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10/24/09
I guess it's final, or at least I hope it is . . . Rush Limbaugh has been denied an NFL franchise.  I have mixed emotions about this, just as I do about Rush.  He has the most successful radio show in history.    His research and presentation are unmatched in the industry.  When liberals tried to attack his show's sponsors, those sponsors saw their sales skyrocket.  The more the left attacks him, the stronger his show becomes . . . and the larger his ego becomes. His show became popular because he eloquently expressed the thoughts and feelings that reside in the hearts of millions of Americans.  As his show has grown, so has his arrogance.  However, it is unfair to refuse him entry into the NFL owners club just because he is a controversial political/cultural figure.  He should be denied NFL ownership because he tried to inject political/cultural commentary into a football game.  Athletics contests are where we all can truly get along.  Hippies, rednecks and Archie Bunker types are all good buddies when rooting for the home team.  Race, religion, political persuasion or sexual orientation are meaningless if you perform on the field . . or court. . or ice . . or wherever.  If Jesus Christ himself threw a fourth-quarter interception that lost the game, he would be booed at Notre Dame or BYU.

I see that the Prez is going after his critics, ranting against Rush, Hannity and Fox News in particular.  Hmm, kinda reminds you of Nixon, doesn’t it?

9/11/09
Everyone is recalling lots of different things about 9/11, but there is something special that I remember, and it says a lot about America in the months following that fateful day. I remember we were all a bit more civil towards one another. This was most evident, at least for me, on the road. Motorists seemed more courteous and road rage was at a minimum. Off the highways, we were all a little more patient. Whether it was the grocery store or the gas station; we were still busy, but more polite to each other. Hell, even waiting at the DMV was easier to deal with. I kind of miss that collective attitude.
funny.

8/26/09
I get a few emails now and again, from conservative friends. They assume that since I'm not a Liberal, then I must be a good Conservative. They don't seem to realize that I'm too much an American to adopt a rigid political philosophy, be it liberal or conservative. But they're good people and they send me this stuff with the best intentions. Some of it is just wrong, i.e., factually incorrect; some is factually correct, but fails to include information that doesn't support their conclusions. Most of the time I skim over the content, occasionally laugh at it and then hit delete. Particularly galling are those notes that question my patriotism or concern for my country if I don't forward their chain letter to everyone in my address book. Occasionally I will come across something that is poignant, as well as relevant to issues of the time. I received one such note the other day and I've copied it here, sans the hyperbolic formatting and demands to forward.
"Does anybody out there have any memory of the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ..... During the Carter Administration? Anybody?
No?
Didn't think so.
We've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency...the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember.
It was very simple ..
And at the time everybody thought it very appropriate... The 'Department of Energy' was instituted on 8-04-1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
Hey, pretty good idea, eh!
Efficient?????
Well now it's 2009, 32 years later . . . and the budget for this necessary department is at $24.2 Billion a year.  It has 16,000 Federal employees and 100,000 contract employees.
AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!
ARE WE ANY LESS DEPENDENT ON FOREIGN OIL?
Ah, yes, good old bureaucracy...
DO WE REALLY WANT TO GIVE CONTROL OF HEALTHCARE TO THE GOVERNMENT? "
Now, I haven't checked specific facts such as the actual dollar amount of the budfget or the number of federal and contract employees.  I haven't done so because I don't believe those specifics are too important .  I'm confident that the DOE consumes billlions of dollars and has thousands of employees.  What we all need to remember is that the DOE was created to lessen our dependance on foreign oil and has failed to do that.  In the process it has become a bloated Federal bureaucracy and we can't afford to let this happen to our health care.

7/26/09
I thought Obama was going to be a racial uniter; a leader above the fray. However it appears he's chosen sides and decided to trash cops in favor of an elitist who tried playing the race card when he was busted by the cops for being a butthead. WTF is the POTUS doing even commenting on a local, week-old issue?

Buy Toyota, buy American? I just read that the vehicle that has the greatest number of American labor hours in it's manufacturing process is the Toyota Camry. For years the Ford F-150 held that honor, but no more.

Call me naive, but I hoped we would do something positive to reform healthcare. You know, substantially reduce the costs by attacking fraud, limiting the trial lawyers take, improve the efficiency of the system and make insurance more afordable. But it looks like all we're gonna get is the government hijacking 15% of the US economy and a bureaucrat deciding who gets what for healthcare. An overpaid, underworked, miserable government worker (who has no incentive to do a better job than his colleagues) is going to decide whether on not you get a pacemaker.

Global warming? It's the end of July and I can count the number of 90° days this summer on one hand.

3/16/09
WOW! Can this economy get any worse? Nobody's buying cars, so car companies don't need steel or plastic or forgings or glass or whatever. The real estate market is dead and banks don't have money to lend. It seems that every talking head on TV has a solution and our political leadership thinks that throwing money at the problem will make everything better, but we all know that solution rarely produces sustainable success. Oh well, at some point, things will get better. People have to buy cars sooner or later, banks will eventually get squared away and retirement accounts will recoup their lost value. In the meantime a lot of people will suffer. However, you can rest assured that the media elite and the politicians will weather this storm without any substantial change in their daily lives.

While I've always been environmentally conscious, I've never totally bought the man-made global warming argument.  I mean, there is no doubt that the earth has been getting warmer in recent years, but I'm not sure that the warming has been caused by the human race.  I'm not even sure that the extent of the warming that is routinely reported  is accurate.  However, we should have a better idea in a few months.  According to the February issue of Popular Science, polar explorer Pen Hadow will be leading an expedition to measure the ice from Canada to the North Pole.  The crew will be lugging an ice penetrating radar rig that will measure how fast the Polar ice cap is melting.  The trip will cover 1200 miles and should provide more accurate data than the satellite photos we currently rely on.  You can track the crew's progress at, catlinarcticsurvey.com.

Speaking of the environment, the January issue of Popular Science has a short article about dot-com billionaire Elon Musk (think Paypal), who is betting on the electric car of the future vs hybrids or hydrogen fuel cells.  He has become a major investor in Tesla Motors.

My concerns with the environment have always been more related to topics such as the depletion of the world's fish stocks or the pollution of our fresh water supply from pesticide and fertilizer runoff.  While reading the February issue of Popular Mechanics, I came across a story about a real-life environmentalist, dairy farmer Shawn Saylor.  Saylor has managed to collect and process the manure from his 600 cows and use it as fuel for a generator that produces enough electricity to run his Pennsylvania farm.  He actually produces more fuel than the generator can use and plans to add another generator and send power back to the grid.  This guy is my kind of tree hugger and his neighbors are a lot happier with the smells emanating from his farm these days.

And finally, I've finished reading, The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report On The Transformation Of The American Dream and have written my review.  As possibly the most accurate pollster of our time, Zogby has his finger firmly on the pulse of the American public. In his book, he attempts to predict the future.  Only time will tell, but I rather imagine his prognostications will fall by the wayside, as is usually the case with all zealots, regardless of their political or social orientation.  continued here

2/11/09
With Al Franken getting close to taking his seat as a US Senator, I began to ponder how appropriate it is to have a comedian as a politician. I mean, our representatives are frequently referred to as clowns. Maybe the Prez can run with this. I’d love to see Lewis Black as our representative to the UN. We need someone to get fired up and raise a little hell with that crowd. If he doesn’t want the job, perhaps we could resurrect Sam Kinison. I think Michael Moore could . . .Oh wait, he’s not a comedian, he’s a joke.

Has anyone noticed that the Antarctic ice sheet has been increasing, both in area and concentration? It doesn’t seem to be the result of snow falling and freezing, but rather actual seawater freezing. There are some reports that the arctic ice cap has begun to reverse its melting trend. I’m not sure how accurate this information is. I’ve read several sources, but what appears to be the most reliable source is The National Snow and Ice Data Center on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. Has Al Gore has saved the world? Is Hollywood planning a sequel to, An Inconvenient Truth?

Obama is so screwed. I gotta believe he realizes that tax cuts and infrastructure spending are the only things that can possibly revive our economy, but he is so beholden to the liberal elitists that he can’t avoid loading up the stimulus bill with pork. And I’m afraid that propping up failing banks is a losing proposition. They’re just gonna be back in the future for more money. It doesn’t matter how much you give them, they’re still holding bad paper on sub-prime mortgages that people can’t pay. Our President is preparing us for a long recovery, but if that’s the case, the White House will have a new occupant in 2013. This isn’t the 1930’s and the American people won’t give anyone 8 years to clean up this mess.

Although I’m usually long-winded, I’m short on time. However, before I close, I’d like to recommend a little reading. I am usually loath to quote or refer to content by anyone with a reputation for being politically polarizing, regardless of whether they deserve that reputation. But the healthcare crisis and debate crosses political, ethnic and social lines. The magnitude of our healthcare system’s impact on all of us demands an honest consideration and evaluation of all points of view. To that end, I recommend, “Does It Work? Applying the Obama Test to Healthcare” by Newt Gingrich with a follow-up visit to The Center for Health Transformation website.

12/15/08
The Sky Is Falling!! The Sky Is Falling! Cars and Wall Street and Banks, Oh My!
Gimme a break. Yes, the economy is in a severe downturn, but we’ve been here before. Has anyone noticed that in spite of all the doom and gloom about job losses, the roads are still packed at rush hour? The lines at checkout at Walmart are just as long as they’ve ever been. People aren’t dropping their cable service.
I get a kick out of soothsayers like the much heralded Gerald Celente. He predicts food riots, revolution and that America will become an underdeveloped country by 2012. This clown is given a degree of credibility because he’s correctly predicted a few events in the past, but no one talks about all the predictions he’s made that haven’t come true.
His biggest claim to fame is his prediction of the fall of the Soviet Union. DUH!! Under Soviet rule there weren’t any goods or services available. People were in line for bread. Their dream was to own a pair of Levi’s jeans. I have a friend that worked there in the 70s as a consultant to manufacturing plants. The workers had a saying about their jobs, “They (the State) pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.” Uneducated millrats working the steelyards of Pittsburgh, Youngstown or Cleveland could predict that the Soviet system would collapse
Another of Calente’s predictions was the Wall Street correction of 2000. At that time the market gains were based on the tech bubble, which in turn was based on “internet euphoria”. You didn’t need a business plan or marketing proposal. All you needed was a registered domain, a unique idea and a good line of bullshit. The investment guys lost their minds and bet on everything they could. Nobody wanted to miss the next Yahoo. Everyone knew the bubble was going to burst, but nobody, including Celente, knew when. Again, DUH!
There is no question that our economy has some problems ahead, but the free market will prevail in spite of the government’s actions, or inactions. This bailout stuff is a bad idea. It was a bad idea in the 70s when we bailed out NYC and it’s a bad idea today, but I fear we’re too deep into it now to quit. Since we’ve rescued the white-collar financial folks, I guess it’s only fair that we rescue the blue-collar workers. But there are a few things that should be considered to make this government intervention work.
To the money lenders; this is your last shot. If you make a bad loan, deal with it. It’s your nickel; protect yourself because we’re done bailing your sorry asses out.
The SEC must re-introduce a boatload of rules and regulations. If you’re a publicly traded company you may not participate in speculative ventures like futures, derivatives or arbitrage. Those activities belong in Vegas or Atlantic City. If a company engages is such antics and loses the public’s money, the President, Chairman, CEO and CFO belong in jail. And BTW, lets do away with the white-collar prisons. Put these guys in with the murderers, rapists and other thieves. I’ll bet that changes some attitudes and behaviors.
Finally, regardless of how much money you throw at the big 3 automakers, they will never be on sound financial footing until the 900 pound gorilla is dealt with. By that I mean the legacy costs associated with retirement pensions and healthcare. Detroit can produce cars that will compete with Honda, Toyota, et al, despite the higher union wages paid. They cannot survive with the current retirement benefit costs.

The Arizona Memorial was intense and is revered as a graveyard. Visitors to the park are given a brief history lesson via an introduction by one of the guides followed by a short movie. Then it’s off to the actual Memorial by boat. The Memorial sits atop the sunken Arizona, which still leaks oil today. They don’t know when it will stop and they won’t investigate the source because to do so would mean disturbing the graves of all those sailors whose bodies are still entombed on the ship. As I said, this was a bit intense.

11/10/09
We also visited another landmark in Oklahoma, one that was equally emotional: The Oklahoma City National Memorial.

We approached the west gate and were immediately taken aback by the “tokens of remembrance and hope” that people continue to leave on the fence. That fence is part of the original fence erected to protect the site. It’s been constantly adorned with “tokens” that people have left there over the years, and still leave today. I believe the number of items is greater than 60,000.
The engraving on the gate wall profoundly sets the tone for the memorial:

We visited the Memorial at twilight and that only added to the eerie atmosphere of the scene. The light reflecting off the pool, combined with the empty chairs, seemed to create an almost haunted scene. Indeed, it was as if you could hear the cries of anguish from the souls lost on that day. Talk about your emotional moments. 168 people, including 19 children, died because a bunch of hoodlums wanted to make a statement protesting our government. As I recall, the FBI, in typical government fashion, screwed up the arrest procedure for a crowd of right-wing religious criminals and they all died. In response, some other extreme right-wing clowns execute a group of government workers and children in a federal building. To an old guy (a FOGDad), the emotion bounces between sorrow and anger. We must never forget . . .or forgive. Punks like McVeigh and Nichols, William Ayers, the Islamic fascists, as well as the lowlifes that bomb abortion clinics: all of them must be stopped and put down. There can be no understanding, mitigation or acceptance; their right to protest ends at my nose, and yours, and our kids’ noses.
The visit to the Memorial was worth the trip by itself and I highly recommend it to anyone that has the chance to go.

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