW (global warming) and driven that shithead Al Gore into the deeper recesses of his multi-million $, resource wasting mansion up in Tennessee. If it freezes him in for the rest of my life and I never have to see or hear him again it will be too soon.

Well, I thought I might be able to post something without getting snarky about some politician or other. Guess I was aiming a little too high.

You all keep warm and drink lots of hot chocolate....add a few of those little marshmallows if you got 'em.

Just go Here and read.

H/T to Yabu

Can't

...bring my self to do it.

It's getting along time of the day to avail myself of various medications supplied by all you wonderful taxpayers out there. As a recipient of assorted and sundry services from the VA in return for my not going postal all over the place I can understand the frustrations sometimes (very occasionally, I'm sure) provoked by having to deal with over-paid, and overly anxious not to have to do any kind of actual work for said over-payment, federal, state or local bureaucratic time waster appointed to deal with all us lower class citizens who come hat-in-hand expecting to receive what some other %#@&*! (sorry words fail me here, apply your favorite word for above said bureaucrats) has informed us we are entitled to.

In light of the current political climate and a natural upwelling of reasonable and rational people against it I can understand somewhat the discomfiture of my friend Fred down in what should by now be our 51st state.

Is it any wonder that ammo of most calibers and guages is disappearing from WalMart shelves nearly as fast as they put it up?

You can only push a person so far before they begin to push back.

Can't what? Can't bring myself to type the word for the embassy employee in Guadalajara that sprang unbidden into my mind. But you could change a couple letters in the title above.

What are your Rights?

With all of 7 lookers on a good day it avails me not at all to waste my time trying to explain anything.

But if you want to link over to Left Coast Rebel you can listen to the man on the video for a couple minutes and if you want more follow the link in the post.

If not, it will not affect me in any way; unless you try to stop my exercise of mine.

Inexcusable Omissions

It's said that there are two types of sin.......the acts of commission...and the acts of omission.

Sad to say I have been, and still am, guilty of both.

But there is no excusing the sin of omission I've been committing since the last update of my links in the side bar.

Hopefully with the addition of Paladin of The Reluctant Paladin as well as the beauteous as well as talented Joan of Primordial Slack my cries of mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maximus culpa will be slightly more believable.

Go forth and worship at their alters.

The end of another week

Another week of almost no postings (one on Sunday) and none worthy of comment.

A week of one nice day where the temp was 50's with sunshine and the rest progressively worse until today it's mid-thirties with cold, miserable rain that make the bones ache and runs you back inside pretty quickly.

I've been out twice for a few minutes and Gracie, the dog that loves me, wouldn't even venture out of her pooch mansion on the shop porch, a straw filled barrel with a gunny sack hung over the front for a door except to slip her head out when I stepped up on the porch. I gave her a quick pat and said, "good girl, stay there, you've more sense than I have".

I started the Au precipitating, covered it over and sloshed through the muddy rain soaked yard back to the house. I'd check the news sites on this here interweb but don't want to ruin a perfectly good keyboard by upchucking on another one.

One good bit of international commerce this morning. The Antique Bicycle lamp I had for sale on eBay with 4 people emailing me from Spain, Netherlands, England and Germany was won by a thrifty New Hampshire bidder.

See http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110487272357&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT

The friend I listed it for will be very happy as am I.

Now I have to decide whether to refine the gold head off the walking stick I bought from him yesterday (made in 1900) or try to sell it on eBay.



Don't you think I'd look like Fred Astaire if I had on my Top Hat and Tails? His hair was a little thin on top also if I remember right.

Maybe I'd better cover my hair also:



Just Damn, the life of an itinerant junk buyer.

A drop in the bucket

I see where the president has miraculously found the grand sum of $20 Billion that can be cut from this years budget.

I'm very happy.

Well, somewhat.

I note with some little concern that the deficit for this fiscal year is estimated to be $1.75 Trillion out of a total budget of $3.55 Trillion.

Just a little playing with a calculator reveals that the proposed budget contains 49.29% more in spending than in receipts. Just Damn.

To put that in perspective that I can relate to, that means that this year out of a projected income of $32,876.00 I would spend $63,577.64. Hey, maybe I can take that trip to visit the pyramids of Mexico for a month or two. Shoot...maybe I can move up from hamburger to Ground Chuck.

If I would reduce my budget by the same percentage (0.005633% or $358.13) I would only be in the hole $30343.51 instead of the projected $30701.64.

Well...that's do-able. All I have to do is cut back about 40 or so whopper value meals. Oh, wait. I don't eat that many whopper value meals a year. Oh well, I'm sure I can do it even if I don't exactly know how right now.

This still doesn't address the fact that I'll spend $30 K more than I'll take in this year. I'm sure all my friends and neighbors won't mind chipping in a little bit......especially since I'll be sending my goons around to collect it at the point of a gun. They don't mind when the Government does it.

As the ol' Carrot Eater says, "What's up Doc?". How can we possibly allow them to spend nearly twice what they take in? I guess if you are working for the government or getting your sociable insecurity from them you don't mind.

Testing

testing

I'm Not Jealous

...really I'm not.

But Pam just has a better way of writing and describing someone than I.

Partying Pig Pelosi at the Taxpayer Trough: Hundreds of Thousands on In-flight Booze and Food

ROTFLMAO

The Saturday Report

We dodged the bullet on the icy weather last night. Not sorry in the least about that. Just a little coolish this morning with a misty bit of rain. Not too much to do outside but will be doing that under shelter all wrapped up in a hand me down coat some kid left at the school the SIL works at a couple years ago and when summer break came and no owner came to claim it she passed along to me. Just damn...some middle school kid was as big as I (nearly 200 lbs). It must be all those steroids in the hamburgers these days.

The Big News is that I found when I checked my bank account online this morning, our bank has been closed and taken over by another. I'm not too surprised by that as a friend called yesterday with the rumor, which was one of a long string, and I was expecting it. Supposedly there had been a little drug money laundering going on along with some foreign loan losses.

The good news, so they say, is that everything will go along as normal except they have a new owner. Of course I have about $249,800.00 less than the amount FDIC will cover in there so the government will be insuring my accounts. Doesn't make me feel all that much safer, I have to say.

Money backed by nothing but the full faith and credit of the United States doesn't make one feel secure in these days and times. Basically they create money out of nothing, sign an IOU to the Federal Reserve and pretend it has some intrinsic value. We can see on the financial news each night what that is worth.

Wonder how many people lost their jobs last night?

Tell me again why we keep on electing these critters.

The Complete Perversion of the Law

But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.

How has this perversion of the law been accomplished? And what have been the results?

The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy.

The Drudge Report has this Article about the Illustrious Madam Speaker of the House.

Starting Over

Rough weather ahead for tonight. Supposed to just miss us to the north; sure hope so. I generally don't pay the weather much attention now-a-days. Not like I did years ago while running the dairy farm. Back then I carried and listened to a weather radio at least twice a day, especially in the summer and fall when we were cutting hay or getting in other crops.

These days if it's cold I either stay inside or put on more clothes....if hot I stay inside in the air-conditioning and dress a little more lightly when venturing outside...although through habit of many long years and in remembrance of my skinny legged youth I never wear shorts...
today the whiteness of the skin would blind anyone within 300 yards...back then I didn't want to be teased about my knobby knees or be told only sissies would wear shorts. Try bucking alfalfa hay while wearing anything less than denim jeans for a while and it begins to make a little sense.

Oh yeah......Starting Over.

A couple years ago I thought to start anOther Blog chronicling the efforts to start over from nearly scratch and the thoughts on what it would take and any successes or further failures.

Didn't last long as I often have not much to say here less success there. Mostly just a little ranting or observations.

Today, however, the starting over has been much in my mind as when turning off the by-pass onto 441 N I had to stop on the exit ramp behind a semi waiting for the light and noticed a young woman standing in the cold shivering and holding a very small sign made of a single sheet of notebook paper. As I stopped behind the trailer I shouted out the window, "trying to get somewhere"? She shook her head No.

It was not until she stepped closer that I could make out the sign that read "Homeless need help". Not an apparent derelict, wino, druggie, just a young woman probably less than 30 years old and the clothes were neat, if perhaps a little less than the weather might have called for.

I reached in my pocket and pulled out a couple sawbucks to give her..to get a 'God bless you' as the truck pulled out and I followed.

As I pulled away heading about a mile north to AirGas to pick up a set of new regulators for my torch I caught myself doing a little mental ass kicking....both wondering if she was just a moocher or if I should have done more like call my buddy who's tied into the local shelters and churches which might have been of a little more help to her.

I decided to make my return trip go past the intersection to stop and ask her if she wanted me to contact my friend........but, she was no longer there. Perhaps the $20 was all she needed to get her next hit or she'd gone down to the convenience store to warm up with some coffee, or maybe something warmer at the package store next door.

Whatever.....I wish her well. But the incident made me think of how close we've been to that same scenario and of all the people in the country right now who are in the same boat or only one paycheck away.

It can be hard to start over.......or it can be a very liberating experience. One can literally put everything but your thoughts behind you and strike out to stand or fall by your own efforts........or perhaps the charity of others.......and in this country now-a-days the generosity of the government who have no compunction about taking the fruits on your labor through the force of law to give however the bureaucrats decide is most politically productive.

I'll probably mull on this some more here in the world wide web. I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Perhaps I will look at that other blog again.

Tango, Mike Mike

There are days on end that go by and I begin to think that I have at least most of my shit in a sock. Got things together so to speak....the locals can sleep safely in their huts tonight...
th' demons have been beaten back to outside the firelight and the watchmen are on the towers.

Don't get me wrong....I don't regret one f***ing minute

Then while checking the websites of a few unmet friends I run across something like This..

"I don't respect your right to take the Fifth Amendment. Not at all," Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-New Jersey, told the couple.


A damned dim-o-crit from New Jersey. Wouldn't you know. The man stood up placed his hand on a bible and swore to uphold the Constitution of The United States which includs the Bill of Rights. Either the asshat has never read that divinely inspired document or he was lying through his teeth to the people of his district and by extension the people of America when he said, "I do".

For that simple sentence alone he should be immediately escorted from the halls of Congress and banished for life from this country and made to live in Haiti.

I suppose you could defend him by citing the 1st Ammendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


and I'm sure he would be the first to proclaim his right to free speech, but to my mind the willingness to strip the protection of another's right under any of the Constitutional Protections invalidates all of his.

I hope the people of his district are happy with the scum sucker they elected to office.

For over two centuries brave men and women have fought, bled and died to secure those rights both for the citizens of this country and other peoples of the world.

Men like Master Sergent Roy P Benavidez



Bill Pascrell Jr, you scum sucker, I hope I never bump up against you, your stench couldn't be removed even by Clorex. It's such a shame that he's not the only one like that up there.

A big hat tip to Mike and LL for all they do.

If you don't like the weather in Georgia...

.
....Just wait a while.

That was today. What started out as a sorta nice temperature wise day with a bit of rain devolved into a wind, almost blustry, day that would drive you inside to more inviting climes.

Still I did my duty and then after lunch traveled up to Lula intersection on 965.

On the way back home I came across a Ford Ranger pickup truck with only the right front wheel off the pavement and as I went around caught sight of a woman with bare arms carrying a two gallon gas can. A determined set to her jaw she was headed about a mile up the road for gas.

I stopped and offered to help push the truck out of the road a bit more, but she only wanted a ride to the store and back....."It won't take a minute". Loaded up and off we go only to meet a sheriff's car as we were almost at the small country store.

"Bet he'll be there waiting for you when you get back", I said. "Oh Lord", she moaned.

Two dollars of gas is not a lot anymore. That's what she bought, and off we rolled back down the highway, where sure enough the deputy was waiting with lights flashing. No harm -- no foul. He watched out for other cars as she put about 3 quarts of 87 octane in the truck and rumbled off back to the same store to get enough more to reach her destination.

Friends, there are some sure enough redneck wimmen out there. If you see one with short blondish orange hair and hippie beads around her neck, make sure she has enough gas to get back home.

Rainy Thursday

Gently falling rain interspersed with brief periods of slightly heavier rain here in the Classic City...but the temperature is a pleasant 55 degrees and inside the house it feels almost tropical even though the heat pump isn't cycling on and off every few minutes. In fact I don't recall hearing it since I arose from bed after spending a miserable night of up and down because of sinus congestion causing a slight cough.

I'll get outside to work in a bit. Sure am glad I bought that shelter back in the fall.
Gracie and I will sit out there and listen to the raindrops hit the polyethylene cover. Not quite as nice as a tin roof but will do for a 'pore' boy.

The German paper Der Spiegel gives the death knell to Obama while he and his power grabber are exercising further power over Banks. Guess most of them never read Atlas_Shrugged.

While the powers that currently be currently keep a somewhat low profile, the World Bankers will only allow the politicians to go in a direction so far until it begins to interfere with their own plans.....and make no mistake...while the current battles are with the politicians....the war is with those who create money out of nothing and cause us to en debt ourselves to them in unbreakable chains of mortgages and credit card payments. While some few hardy souls have the will and drive to remove those chains through a life of frugality and hard work, the chains lie so softly on most of us that we in our comfort hardly even know their there.

Well, off to the salt mine in the back yard. Stay dry and tell someone you love them.

A New Day

Another sunny day here in the 'hood'. The sun has made it's way up over the pine trees and the 45 degrees feels mighty good compared to the 'teen's' of last week. This is more like it. This is one of the reasons I like living in the south. The north can keep their beautiful white snows. Give me days like this that keep hope alive and enough warmth to let us do a little outside loafing.

Emotionally it also feels like a good day for the Constitutional Republic. Scott Brown’s election in the heart of enemy territory gives me a little hope that enough people are awakening to the dangers to Liberty that we'll be able to stall for a little longer the long slow slide down the fun ride into a one world socialist government when the individual is marginalized into droid-hood.

Already we see the reaction of Slobbering Barney Frank and the dumb-o-crats in Congress to this upstart new Senator and his Pick-em-up-Truck. We'll just change the rules and do what we want anyway. I think he's made enough trips out to the barn and bent over a hay bale for the donkeys to bugger that he's no longer got the sphincter elasticity to hold his shit in. That prissy look on his face is probably caused by having to sit in a soiled diaper all day at Senate hearings.

Still I'm not getting my hopes up too high. Brown made way too many allusions to that great patriot Ted Kennedy.

Time, as it always does, will 'tell the tale' with more completeness than we now know.

Now let's go outside.

Winter in the South.....

.......can sometimes bring days of such stark beauty that you just want to sit in the sun and absorb as much as you can of the crystal blue sky above the bare reaching limbs of the one hundred year old white oak in the back yard.

Today was one of those.

While it started out with a little bit of a nip....enough to want an extra knit shirt on for warmth.....it soon warmed up to where that came off and you started rolling up the shirt sleeves a cuff or two.

Gracie Mae the Dalmatian with one blue eye and one brown eye came gallumping out of her straw filled barrel as soon as I set foot to the back deck. No lolly-gagging about with her snout tucked under her hind leg against the chill this morning....she was ready to greet me and the day....happy to sit by my side as we both soaked up the 60 degree warmth on the south porch of the tool shed. While she's a needy dog, constantly wanting to push her head under the hand resting on my thigh, she is wise enough to know when to turn and wander off on her own when my questioning of how she's doin' begins to wander off into musing about the general sorry state of things in the world today.

E-mails have been sent to both the Birmingham News and the Birmingham Public Library seeking information on the Trophy Cup from 1922. I guess we'll just have to wait a few days to see if anyone finds it of enough interest to bother either contacting me or looking up any long dormant information.

I determined I'd need a bigger buffing wheel and a long extension for the cordless drill to reach down into the narrow recess of the cup in my first attempts to remove the grime and tarnish inside the cup. While I almost hate to use the tripoli, it's slightly greater abrasiveness will be necessary to cut through the gunk, then changing the wheel and applying rouge will hopefully restore the satiny silver shine to the inside.

Silver is like a beautiful woman......warm and smooth....but requiring constant care and attention to prevent the subtle encroachments of time from dulling the outer surface. Of course with time a wonderful patina is obtained and she is appreciated for her true worth and not just the shiny outer surfaces. You just have to decide which is of more worth.

It may be like that with the blessing of liberty passed down to us from the Founding Fathers.
We begin to see that it's necessary to get out the cleaning cloth now and again to remove the corruption that we've allowed to build up.

If only it were as simple as applying some polish and elbow grease.

The Prize

UPDATED: Sunday Morning.

In 1922, Birmingham Alabama, there was a playground, where, perhaps on a summer day, a Saturday perhaps, there was held a Track & Field Meet. The contests were run, heroes named, trophies given in recognition of Effort, Persistence, Determination, and perhaps, in some few instances, Luck.

I was not there, nor do I know if anyone of my family were there, although my father was born in Birmingham six and a half or seven years later. I do know that relatives probably live there to this day, although I do not know them.

How do I come to have knowledge of this long forgotten event? Well you may ask, since I have never to my knowledge been in the city limits of Birmingham, Alabama.




Yet today I acquired a Loving Cup Trophy from that event in the purchase of a bit of scrap silver. A large Trophy, standing 14 inches tall, 10 inches wide at the widest point of the art deco style handles. It weighs in at 28 troy ounces; made of sterling silver, it looks to have been neglected for many years...perhaps even used as a flower vase from the looks of the inside... until some one happened across it in an estate sale or flea market....or, I shudder to think, even a junk heap, from whence it was salvaged, scrubbed a bit with some abrasive (savages) and eventually found it's way to my hands. It looks like it could use a bit of tender loving care (no pun intended). A "do over" as the southern ladies would say on their monthly visit to the beauty and hair emporium.

I cannot tell who was the recipient of such a noble prize, as the inscription says "Boys Trophy" with the words "won by" under that and strangely no name where it should have been engraved.



Perhaps the winner was loath to turn it loose long enough for the local jeweler to scribe his name. Perhaps there simply was not enough funds to pay for that service, but it was presented by the Birmingham News, a paper no doubt......and there is where I'll start my investigation. Searching out said paper.....or if they have faded into the yellowed pages of history...perhaps the local library's micro-film records of old news papers if they still exist.




For as I start the slow process of cleaning the accumulated tarnish and grime of 88 years from the cup, gently tapping out what nick and dings as can be reached, straightening a bit of lean in the base which gives it a slightly drunken look, I'll also try to find out whose name should go in the rightful place.

A fools errand you think?

Perhaps so. But we lose a bit of our collective soul when we let those gone before (and while it's barely possible the winner still lives, not likely) fade entirely into the dust of oblivion.

Or perhaps I'm just trying to stave off the inevitable tick-tocking down of my own appointed time.

We all want a "Do Over" now and again....don't we?

Pictures to be posted later....it's late and the bed calls........

It can happen to anyone.....

.........especially if you are a small business or sole proprietorship.

Lord knows I had my problems with the IRS until I started filing every year completely and using all the available deductions to my advantage.

The Tax Code is so many thousands of pages long that it have become incomprehensible even to the people who work there. Don't believe it, just call them up and ask what the answer to one of your tax questions is. Then call back and ask the next operator the same question. It is likely that even if you asked 10 CPA's the same question, you'd get 10 different answers.

The only way to go in my opinion is THE FAIR TAX. If you are not familiar with it you need to do a little reading and research on your own.

Go to Fair Tax. Org and check it out.

It can happen to anyone.....

Saturday Funnies

One of my favorite performers of all time lends his voice for the cause.



Play it loud.....play it proud!

If you are not registered to vote, do so, then this fall vote your conscience.

Catching my breath

It's been a little busy here around the KG (kudzu grotto) this the first week of the New Year.

It's also been cold and windy. Nothing like they are having in the upper tier of states of course ..... I'd swear that no one with any good sense would live up there, but my Niece, who sent me the link to a great video and story about our troops overseas and the ideals they strive to live up to (see Here) and others like the indomitable and delectable LL, live there year round so the summer must be pretty nice to make up for the fug-ugly winter weather. It feels like the proverbial 'Witches tit in a brass bra' to me down here so up there must be colder than a well diggers ass in the Arctic.

Still we plug along.

Oh yes.........2 days ago the wife and I entered into the 43rd year of wedded bliss... I know...we started out as babies. Good thing we didn't wait till we knew better, I might have missed out on much joy. We went to the local steak house where I had a salad and lots of red meat cooked just enough to turn the inside a little pink. My contribution to the anti-PETA efforts.

For the wife's Christmas present last month I bought her enough laminate wood flooring to do the living room and get rid of the carpet I continually track mud upon. Can you believe how much dirt stays in a carpet? So for our Anniversary I bought enough flooring to do the hall floor also.

Not romantic enough for you? She has diamonds and gold enough, there is still chocolate candy left over from Christmas......she has access to a whole gun cabinet of firearms if the mood strikes.........what better thing to please her than a shiny new maple colored floor.

Maybe if she lasts until the golden wedding anniversary I'll get new carpet for the bedrooms.

The last two days has been occupied by actually putting down some of the flooring.....almost done......just like two runs down the hallway,... and my usual running up and down the roads looking for shiny things. I'm kinda like a crow......if it shines I'll swoop down and try to carry it back to my nest. I would say that unlike the crow I don't try to hoard it all, but still, some things like the 5 Morgan $'s and the $100 replica in 4oz of .999 silver proof may have found a home. Others like the pair of Royal Wedding Silver Pendants put out by the Franklin Mint back when Charles and Diana entered into the Holy State of Matrimony back in '81 will likely either be auctioned off or melted into an unrecognizable blob before long.

Remember how their marriage was the biggest story of the Century back then..followed, of course, by the Divorce of the Century a few years later, which was it's self followed by the car crash of the Century a few years after that?

Let's all hope that when and if Prince William takes a bride he'll have learned several lessons from the mistakes of his parents.

Anyway back to the Microwave to reheat this cup of green tea. Time to surf a while and learn what else has been happening today while I wasn't looking.

Be Good.......or at least if you can't be good don't get caught.

How Ya doin' young fella?

Thus queried the guy behind the counter at Fedex today as I entered to mail my weekly package out.

Having just passed the 60 mark a week and a half ago I was at once delighted that someone would call me a young fella, but somewhat confused as the gentleman had fewer gray hairs than I and fewer wrinkles around the eyes by far. Smooth as a babies butt would have been a suitable description of his cheeks.

"Well thank you", I said, "But I suspect I might have a couple years on you".

"I'm nearly 70", he said............. whoa.....got me by nearly 10 years. Didn't look it.

He'd either liveed a stress free life with no wife and kids, or had availed himself of one of those Lifestyle Lifts you see advertised on TV.

After leaving I started pondering a little bit on the fact that in a couple of years I'll be eligible to start drawing my Sociable Security. Hot damn, just think, what joy will be mine when I start drawing those $750.00 payments on the first of every month. Las Vegas here I come. I'll be living the high life then.

Wow, just about had a Myocardial Infarction just thinking about it.. I guess that's what the gubbermint hopes seeing as how they've plundered the Social Security fund for each of the last 40 years and put IOU's in their stead pledging the full faith and credit of the United States to stand behind them. What will happen when people start losing faith in this country.

Trustees say that while the financial standing of Social Security decreased more sharply than Medicare last year, the health program remains at greater risk of insolvency. The financial difficulties facing Social Security and Medicare pose serious challenges, the report concluded.

How many more years will Peter allow himself to be robbed in order for Paul to be paid? At what point will there be not enough workers paying into the system to keep us old farts in medicine and just enough poverty to survive.

How long will the government continue waging wars in a vain effort to reduce the potential future recipients of Social Security and decide that it would be cheaper to conscript retirees to go and spill their worthless blood, and keep the young healthy workers back here at home flipping burgers and providing servants for the service economy at wages that allow them to buy the cheaply produced foreign junk that is shipped in from third world countries where the profits go to the wealthy and connected.

We've elected a good group of socialists to lead us......I'm sure they'll think of some answer to our future problems soon.

Socialism has come to mean many different things to many people, but regardless how it is defined, in the months immediately ahead it will be put to a rigorous test. The test will be visible to everyone as countries around the globe run out of money and confront overwhelming debts that cannot be repaid as well as other wide-ranging financial promises that can no longer be met. In short, the ideological bankruptcy of socialism will be laid bare by government insolvency.

It had to come sooner or later. The reasons are not hard to understand.

The ideological bankruptcy is neatly captured by British author and advocate for individual rights, Cecil Palmer: “Socialism is workable only in heaven where it isn’t needed, and in hell where they’ve got it”. And government insolvency is explained by famed economist Frederic Bastiat, who made this levelheaded observation nearly 150 years ago about the nascent modern socialism then emerging. “The State is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.” More recently, Margaret Thatcher, being a sensible politician, put it pragmatically: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”

Guess I better put in my application soon huh?

They lie

One day, a seamstress sitting close to a river, made a careless move and in the flash of an eyelid, her thimble departed her finger and fell into the river.

When she cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "My dear child, why are you crying?"

The seamstress explained that her precious thimble had fallen into the water and she desperately needed it to generate extra income to help her husband provide for their family.

The Lord dipped His hand into the water and immediately pulled up a golden thimble set with pearls.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "No."
Again, the seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord reached down again and came up with a soggy leather thimble.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "Yes."

Impressed with the woman's honesty, the Lord allowed her to keep all three thimbles. The seamstress went home happy.

Some years later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along the same riverbank when her husband tripped over some rocks, hit his head, fell into the river and disappeared under the water.

When she cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked her, "Why are you crying?"

"Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with Mel Gibson.

Is this your husband?" the Lord asked.

"Yes," cried the seamstress.

The Lord was furious. "You lied!....that was an untruth!"

The seamstress replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord, you misunderstand my motives. You see, if I had said 'no' to Mel Gibson, you would have produced Tom Cruise. Then if I said 'no' to him, you would have come up with my husband. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have surely rewarded me with all three men. Lord, you need to understand...I'm not in the best of health and would not be able to satisfy all three husbands, so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to Mel Gibson."

The moral of this story is: Whenever a woman lies, it's for a good and honorable reason, and in the best interest of others.

Do you reckon that the people in Washington have become so filled with estrogen that every single one of them wants to be like Nancy Pelosi?

And so it Begins

Nine hours into the New Year. The only fire works heard around here in the 'hood was the sound of some idiot firing off his pistol and what sounded like a high powered rifle. Of course the weather was drizzling rain and cold.......keeping decent hard working folk snug in their homes.

Unlike most New Years I stayed up to watch the clock tick-tock past twelve. Not to get a kiss or pop a cork on a bottle of bubble, but I was watching the 'Burn Notice Marathon' on channel 105. Twenty-three hours straight of Gabrielle_Anwar. Fear not tho intrepids, I only watched about three hours spaced around musing on what 2010 will bring.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid we'll see more of this...

Click on the link Here to see the full article......and send up a few prayers for our troops far from their families.



Into Thine Hand I Commit My Spirit
by Michael Yon

Arghandab, Afghanistan
New Year’s Eve, 2009

On this small base surrounded by a mixture of enemy and friendly territory, a memorial has been erected just next to the Chapel. Inside the tepee are 21 photos of 21 soldiers killed during the first months of a year-long tour of duty. The fallen will belong forever to the honor rolls of the 1-17th Infantry Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, and they will join the sacred list of names of those who have given their lives in service of the United States of America.


—

The symbol of the 2nd Infantry Division is the Indian Head. At night, soldiers of the “Indian Head Division” can be seen passing by the tepee, sometimes stopping to peer inside before walking into the darkness.

Sometimes the soldiers walk by carrying lights that are red or green, or sometimes white. Tonight, Cobra Battery was firing illumination rounds from the cannons, which boom from the darkness, arcing a round into the night, where miles away a canister unsheathes, and the parachute opens, and brightness floats silently, shimmering over the valley where these soldiers died.

The firing is not done in remembrance, but to support ongoing combat operations.

Inside the tepee are the 21 photos, and a Bible. The book is opened to Psalm 31.

In front of each photo, electric candles flicker through the night.

Mostly there is silence.

Soldiers put cigarettes in front of each photo, though they say that many of the fallen did not smoke.

…for thou art my strength.

Only during such times are strong men and women of greatest importance. At all other times we have Hollywood.

Today we need soldiers who never forget their brothers, while they carry forward with devotion and strength.

The War in Afghanistan has truly begun. This will be a long, difficult fight that is set to eclipse anything we’ve seen in Iraq. As 2010 unfolds, my 6th year of war coverage will unfold with it. There is relatively little interest in Afghanistan by comparison to previous interest in Iraq, and so reader interest is low. Afghanistan is serious, very deadly business. Like Iraq, however, it gets pushed around as a political brawling pit while the people fighting the war are mostly forgotten. The arguments at home seem more likely to revolve around a few words from the President than the ground realities of combat here. I can bring the ground realities, but can sustain the coverage only by the graciousness of readers. Please keep that in mind.

Consider clicking on the link at the end of the article and send a dollar to help keep honest reporting of the war coming from someone with feet in the sand instead of getting your news from the talking heads out of New Yack.

Will we be able to avoid having to resort to arms in our own country to kick to the curb our Overlords? This year may be the year we find out.

Entering into my sixth decade of walking around in this skin, I have set and written down my goals and look forward to the opportunity to achieve them. I hope you have done the same.

May the following days bring you happiness and fulfillment no matter what comes into being.