Land of Oz

Third World States

Yeah, it's been awhile, but I'm getting back on my blogging horse again.

An article in the Detroit Free Press tells that Detroit students have scored a record low in test scores. The state has the highest unemployment of the United States. More people are leaving the state than ever before (no wonder). I wonder if Detroit has a political office that isn't corrupt and stealing people's money. The whole state is based on an industry that can't seem to figure out how to build a good economical car, and is slowly dissolving into a government-backed organization that keep even keep a boss in office for more than a few months.

And it's not just Detroit. Flint has decided to just bulldoze parts of the city and turn them into parks. The houses are empty except for crack heads and meth labs and feral dogs roam the city in packs. Most of the city of Saginaw looks like a set from an end-of-the-world movie and the gangs run rampant on the east side - and they're slowing working their way into the west side. The law doesn't seem to be able to help. This summer a man rescuing a woman was literally torn to shreds by pit bulls and the dogs owners have yet to go to trial, while he spends more time in an operating room than Tiger does on a golf course. There are "after-hour clubs" in Saginaw that are sink holes of crime and the city is powerless to close them.

Michigan is rapidly becoming a third world state. And now we're sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. A country in name only where they've been fighting each other and strangers for hundreds of years. Why bother? As much as I think we need to be a truly global nation, we really need to spend some time cleaning up our own messes. And why not start with Michigan. And no, I have no idea what to do with us - I'm hoping there's smarter people out there than me who do.

Labels: government, michigan

Afghanistan

"Members of the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters serving in Afghanistan have been told their tours will be extended by 52 days from 12 months to nearly 14 months."

Can we say "tar baby"? You'd think we'd have learned something from Kennedy's Vietnam and the Soviet's Afghanistan. We and they didn't win then, and I don't see us "winning" now. As if I even knew what result a "win" might be. I don't think there is a basis for a nation to be built there. Afghanistan is a mostly a collection of tribes run by tribal leaders, not from some central location. I imagine that most Afghanistanis you talk to would state they belong to such-and-such a tribe or village instead of the country of Afghanistan.

What I find amazing is that for ten years we supported Afghanistan in its fight to rid itself of foreign invaders, then twenty years we become the foreign invaders ourselves. The Soviets, who I'm sure were a little more heavy-handed than we are, fought there for ten years and roughly 1 - 2 million dead and accomplished absolutely nothing. Does anyone really think we can do any better? I'm afraid we're in a morass that we have no chance of ever "winning" -- whatever winning is supposed to be.

Labels: government, military

Terminator School?

I was wandering through the Detroit News web site and noticed this ad for a career site. Is it just me or does that look like one evil woman? I think she'd give T-X from Terminator 3 a run for its money. Imagine her sitting in front of a bank of monitors watching your every move. And who's that shadowy dude in the background. Gives me the shivers...

Labels: crime, government, religion

U-pay, I-pay

We all pay... It seems that today's government punishes those who try to live right. The government is vomiting money for a wide variety of bailouts and rescues but only for those who've screwed it up. Drive an old gas-guzzler and put in for government money. If you've been driving an efficient car - tough. Revamp the credit card laws to help those in over their head - while those who spend responsibly get stuck paying for those who don't. Mortgage yourself into a deep dark hole for a mcmansion and we'll help; live in an affordable home, and too bad, you don't need any help. I'm not asking for help and I don't mind helping those who really need it, but I also shouldn't be expected to foot the bill (not that we'll ever pay it off) for all those too greedy or stupid to control themselves fiscally. By the way, can you really imagine a trillion dollars of debt? If you spent $1.3 million a day since Christ died, you still wouldn't have spent a trillion dollars! Our government spent that much this year and it's only June.

Labels: government

FDIC

Last year, DeMotte paid $42,000 into the fund [FDIC]. This year, because of failures in other parts of the country and particularly among national banks, that sum will rise to $500,000 or more.

Here's something you don't hear much about. Who pays for FDIC. If you don't know, FDIC is the insurance that covers your bank account. It used to be up to $100K and now is up to $250K. This is for people whose banks invested stupidly and now are looking at closing. The FDIC will make good on your account.

Mr. Goetz is the president of the DeMotte bank - a plain dull local bank in Indiana. This bank isn't going under. It also isn't paying 15% returns on investments or loaning big bucks to people who don't have a chance in the world of paying those big bucks back. In other words, it's a safe, comfortable place to keep your money to do safe, comfortable things with. It hasn't taken any "TARP" money from the government and it isn't in danger of closing. However, even after all that it is still suffering from the stupidity and mostly, greed, of the mega-banks.

One more reason why I don't like mega-sized businesses. Sure, in a mega bank, you might get a couple of percentage points more interest or in a mega depot, you might save a few percentage points on the cost of a gallon of paint, but there's still a high price to pay. I'd much rather deal with a Mr. Goetz at a local bank or Fred at the local mom and pop hardware store. Sure, I might pay a little more, but not in the long run.

Labels: government, scams

Politics as Usual

It's nice to see nothing has changed. I wasn't expecting that much from Obama since Washington D.C. is what it is. It's nice to see that my lack of faith wasn't misguided. The country is throwing our money in huge heaping smelly piles at walls of problems in the hope that something will stick and coverup what's going on.

Some of that money gets to go to the executives who led their companies and our country into the fiscal morass. I'm not sure why a company wants to reward and keep the very people who destroyed it. However, since it's my money (and yours) they're using to pay off these folks, I guess it really is understandable.

I guess we're pulling a few thousand troops out of Iraq and sending dozens of thousands into Afghanistan. I'm hoping we can get some Soviet advisors to help us really mess that up.

I've got a house that I can't sell whose value has dropped down below what I owe on it. I never bought it to get rich, but I didn't expect it to become a millstone. I suppose I need to abandon it to get some of the political pork I keep hearing about. Doing my duty in paying my bills is starting to seem ever more stupid.

And why did the astronauts move out of a big space station into a tiny capsule because there was flying debris in the area. That chunk of space garbage had just as much chance of nailing the Soyuz capsule as it did the station. And what happens next year when we are dependent on the Russians to get folks to and from the station. Can you believe we have to pay the Russians to do space travel that the USofA can't do? Man, does that suck.

Labels: government

Government

Somebody (actually my tax preparer) asked me what I thought about the new government and I mentioned I was for a certain amount of socialism in the government. When he asked what parts I was for, I had to stop and think about it awhile. And I've been thinking about it. Here's some of what I think should be looked into. Mind you, I'm not saying I know how to fix the problems, but here's some suggestions.

The major areas I'd like to see the government involved in are, health care, retirement, mass transit and education.

Health care - It has gotten to be too expensive. I think law suits play a big part in the cost. Too many tests and treatments done in defense of a possible law suit instead of for true health reasons. The cost of medicine; I got a tiny bottle of eye-drops the other day that cost $207 dollars a bottle, which lasted about three weeks. I also think health care is unbalanced. Why should one person with insurance get millions of dollars of treatment while someone else suffers because they can't afford a $500 pill regimen. I'd hate to make the decision but why should some insured 86 year old get hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical care to extend their life a month or two, while some out-of-work thirty-something mom goes without a treatment that could extend her life for years.

Retirement - I'm not saying retirement should be free of cost, but there needs to be some government oversight and guarantees of payment. Recently, the 401(k) plan looks to be a disaster. What was supposed to be a lifeline in retirement is turning out to be nothing more than a source of funds for the Madoffs and Stantons^* of the world to use for their own enjoyment. For all those poor souls who had to count on a 401(k) for their retirement, instead, they'll now be looking forward to being a greeter at Walmart. The government should offer some kind of bottom line guarantee in a retirement fund where the principal money wouldn't be lost and you'd get at least some kind of interest in it. I wasn't too crazy about 401(k)s when they were making double-digit interest, and I'm less crazy now that they're making double-digit decreases.

Mass transit - I don't think in modern times that mass transit has ever been a money-making proposition. It has to be government supported. The state of mass transit in the USofA is embarrassing. I live near Saginaw, the northernmost good-sized city (about 50,000) in Michigan. The nearest train station is 45 miles away in Flint, which leaves most of the state even farther away. There are no bike paths for the most part. To get from where I live in the suburbs to Saginaw by bike, I'd be forced to travel on 45 - 55 mph roads with no shoulders and with drivers having no expectations of bikes. The local buses come no where close to where I live and even within the Saginaw business area, aren't all that convenient. (Honestly, even I don't expect bus service out by me, but it isn't completely out of the question.)

The government has to start laying the foundation for mass transit. It has to fund the trains and the rails for the trains to ride on. Gas taxes should go up to help pay for this stuff. Quit building new roads and get people out of their cars. There should be convenient bus service from outlying areas to feed to the trains. The schedules for all these should be inter-related. A bus should arrive at the train station before the trains leave, not after. In outlying areas, perhaps the buses could be combined with other functions. Package deliveries, road inspections, police surveillance, courier duties; all these could help make use of the buses. Eventually people would learn to depend more on them and ridership would go up.

Education - I just checked and the tuition at the small state-run university where I graduated in 1999 has doubled since then. The figures I found for 2000-01 are $109.65/hr and for 2008-09 are $201.80 . That's just nuts. What doubled in price (other than gas) since 2000? We need to make it easier for people (not just kids) to afford to go to secondary schools. It doesn't have to be a college or university. Some folks just aren't cut out for the college world. Vocational schools would be a better choice for them. And let's face it, for most people, a solid grounding in carpenter or electrician skills will pay off a lot better than a degree in English Literature.

There needs to be a wide range of affordable educational choices available for everyone. High school needs to do a better job in getting kids ready for the next level. Maybe a five-year high school's time has come. Life is more complex these days and many no longer have the basic skills for day-to-day life. In all honesty, I don't have any idea how to improve high schools, but the high school I graduated from 30+ years ago didn't do that bad of a job getting kids ready. Maybe we shouldn't be trying to improve things so much and just do what we've done in the past. I know the teenagers of today aren't the teenagers of my day, but something really needs to be done.

Those are some ideas I have about increased government involvement. The place I don't want it in is running businesses, either financially or otherwise. The government has no place in telling someone how to manage their company. The government does have a place in setting some minimum regulations about what the company has to do. Safety and health do need oversight. There does need to be some government oversight over hiring and firing procedures. Certain basic freedoms need to be protected. Where to draw the line is the hard part. But if a company is going to fail because of mismanagement, it should be left to fail or forced to change its management. There's no reason to artificially save a failing company only to see it fail in the near future.

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^*assuming this is read sometime in the future by someone for some reason, Madoff and Stanton are the names of two of bigger swindlers to steal people's money at the time this was written.

Labels: government

I Don't Know

About the only thing I do know is that our country and most of the world right now is in a mess. I have a house that won't sell at about half of what I paid for it. The value of my 401k looks like the price list of Macdonalds value meal menu and after insurance it costs me $150 to see an eye doctor for 20 minutes that results in a prescription for a $200 bottle of eye drops, that costs me $40.

What I don't know is why the above is going on or who to blame. The government of the last eight years blames the government of the previous eight years and of course the current government blames the previous government. Some people blame the rich for making too much money and others blame the poor for spending too much money. Some people put the blame on not buying American, while many others have made Walmart and its low-priced foreign crap one of the few business success stories in the USofA. Others blame the foreign governments for selling us cheap and shoddy merchandise while forgetting other Americans have accepted the cheap and shoddy merchandise to sell in their stores. Like I said, I don't know who to believe or to blame.

We spent over ten years in Vietnam with less than stellar results and have been in Iraq for all the wrong reasons overseeing seven years of disaster after disaster. The Soviet Union (much to our glee) spent over ten years in Afghanistan with nothing but dead bodies to show, and we're about to send another 17,000 American bodies over there to do the same. We're hoping for peace in a Middle East that has never know it, and I don't expect it ever will while more than one person is still alive to argue.

I also don't know why we put so much store in what celebrities say. That's not to say that many, if not most, are pretty smart folks. It's just that why do we care more about what some svelte actress or singer with designer shades has to say about foreign policy that some scholar who's spent his entire life studying the policy. Which brings me to the below comment I read on BBC after also reading about how the supposed leader of the Republican party has publicly kow-towed to a radio celebrity:

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum, writing on his website newmajority.com, bemoaned the prominence conservatives were giving to the radio host.

"With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence - exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we're cooperating!"

Labels: government

Worries

You know? There's lots of stuff to worry about. Poison peanut butter, $2 trillion dollar tax payouts, record unemployment and job losses, companies folding by the bundles, and CEOs making millions for leading their companies into the ground.

And you know what else? There's lots of stuff that doesn't even need more than a footnote in the news. Things like 28 year-old college kids smoking grass, atheletes making $27 million a year who take steroids, movie actors commiting suicide and singers beating up their girlfriends.

Which of the two paragraphs above do you think more people know about?

Labels: crime, government

Space - the Final Frontier

I've just read that Indian plans on spending 100 billion rupees ($2 billion) in an effort to launch a man-carrying space capsule. That now makes two countries - China and India - who are reinventing the wheel. A two or three man space capsule isn't expanding the frontiers of space, it's only exploring the same place people went over 40 years ago.

Space exploration can't be a national process. It's too expensive and space is too big. Why spend billions redoing something that's already been done. That's kind of like Turkey sending a ship west across the Atlantic to see if there's land someplace out there.

How about getting together and making an international plan for manned space exploration. Three countries have already independently proven you can orbit a can with two or three folks sitting inside. Move on. What we need is a cheap and reuseable launch vehicle to launch either personnel or cargo into orbit and beyond.

Labels: government, tech

Why We're Broke

Why are we spending $780 billion to try to save  USof A companies? The below is an article I just read. This company has gone bankrupt three times since 2005!! Yet, the CEO says, nothing will change and we'll do business as usual. What the hell?? If you've gone bankrupt three times in four years, you're obviously doing something wrong - even a business cretin like myself can see that. Change something, you moron.

CHICAGO (Reuters) The Chapter 11 filing marks the third plunge into bankruptcy for the company [Trump Entertainment], which was created out of a restructuring in 2005. It also underscores the struggles facing the casino business as recession squeezes casino gambling.

"This filing will result in no immediate change in our daily operations, and we expect to make no changes regarding our operating structure or philosophy," Trump Chief Executive Mark Juliano said in a statement.

Labels: government, scams

Same Old - Same Old

Didn't take long, did it? President Obama - in just a couple short weeks - has started stepping into the Washington D.C. morass of cheating, corruption, and influence peddling. His cabinet is supposed to be composed of some of the top minds and people in the country. It seems like a large percentage of them are already shown to be cheats. Really; "Oops, my bad, I didn't know I was supposed to pay that $125,000 in taxes. I'm not a working class slob."

The IRS was after me when I didn't file a state tax form for which I didn't owe any money on. At the time, military income was exempt from state tax, so I didn't file the state tax form. I was a kid and figured if I didn't owe anything, why should I file? I had to track down five years worth of paperwork to make the tax folks happy. So how does someone miss paying $125,000 they owe until they are vetted for a cabinet seat?

And where are these trillions of dollars coming from? We just had a president who built the largest deficit in history and almost (we're not done yet) bankrupted the country. Now our new president's plan is to go even deeper in dept. So now, because some invester and home-buyer and widescreen TV buyer overspent themselves I'll have to pay their debts?
Those trillions in bailout bucks have to be coming from someplace -- and my taxes are it.

So how about instead of throwing more money at businesses who business model is broke, just let them fail and let the businesses who are actually successful reap the benefits of doing a good job? It's going to hurt, but so, eventually, is throwing trillions into the crapper.

Labels: crime, government

Inauguration 2009

First, I didn't watch it. I caught bits later that night on the news and over the internet, but didn't pay a lot of attention to it. After all, it has happened 40-odd times before. However, I did read the text to his speech. The guy - and his writers - really has a way with words. That's a nice change of pace. I'm glad so many people have such high expectations about what Obama might do, but I don't really share them. I really hope he can do just a teeny portion of the stuff he wants to, but the bottom line is that it's still Washington D.C.

I don't really expect any fundamental changes in how things do, or more likely, don't get done. There's 222 years or so of entrenched bureaucracy in D.C. that won't give up its power easily. There's no way to get a good health care bill passed unless it's packed full of little tidbits like pig museums for Arkansas or maple syrup hall of fame centers for Vermont or special tax breaks on wooden toy arrows to bribe, er convince, people into supporting it.

You know what impressed me the most about the 2009 inauguration? The fact that somewhere around 2 million folks were able to get together, cheek-by-jowl, and nary an arrest was made. Considering you're lucky these days to walk through a suburban mall and not see a riot, that was amazing. Maybe it's a sign of things to come.

Mr. Obama - I wish you the very best in yours (and ours) next 4 years.

Labels: celebs, government

Bail Outs 2

Big Three

Hmmm, let me see if I understand this. A couple weeks ago the Big Three flew down to D.C. in their private jets to try to get money to rescue their companies. Congress said, "show us a plan."

One week later the Big Three is set to return to D.C. (not in private jets) with the plan. If it only takes a couple of weeks to figure out what is wrong, why didn't they do it last year - or the year before?

Banks

What exactly are the banks doing with their $700 billion or thereabouts? These are the folks who have been throwing money away to bad credit risks for years now. So suddenly we're going to trust them with $700B of our hard earned taxes?

Mom and Pop

Where does Mom and Pop and their little snack shop fall in this meeting of the financial minds? Do they get a piece of the unknown trillions of dollars we're tossing around lately? Or do they just watch their livelihood get sold for pennies on the dollar?

Me

Yeah, me. OK, so I'm greedy. Do I get any benefits out of this trillion dollar fiasco? I'm one of those idiots who's lived within their means for the past few years. Will I have anything to show except for a drained retirement savings account and a house I can't even sell for what I owe on it?

Labels: government, scams

Bail outs

The buzzword for this month is bail out. One meaning is when you leap out of a dying vehicle before it smashes into a million bits. Another meaning is to remove slimy bilge water hopefully fast enough so the boat doesn't sink. One more is paying money so some crook (OK, alleged crook) can walk free. I wonder which fits the banks and automotive industries.

What I really wonder is why them and not the local businesses that are going down the tubes faster than sign-makers can put up "out of business" signs. Has anyone done a cost analysis to see if giving $500 billion to a couple of big banks saves more jobs than giving $50,000 to Mom and Pop to save their coffee shop? And why does a CEO need to be coerced into taking a pay cut from $25 million annually to show he's determined to rescue the business he led into the red?

I'd like to know how much of this banker and auto money has filtered down to the people it's supposed to help. I have a house I can't sell that's worth much less than I paid and somewhat less than I owe (so, yes, I'm better off than some). It's a nice older 1600 sq. ft. home with central air, new siding and a two car garage and no one can come up with $45,000 to buy it. Sorry Mr. CEO, but that fact you feel $25 million a year is just barely enough to put a kid through college doesn't impress me much. How do you manage to spend $25M a year anyway? I realize you have business entertainment expenses and security issues, but my god man, $25M worth?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not asking for a handout right now. I'm doing OK. But I'd really like someone else to get some help so they can buy my house, raise a family, and even send their kid to college - and I'm sure they could manage it on a lot less than $25M.

Labels: government, gripes

Auto Bailout

Here's some random thoughts about the automotive industry bailout. Not all are my independent ideas, but here's my thinking:

It's not an automobile industry bailout, it's a Detroit automobile industry bailout. There is a difference.

The business plan of Chrysler, GM, and Ford is broke and throwing more money after bad isn't going to fix it.

I read somewhere that GM is something like $60 billion in debt now - what good is a &25B loan going to do?

Even if they don't have that debt, GM and Ford are burning through a few billion a month. $25B will last them until roughly April when they'll be broke again.

I know the UAW workers will be hurt - but no matter what happens, bailout or no bailout, the UAW is going to be hurt. Hundreds of thousands of workers are losing their jobs every month in an assortment of industries (DHL just laid off 10K) and nobody helped them out.

GM needs to consolidate and trim their brands. Do we really need Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Daewoo, GMC, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall? I'm guessing way over half of those vehicles are basically the same anyway.

The USofA needs to push mass-transit and smaller, more energy-efficient vehicles and should look at tax breaks and other monetary incentives to the public for using them.

So you know what? I have no idea what to do with the so-called Big 3 that isn't going to hurt a lot of people very badly.

And just as an aside, retirement is no longer something to really look forward to. The cost of everything is skyrocketing, any financial savings plans are dying and pensions are being modified into non-existence and jobs are paying less and less. The houses that could have been a pension fund are worth poop and no one has the money to buy it from you even if you could sell it to supplement the savings that went down in flames along with the house equity.

Labels: government, gripes

VA

I gripe an awful lot here, but once in awhile I do give an attaboy. I'd like to give one to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Saginaw (Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center). While I normally use a civilian doctor - mostly just annual checkups - I have used this VA hospital off and on over the years. When I first retired here, I was going to school and used the hospital for a few health odds and ends. Some eye stuff, a heart workup and some other problems. I never had any less that excellent care from everyone here.

The last couple of months brought me to the VA again. A few weeks ago, I managed to put a 2" brad through my finger with an air gun. Luckily it missed all the important stuff and healed pretty much on its own. I did however head down the VA emergency room to have it looked at where I got a tetanus shot. I was seen quickly and professionally. Today I went down for a flu shot. When I arrived there was a sign saying they were on lunch until 12:30 which was another 30 minutes. The welcome desk made a call, and directed me down to another office where I quickly (and painlessly!!! - really!) got my flu shot.

This place really does good work.

Labels: government, michigan

Vets

Just in case you've missed it, with the election and mortgages and gas prices, the casualties since the war began (3/19/03): 4197

Labels: government, military

Government Bailouts

First let me say that I think the government does have a role in helping out society. I lean towards a certain socialist program in things like health care, mass transit, education and the like. I'm not however so sure of the government's role as a business bailout well. It's one thing to dump a few billion into better meals at schools, but something else altogether to dump those billions into a rundown factory. And we are talking a bunch of billions here.

Like, billions and billions, all the way up to trillions actually, of dollars being tossed around as part of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) - (To Any Rooting Pig). AIG insurance just got another $40 billion for a total of around $150B (as near as I can tell anyway). The automotive folks want $25B on top of the $25B they already got and I just read that Detroit is looking for $10B. Something like $250B of the TARP funds are going to 67 banks.

American Express (who keep sending me credit card applications) wants $3.5B and Fannie Mae wants even more over the $100B they already got since they lost $29B this quarter. Just how much money can the government (who is us, by the way) keep shoveling into companies who are running into the ground?

I personally don't have a clue here. It doesn't seem right to keep pouring billions into a failing business. To me, since it's failing, it must be doing something fundamentally wrong. On the other hand, it sucks because while the CEO will make out no matter what, the peons working the assembly lines and manning the phones are well and truly fucked when the company goes under. And since they're out of money they won't be spending any to buy other stuff which means more companies going under. It kind of makes you wonder how anyone survived the olden days when credit was as unavailable as it is now (said oozing with sarcasm and irony). In the mid-seventies I had a hard time getting a credit card - and that was while in the USAF making steady money. Now I probably shred half-a-dozen credit card applications a week, and I in 1996 going back to college, fellow students - with no real job - had credit cards to burn. But with saving account interest rates at 1 percent or under, why would anyone save.

Labels: government, michigan

Nov. 4

In many ways, it's pretty amazing that the USofA manages to stumble along seeing how we are stuck what happens every four years on November 4. Honestly, how many people today actually know enough to make an educated guess about which candidate to vote for? Have you read any of the comment blogs that accompany many of the news stories about the election? The amount of misinformation is mind-boggling. And have you noticed how much of it IS ALWAYS IN CAPS? As if capital letters will make it true. I normally don't even try to read comments that have all those capital letters.

I'm pretty well-read and not a total moron, but I really haven't a clue about which candidate is truly best for the nation. I'm going to make my best guess in a couple of hours, but what is it that makes me responsible enough to choose the leader for this country? I try to look at everything and toss whatever seems to be on either extreme. Both Obama and McCain have published or uttered their share of bullshit and lies. What I did was pick a couple of important topics and try to figure out which one of the liars will best support it.

Do I think my vote makes a difference? Not really. If after work, I was to stop at Macdonald's instead of the polls, I don't think anything would be politically different tomorrow morning. At least not for the president. My vote isn't even for him. It's for somebody, who I don't know, who may or may not cast his vote for the person I think I'm voting for. How can you even be sure your vote is physically counted? That machine I slip my ballot into could just as well count my vote towards the socialist party for all I know.

Someone, I forget who, once said, "the power isn't with the voters, it's with the vote counters."

Labels: government

Money

"the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on makeup consultations and clothes at high-end department stores such as Neiman Marcus and Saks in New York and St. Louis."

Obviously the Obama folks are looking for any kind of dirt to throw McCain's way. Equally obviously, the McCain folks should've seen this coming. I would guess that for something with the stature of the Republican convention, spending a bunch on clothes and makeup could be justified. Equally, however, in these days of economic downturns and the painting of Palin as "Mrs. Joe Six-Pack" and hockey mom extradinaire, you'd think they'd have had more sense than to spend the price of a home on dresses and lipstick.

And speaking of money, I think Obama has now raised something like $600+ million for his campaign! That means, to my cynical way of thinking, that a bunch of people have paid a bunch of money to Obama in the hopes that stuff he does will pay them back for all the money they've sent him. (and really, how do you say NO to someone who just handed you $1,000,000) I'll tell you what Mr. Obama, you send me just .0165% of that, about $100,000, and I'll be more than happy to vote for you and you don't even have to do me any favors in the future.

P.S. Do you realize that as much as Obama's $600,000,000 seems, it's only .075% of what Bush has us paying out to bail out the banks and loan companies - who seem to be spending at least some of it on $400,000 vacations and "executive retreats."

P.P.S. If any of my math - especially the percentages - are wrong, please let me know. Dealing with millions, billions and trillions has always been a bit confusing for me.

P.P.P.S. Did you know that the list price of a nice six-piece set of Sorby lathe chisels is just over $300 which is about .00005% of Obama's war chest?

Labels: government, scams, tools

Vote for Somebody

In a couple of weeks something pretty cool is going to happen in the United States. You and I get to have a say in what happens for the next four years in our country. I'm 95% sure who I'm going to vote for, but I have no intention of trying to influence your vote. Both sides have good and bad points; both sides have lied and told touching stories, both sides have done some some real smart stuff and both sides have done some real stupid stuff. It's always like that. What you have to do in a couple of weeks is vote for the one you think will do best for the country. In a couple of weeks, don't do bad and be one of the 70% or so who will stay at home and whine about not being able to do anything, do good and vote.

Labels: freedom, government

Illegal is Illegal

From an AP News story:

Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan told Spanish-language paper La Voz Independiente last week that he's worried that so many people are being pulled over and jailed through 287(g) on simple traffic violations. "It is not a perfect program," Duncan said. "One of the things that is hard to explain away is that for otherwise law-abiding citizens, other than the fact that they are here undocumented, what IDs them is a minor violation or even driving to work, having to drive with no operator's license."

I don't get it. Why do people keep missing the point about so-called "undocumented law-abiding citizens?" That phrase is so full of contradictions it's surprising people don't choke when saying it. It's a perfect example of newspeak. First, "undocumented" means that person entered the country without filling out the correct paperwork - in other words, against the law. If you don't enter the country correctly, you can't become a citizen. So how can a person who enters a country illegally be considered a law-abiding citizen?

There are legal ways to enter the country and become a law-abiding citizen. It's takes time and a ton of paperwork, but it can be done. I know since I've gone through the process. And since I've spent the time, effort and money involved in the process, I don't think someone who doesn't do that is entitled to one penny of my taxes.

The way I see it, the sheriff isn't using a traffic violation to put away law-abiding citizens, he's using a traffic stop to arrest law-breaking illegal immigrants who don't care enough about the country they have sneaked into to bother to follow the country's laws.

Labels: crime, government

Joe Six-Pack

And I'm not talking about abs here. I've heard that Palin considers herself to be a Joe Six-Pack kind of person. One of us she thinks. According to her, it's about time us fellow six-packers were represented in the Oval office. Look around you. Think about the fellow six-packers you know. Do you really want of those Bud swilling, pick up driving, Copenhagen chewing folks to be leading the county?

Newsweek: On the phone from McCain's retreat in Sedona, Palin replied: "I think they're just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying, 'You know what? It's time that normal Joe Six-Pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency.'

In some ways, I consider myself an elitist snob. I'll drink a six-pack, but it's more often Becks than Bud. My choice of radio station tends to play Celtic and Classical more than Top 40. I don't have cable and would rather spend time in a library or museum than at a NASCAR track. I did make it through high school and college and can actually find my home state and England and Italy on a map. OK, I know finding Michigan on a map is cheating compared to finding West Virginia or Arkansas, but you get the idea.

However, my roots are definitely Joe Six-Pack. My dad drank Pfeiffer or PBR. I grew up on a farm with two dogs, a cat and a John Deere tractor. My childhood hero was John Wayne and I still love to shoot guns and make knives.

However, given that background, I assure I don't want a Joe Six-Pack kind of guy (or gal) running my country. I'd much rather have a well-educated, well-traveled individual who realizes that close proximity to the Bering Straits doesn't make them a Russian expert. And I really don't want someone who figures it's god's will to go to war because the other side's god doesn't like our god.

Labels: government, michigan

Tax Cuts

We (the government, you and me) just decided to spend somewhere around $1 trillion bailing out one firm or another. We have one war going on in Iraq and another looks to be heating up in Afghanistan/Pakistan. Last I heard, Iraq was costing us $85 billion a month. Who knows what Russia or Venezuela is going to do - whatever it is, it'll probably cost us big bucks. Social Security is getting beat up and there needs to be something done about health care. Energy prices are going up along with food and probably air.

All that and politicians are still promising tax cuts. Were the hell is the money coming from? Just printing more dollar bills doesn't help much. The more you print, the less they're worth.

Labels: crime, government

$700B$812B

This post is being written off and on all day as the thoughts come to me.

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Remember Miss Addie Polk

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I am quite pissed at the moment with our politicians. Think about just what happened this week. Obviously, I don't know all the facts, but here is what I see. The people told their representatives they didn't want this bill passed. Web sites and phone lines all were down as a majority of folks told their representatives they didn't think the $700B plan was a good idea. And at first, the representatives agreed. But then they decided to put an extra $112B in their special interest's pockets and pass it anyway. Basically these bastards decided to screw the taxpayer with an extra $112B on top of the $700B we're already going to pay. This is just plain wrong.

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I'm going to leave the stuff I wrote earlier today about not understanding what is going on. The bill has passed - all now $800 plus billion of it. Basically Congress bribed itself with $112 billion in extra pork.

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$812 billion to pay off banks that don't know how to handle money. At least I can put my extra $150,000 cash into my bank account and not worry about FDIC covering it. I'll have that much extra now, since I'm making a film about rum-drinking Samoan racing drivers.

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First, I do get the idea that the bailout is supposed to give financial institutions more chances to lend money and that lent money is the money we use for day-to-day business. However, I don't see where this bill will help any of us peons.

If I'm losing my house now, this won't help me pay for it. Sure, the company I work for will get some credit to pay me, but if I couldn't pay my bills last month, I'm still not going to be able to pay them this month.

From what I understand the whole underlying reason for the financial mess we are now in is because it was too easy to get credit. People were taking out loans to buy stuff they couldn't really afford. I also don't understand how an expectation of rising house values affects the mortgage you can't afford.

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Talk about pandering and pigs with lipstick, I ran across the following somewhere online from ABCNews: "Some of the goodies intended to attract the votes of individual members of Congress include $192 million for the rum producers of Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, $128 million for car racing tracks, $33 million for corporations operating in American Samoa, and $10 million for small film and television productions. " There's also a provision in there about repealing a $0.39 tax on arrows for kids - which just goes to prove that no payoff is too small for Congress to be involved with.

Labels: government, scams

September 15

According to info on ABCNews that's the day our economy went to crap. Actually it happened sometime that afternoon according to McCain. Sometime that morning McCain said, "...still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong..." Later that day in another speech McCain said, "Those fundamentals are being threatened today because of greed and corruption that some indulged in on Wall Street..."

Actually, from his standpoint the economy is strong. He owns 14 houses - more than he can remember actually and 13 cars. I think I've seen where his wife is worth about $100 million. That's a pretty strong economy. According to Vanity Fair, his wife wears an outfit worth $300,000. In all fairness, it isn't just the dress that cost $300K, it was the entire outfit. It turns out that $280,000 of that $300K was for earings. The dress was only $3,000. And of course there's McCain's $520 shoes.

Labels: government

Bailout Blues

I'm still not entirely sure I'm for this or against this. At first, and for that matter second glance, it seems something to benefit only the well-to-do. Even the addition of the savings insurance upgrade seems of minimal benefit to most. I can't say I have many friends who are too concerned that the insured savings limit is only $100,000. To be honest, I'm not sure too many of my friends would be overly put out with a $10,000 bank savings limit.

I work in a pretty well-paying job and there's folks I work with who have serious difficulties coming up with $500 for emergencies. So the bank saving insurance increase to $200,000 isn't too impressive. While I understand (sort of) that credit is the lifeblood of our economy, I also thought that credit is the root of the problem of our economy. Just how long do people figure they can keep buying stuff without the money to pay for it. And yes, I am a financial idiot so this bailout probably makes sense to someone who has the big bucks.

I'm also a little curious as to what happens to all these foreclosed properties from these busted mortgages the government will be buying. I did hear the government will be selling them off to recover the money. Why do I feel they'll be selling them off in big chunks. Say, tens of millions of dollars worth at a time. And guess who won't be able to get in on any of that. If you take the $700 trillion and divide it by $10 million (I pulled this value out of thin air - like the government did with $700 trillion), you end up with 70,000 chunks. What I can see is someone like Buffet or Icahn coming up with a financial offer wrapped all in legalese that gives them the $700 trillion of foreclosed properties for about one hundred-fourteen dollars and eighty-nine cents in cash. Which they will then sell off with easy-to-pay financing through themselves to those of us who lost the properties in the first place - making even more money for themselves.

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And on a note that may or may not be related to this mess, the Chinese just successfully landed a manned space mission that included a space walk. We, the USofA, has just delayed its almost defunct space shuttle mission to rehab the Hubble Telescope before we discontinue the shuttle - after which we will be beholding to the Russians to get our folks up and also back from the International Space Station.

And did you know that 46% of Sanlu (the Chinese company poisoning milk products) is owned by a New Zealand company?

Labels: government, scams

$700 Billion for them

And none for us. The us being not them, not the bankers or investment folks or insurance companies. Us, as so often in the ways of government by the people, for the people, get the shaft. If you haven't looked at the so-called bail-out, you'll notice that it isn't really going to help the little greedy folks who bought houses and properties they couldn't afford and now can't pay for. The people it's going to help are the big, really-greedy folks who made it possible for the little-greedy folks to buy beyond their means.

At the end of this bail out, the babies will be out there floating with the bath water while the rubber duckies cash in their golden parachutes, stock options and retirement bonuses. You, along with your uncle Fred, aunt Mary and cousin Glenda, who can't pay off their mortgage still won't be able to pay off their mortgage and will probably lose their house. The bank that lent you the money will get your house from you and money to repay the lost mortgage money from the government. Which means that not only will you have a mortgage you couldn't pay for, you'll now have to pay higher taxes to pay for that mortgage anyway. Or as the ABCNews says: "…require the treasury secretary to implement 'a plan to mitigate foreclosures' and to 'encourage servicers of mortgages to modify loans.'"

But, you say, the government said it wouldn't raise taxes to bail these folks out. Yeah - and I heard London Bridge is back up for sale as well. Did you notice in the haze of $700 billion that there's another $25 billion going to the automobile companies? Those same companies that have been selling $50,000 SUVs to folks who could no more afford them than they could their $500,000 homes. I'll wager those folks won't be getting any relief paying for their 12 m.p.g. dinosaurs either.

Labels: government, gripes

Taxes

I'm pretty much a financial illiterate for any thing other than the basics. I don't like to borrow, lend or owe money. I'm a very conservative investor. I'm not looking for a %30 return, but I'd like to get something back from my investment. Over the last year I've watched my banks savings account, CD interest rates and 401(k) plan all drop drastically. For all that, I can't believe the candidates are talking about tax cuts.

The country owes so much money it will never pay it all back. And we're about to owe more. The country wants to come up with $500 - 1,000 billion to throw after a bunch of bad debt. That money will be going to places who gave away too much money to to many people to spend on things they had no business spending it on. As financially stupid as I am, it doesn't come as a surprise that making a house loan to people who have to take out a loan to make a down payment on the loan is bad business. That situation means that people who have been so close to their financial edge that they can't afford to put any savings away are getting a loan which means they have to spend even more money on to pay back.

Now the powers to be said they want to cut taxes. The country is going to be spending bazillions of dollars more but they plan on taking in more. Even to someone as financially challenged as I am, it would seem that taking in less money and giving out more money is going to cause problems. As near as I can tell, the government is going to a little secret room in the White House and pull out $800 billion from Lincoln's mattress and lend it to people who don't know how to lend money in the first place.

So now, not only don't I know where all those lost dollars went, I also don't know where all these new dollars are coming from. All these dollars appearing and disappearing can't be good. And when I mean all these dollars I'm talking about so many dollars that probably not more than a few people can really grasp how many we're talking about. Multiple trillions of dollars lost and made - you tell me where they are.

Labels: government

Palin

The more I hear about this person, the more it seems she'll be perfect fit into the Republican policies mindset. The first to bug me was her hubby blowing off a legal request to testify. (Honestly, I don't know what exact legal weight that request holds, but it does seem a lawful request that predates her vice-presshipness) She obviously had no problem with ignoring that little legality.

Now there's an interesting email account bugaboo. First off, let me say the folks guilty of breaking in should be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. Whether they are breaking into Mrs. Palin's or my email account, they should be busted. However, the attack on the email account discovers an interesting work-around for emails. As I've read, "US law states that all e-mails relating to the official business of government must be archived and not destroyed. However, it does allow for personal e-mails to be deleted."

This means that while official emails via her government account need to be accounted for (and we all know what kind of dirt emails can scrape up) any emails via her yahoo account could conceivably be argued as being personal and therefore not need to be archived.

Yep, this thought of mine isn't based on any evidence other than hearsay and fluff bouncing around the Internet. However, it seems to fit into a way of thinking to me.

By the way, have you ever seen the movie The Manchurian Candidate? It's about some guy who spends a long time in an Asian prisoner of war camp where he's brainwashed by the communists into doing what they want after he returns to the USofA. Hasn't McCain mentioned something about spending time in a POW camp?

Labels: computers, crime, government

Big Numbers!

Newsweek: It's difficult to quantify the costs [$.7 - $1 trillion] of these activities [government bail out] for a few reasons. Even though the government has now formally agreed to guarantee the debt of Fannie and Freddie, the White House says it doesn't see the necessity—shock me!—to include the cost of doing so in the budget.

Here's a number for you; 9,727,009,619,894.34. Don't worry. If you click the link the number will change - probably higher. You know what that number is? It's the total public debt of the USofA. Take that and divide it by 305,000,000 (roughly the USofA population) and you get roughly 31,891. Since the USofA is supposedly a government of the people, by the people, etc. etc. that means that each of us has a standing debt of $31,891 (and I'm guessing it's gone up since I started typing this). That's on top of what you owe on your house, your car, your kid's college and that 46" plasma TV you use to watch Biggest Losers.

One of my few splurges is maple syrup; not the colored sugar water stuff, but the real deal made from trees. This weekend I checked out a bottle of maple syrup at Pat's, the local grocery store. The price for I think 12 ounces was $8.50 or so. Last year I paid $3.75 for the same stuff. I'm really glad the Republicans think our economy is doing so well.

Labels: food, government

What the Hell?

"Deputy White House spokesman Tony Fratto later urged Congress to not insist on a cap for executive compensation [as part of the finance bailout." Can you believe this? And not too long ago, "Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate who recently said the fundamentals of the economy were strong,..." Of course, if I owned 14 homes (more or less) and 13 cars (give or take), I'd guess I'd consider the economy pretty darn strong too.

These execs are the one who held the reins of the runaway loan fiasco. As I've said before, no one forced homeowners to buy big beyond their means. No one held a gun to anyone's head forcing them to buy 3000 sq. ft. homes, $40,000 SUVs or $3000 LCD televisions. Me and my wife are in a 1,300 sq. ft. home, drive a couple of small and older cars, and watch a ten year old 36" television using a pair of rabbit ears. Would I like to watch TV on a 52" screen or drive a $45,000 Saab? Sure. And I could get the credit to buy any of that. But why?

Labels: government

$7692.31

Ah, that sound of relief as the government bails out all those banks and insurance companies. Good news - huh? As near as I can figure it, if you take the $1 trillion in bailout money and divide it by 130 million taxpayers, it means your chunk of the bill is $7692.31, actually it's 1/3 of cent lower than that, but what's a fraction of a penny among fellow citizens?

And if you're wondering, I really don't have any idea if those numbers are correct. I have problems with grasping thousands of dollars; millions, billions and trillions aren't even imaginable. I could pay for my house 6 million times over with a trillion bucks - how can anyone imagine numbers like that. I wonder how much Bush will be kicking in?

Labels: government, scams

Small Town Values

In her [Palin] convention speech, she quoted anonymously Westbrook Pegler, the long-gone Hearst newspaper columnist and scourge of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt: "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity."

Small town values may be OK for ice cream shops and drug stores, but do you really want that in a country's president? Like it or not, the president has to deal with kings and queens, dictators, war mongers and mentally unbalanced demigods and do all of this on a world stage.

Besides what is so great about small town people? I grew up in a small town (2300) that makes Wasilla (9700) look big. I'd have to say that our percentage of idiots was as high there as it is in any city. The only reason there's less idiots is that there's less people. A small town upbringing doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be a nice person. If anything, if you've lived in that small town most of your life, you're liable to have a pretty small view of the world. Let's see... would I rather have a person who spent most of their life in a small town in Alaska or one who's lived and experienced life internationally as the leader of the free world?

Labels: government

Newspeak

HOUSTON (Reuters): La Raza, a Washington-based advocacy group for Latinos, plans to release a report next month that examines what it sees as unfair treatment of undocumented workers after U.S. disasters, and recommends changes in U.S. policy that specifically would alter disaster assistance programs to benefit Latinos.

undocumented = illegal

The problem with this statement is the euphemism undocumented. They are illegal workers. They snuck into the country against the law. Why do they think they deserve government assistance after ignoring the government's laws when they illegally crossed the border. I've been personally involved in the immigration process. It isn't easy, and it isn't all that cheap, but it is doable. One of the reasons doing it legally is such a pain in the ass is because of all those undocumented workers who break the law. That means that those of us doing it legally have to work that much harder because the government has to spend so much time and money making sure the illegals don't pass through.

I'm sorry, but you'll get absolutely no sympathy from me on the subject of illegal immigrant workers.

Labels: crime, government

Elections

More election stuff. I just saw a headline where McCain is trying to distance himself from Bush - I wonder why. I started to think of what is different in my life over the last 8 years. In general, my pay is smaller and my costs are higher. The value of my house dropped like a moose in Palin's sights - assuming I could sell it. The gas I use went from $1.40 six years ago to $4.40 this year. My taxes have been spent to fight a bogus war in Iraq to remove WMD that have never existed. More taxes will be used up this month to bail out businesses that can't seem to make any money except those millions paid to their CEOs. Countries that used to tolerate us don't like us and those countries who never really liked us, now hate us. Entering the USofA after visiting Canada is now a royal pain-in-the-ass since you no longer have any idea of what the latest good/bad stuff is for immigration and customs. The loonie and euro have both recently hit record highs against the buck. About the only good that's happened is I got a good wife - and Bush had nothing to do with that.

Yep - just what we need - another hawkish Republican to carry on...

Labels: government, gripes

Why!

It remains to be seen what sort of compensation package Robert Willumstad, CEO of AIG, the world's largest insurance company, will get now. On Tuesday, the Fed promised to back loans to the teetering company to the tune of $85 billion, in exchange for 80 percent of its stock. Willumstad owns homes on Park Ave in Manhattan; on Long Island, N.Y.; and in Vermont. According to BusinessWeek, in July his minimum cash bonus for 2008 was set at $4 million and his target bonus was set at $8 million. In 2006, Freddie Mac's CFO, Anthony Piszel, bought a reported $3.6 million, five-bedroom, 8-bath Colonial in Great Falls, Va., that is situated on five acres "with a lake, a floating staircase and two kitchens." Despite steering their companies into financial disaster, the CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stand to make even more money up to a reported $25 million in so-called golden parachute packages John Thain has been CEO of Merrill Lynch for less than a year. He received a $15 million cash bonus when he signed on with the struggling company.

And there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. The CEOs bleat platitudes about ethics and honor within their companies and then when it goes bust, they take their money and run, while the peons who made them the money get nothing but a letter telling them their stocks are now worth less than the paper they weren't printed on.

And now the government is into it. If you lose your house, oh well. If a CEO loses his company, the government will step in with billions to bail them out. How about getting some of CEOs, CFOs and C-whatever-Os to cough up some millions to help their own companies out - the same companies they ran into the ground.

Labels: government, gripes, scams

Election

Right now, all I see are bad choices for president. I can't decide who is the lesser evil. Everytime I do, something changes and makes my choice worse. Since this has happened a few times now, my opinions of the candidates just keeps getting worse. It doesn't help that the majority of their ads keep telling us how bad the other person is and say nothing about what they, themselves plan on doing.

First I was going to vote Democratic, until the Democrats decided they didn't need voters from my state (Michigan) to vote. So I voted in the primary for a Republican. Then the Republican I voted for lost. I thought about the Democrats again, but I really don't trust Hillary.

Once she lost, I was leaning towards the Democrats again, but some of their positions, especially in gun control, really bothered me, so I leaned towards the Republicans again in spite of some of their positions like war and privacy.

Then the Republicans were born again with Palin and I crossed them off my list. She has a way-to-strong leaning towards a theocratic form of government for me. I'd have a gun, but there'd be so many god-fearing pregnant teenagers running around, I'd be afraid to use it. So I figured it'd be best to give up some rights to maybe win others more important that Democrats support like health and welfare issues.

Now I see Barbra Streisand is supporting the common man Obama with a dinner that costs $28,500 a person (that'd better be a damn good meal), followed by a later event that will cost an additional $2,500. You'd think they include the additional event with the $28,500. And I thought I was splurging when I ate at Outback using a $25 for $20 gift card! I'm not too sure I want to vote for a party where Streisand and her ilk have no problem coughing up $31,000 for dinner and a dance.

Labels: celebs, government, michigan

Detroit

What a difference three months can make. Here's two images of Christine Beatty. She's the woman involved in the Detroit mayor fiasco. Mayor Kilpatrick has been the major name in the news, but he wouldn't be in a mess (at least this particular mess) without her. Not that I'm saying either one is less guilty than the other. Based on the below pictures, she doesn't look like she's had a peaceful couple of months.

July 2008	September 2008

Labels: crime, government, michigan

Fannie my Fanny

Well, this is a pisser. We recently bought a house. A nice, attractive small house. Relatively small anyway - 1400 sq. ft. We spent a few months looking at houses ranging from under 1000 to over 3300 sq. ft. And you know what? We could've gotten a mortgage to buy any of them. Actually the 3300 sq. ft. house was pretty cool. Two stories, full basement, monster master bathroom, most all hardwood floors with natural wood trim for doors and windows. Two and a half car garage. The works.

But you know what? While we could've bought it, I wasn't too sure we could have afforded it - or the others in that size range. We looked at another that was over 2500 sq. ft with huge cathedral ceilings for about the half the house. And while my wife really loved them, we decided to aim a little lower and get something that not only we could afford to buy, but that we could afford to keep.

And now the government has decided to bail out a couple of mortgage firms that have lent themselves into penury. And since the government is the people, guess who pays? Yep, us - you and me. So for all those folks out there who bought beyond their means using money they didn't have - you and me are going to have to give them our tax bucks to bail them out. Tax money that could've been used for education, for building new mass transit, for fixing our crumbling roads and bridges is now going to go to pay off people who over spent their means. Yes, there are some who are in default because of stuff beyond their control - losing a job, medical costs, etc. but there are also those who just got greedy.

If a person can qualify for a $400,000 mortgage - why not spend $400,000? How about spending what you can afford? Pass on the second new SUV, the new furniture and the 60" TV and save some money for a rainy day.

Labels: government, gripes

Politics

I supposed I'd be missing all the hoopla if I didn't comment on the current political scene. Both candidates and thier gangs held big meetings this and last week where they made speeches about how great they were and how evil and disgusting their opponents were. And you know what? I didn't listen - to any of them.

Why didn't I listen to such a historic event? Mainly because I think those speeches have very little to do with what the candidate actually thinks. Those speeches have been carefully written (I wonder how much an acceptance speech actually costs to have written) to say what the candidates keepers think the people want to hear.

I'm tired of hearing of how bad the other person (almost said guy) is. Most ads on TV and radio aren't about what the candidate believes or will do, it's about what their opponent believes or has done - with the most negative twist they can come up with.

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After all that, I think McCain's choice for VP has finally made my choice. There are a couple things I don't like about Obama's bunch (I fear his stance on gun control for example), but there's much more I don't like with McCain's bunch. No abortion for any reason, teaching creationism, backing by the evangelists are all scarier to me. I worry more than ever that we are falling into some illogical theocracy who basis of law will be a 2000-3000 year-old book of myths and fables.

Palin doesn't seem like someone I'd want leading my country. She's been mayor of a town with 5,000 individuals (not counting ptarmigans), and governed Alaska for two years. Not quite what I'd call a solid background in statesmanship. The only good thing about her is that if she does get elected, we can finally say, in all truthfullness, say we have a real bastard in the White House.

Labels: government

Dumb Drug War

The semi-subs, known as "self-propelled semi-submersibles," also represent a serious national security threat: Today it's drugs, but tomorrow's cargo could be heavy weaponry, senior defense officials warn.


The above non-attributed quote was pulled from a Christian Science Monitor story about the use of vessels costing $2 million each to smuggle drugs into the USofA. Isn't it becoming really obvious that the drug war is a bust? People have used intoxicants since the dawn of humanity. I've even seen some theories that farming and the civilization it led to came about basically because people needed grain crops to make beer. I suppose after watching someone act up after downing a couple of 40 ouncers make you wonder about civilization, the fact is a lot of people are going to get high no matter what the government says. Many people take the legal route of booze but many also take the illegal route of certain drugs.

And can anyone really explain to me just how marijuana is so much worse than beer? I mean really, a bud is Bud, isn't it? Sure I don't want my doctor operating on me when high on coke or weed, but I wouldn't really be too happy if he drunk either.

So, now we all know that marijuana not only leads to hard drugs, but it can lead to nuclear weapons as well.

Labels: crime, government

Stupid & Lucky

I guess if you have to do stupid stuff, being lucky is a helpful survival trait. This weekend, while doing some home remodeling, I managed to shoot a nail through my finger with an air-powered brad nailer. That was the stupid part. I had just finished giving my wife a quick lesson in how to be careful using the gun, and had in fact let her shoot a couple of nails into some door molding we were putting up.

Later, I tried to brad a small piece of wood to another piece and didn't have them clamped down correctly. I think what happened was that the first brad kicked the wood out and then the gun fired a second brad that went through the finger that had been holding the wood block that was no longer there. I'm guessing that, because later when all was done and I looked at the block, a brad was half-way in it.

Let me tell you, watching a two-inch brad fly through your finger isn't the best of experiences. The lucky part was that the brad seemed to miss all the important bits in my finger. No blood vessels, no bone or tendon seemed to be hit - typing this entry sort of proves that. E's and R's would be difficutlt had that finger been seriously damaged. I did go to the emergency room - at the local Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center (which I might add gave me stellar service) to have it looked at. They didn't do much, just a booster tetnus shot.

On the way to the hospital, with my wife driving, I reflected on the idea that the emergency room could probably be better named the stupidity room. From what I've gathered from friends - this is only my second time visiting - the first being a severe case of gastrointestinal something or other. Many visits to the emergency room are the result of doing something stupid. Nailing your finger, breaking an arm falling from a ladder, getting hit in the head with a baseball, eating old potato salad on a warm summer evening - that sort of stuff. Stuff where you get hurt because you did something stupid. The only good about my stupidity, is that it'll make me treat the brad nailer with a little more respect - at least for awhile. Eventually, I'll need to do something stupid again to keep me from getting complacent. Hopefully, I'll be lucky again at the same time.

Labels: government, military, tools

85/.22/2

Here's an interesting screenshot from my my.yahoo page. One article is about an 85 year old woman who was robbed in an elevator and the other is about an 85 year old woman who was almost robbed, but pulled her .22 and held the 17 year old robber at gun point until the police got there. And people wonder about the right to bear arms. 85 years old/.22 pistol/Article 2.

Labels: crime, freedom, government

Me, Me, Me

The latest issue of Time has a cover of President Bush with the tagline of "What Bush Got Right." And as soon as I saw the cover, I got to thinking, rather selfishly since I'm an American, what he got right for ME -- and came up with the initial answer of damn little. Is he personally responsible for the problems. Not really, but it has happened on his watch. Could things have turned out differently had he done his eight years differently? Probably, but then again things may have gotten even worse.

In the last six years, gas has gone from under $1.30 to over $4.00 . My friends have run into an immigration nightmare - they being handicapped by doing the immigration process legally. And not just immigration, but simply a visit to the USofA from a foreign country has become a royal pain in the ass. My house is worth less than I bought it for and I can't sell it even at a loss. My pay hasn't increased in 8 years. The retirement package offered now sucks. It's lost substantial value in the last year or so.

The infrastructure of the USofA is literally crumbling away. Brown outs, water breaks and bridge collapses are an everweekly occurrence. We've got roads here in Michigan that will rattle your teeth when you drive them. Not to mention wheel eating potholes. Mass transit in most places in the USofA is something you can only pray for. We used to be able to take a nice train ride from my home to Toronto. Now that same train ride, between immigration and customs is so unwieldy, that a two hour car ride to a Canadian station is preferable.

Unfortunately, I don't really expect anything better from whoever wins in November. Candidates are so afraid of upsetting anyone, that they no longer satisfy anyone. By the time November gets here, both candidate's platforms will be fundamentally identical.

Labels: government, gripes

Innocent?

So what - who cares - the government sure doesn't:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday. Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.

Basically the government can do anything to you anytime they want for any or no reason. They can toss you in jail forever with no trial and no evidence and don't even have to tell you why. They can take any electronic device you may own for any reason, or for no reason. You can't even argue, since they won't tell you why they're taking the stuff. They can listen to your phone calls, watch what you do on the Internet and have made sure you can't even sue your ISP if you even knew it.

I'm sure Mr. Orwell is saying, "and you thought it was fiction, didn't you?"

Labels: crime, freedom, government

A Private Remark

The latest political brouhaha is over some comment Jesse Jackson made about Barack Obama. My understanding about it - I haven't heard it - is he said something derogatory about Barack's speeches towards blacks and their social responsibilities. It's amazing how often famous people get caught making nasty remarks and then saying, "oops, oh my, I didn't really mean that." Obviously they meant it, what they really mean to say, is "shit, goddamn reporters keep sticking their fucking noses into other people's business - fuck off, leave me alone and let me talk like I damn well want to talk."

Come on. This is 2008 - there is no privacy. Congress says so. If you say something, plan on it being recorded, filmed, videoed, taped, or otherwise recorded and put up for billions of people to see and hear within seconds after you've said it. Congress just passed a secret bill that many in congress haven't even been cleared to read. It basically says the USofA government can listen to whatever, wherever and it doesn't have to justify itself to anyone. And that anyone (telcom companies) who helps is also above the law. If you say it or write it (and shortly thanks to brain scans - think it) people are going to know.

So if you say you want to cut candidate X's nuts off -- he's going to hear about it and so potentially will some 6 billion others.

Labels: freedom, government

SECRET, PRIVATE?

In the past I've wondered about people who answer so-called "anonymous" surveys, especially about illegal activities. You know the kind, those that are reported like, "42% of teenagers used illegal drugs," or "14% of males between 33 and 42 report shooting at least one neighbor." OK, maybe the last one is a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean. Here's a line from a Time article:

"[Randall Walsh and his colleagues]...compared confidential Census figures from 1990 and 2000 from 15,040 neighborhoods, with an average of about 4,000 residents each, in 64 metropolitan areas, such as Phoenix, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Columbus, New York, Atlanta and San Diego.

Note my bolded phrase. Makes you kind of wonder how someone can compare confidential information doesn't it? According to my Merriam-Webster dictionary, confidential means "SECRET, PRIVATE" (and yes, it's capitalized that way in the dictionary). I wonder which part of secret and private Mr. Walsh and friends define differently than the rest of us (us meaning non-governmental types - we all know the government cares less).

Labels: freedom, government

Savings?

What happened to saving money? Lately it's gotten to be almost a lost cause. I keep hearing that a strong economy needs invested money and the way money gets available for investment is by the people saving money. My understanding, admittedly simple-minded, is that you put money into a bank account, the bank uses that money to make more money and you get a little extra money back. If you want to be a little more risky, you can invest in stocks and bonds and hopefully get more money back under basically the same mechanism.

The main difference is that in a bank, you could count on getting 4-5% back with very little risk. In bonds, you could get 8-10% or in exceptional cases hundreds of percent back, but with a correspondingly higher risk that you could also lose it all.

My experience with stocks has sucked. I was hired into a dotcom several years ago and one of the bennies was stock options. I invested for a few months until I finally realized that the market stock prices were consistently lower than my stock option price - much lower. Eventually, our company, like so many other dotcoms, went bankrupt. And essentially, all stocks become worth zilch, nada, zip. All the peon investors, and we had some young employees, who having bought into the "invest in your company fable" had invested heavily in the company. And ended up with nothing (zilch, nada, zip) - which still pisses me off. And my 401(k) lost a few grand just in the last couple of months. Retirement money that I'll need that I'll never see again.

My bank account isn't doing any better. Lately, every month sees a decrease in interest paid, and of course a corresponding increase in prices paid. Now I'll be lucky to get half of what I've invested into my house. And honestly, if I get half, I'll also be happy about it. The one bright spot is our small cars are now worth a bit more because everyone is getting worried about gas mileage. (On the one hand, while I do get a little bit of a vicious thrill when I watch some Neanderthal drive his oversized super-magnum, hyperhorsed 4X4 past a gas station with $4.29 on its price sign, I would've liked to have the option to get one of them myself as a hobby vehicle.)

Anyway, it seems like nowadays, you can put your money into some savings and watch that savings evaporate or buy stuff today before the price goes up tomorrow. And economists wonder why Americans don't save.

Labels: government, gripes

Stupid Politics

I just read where the USofA is balking at delivering some weapons worth several billions to Taiwan, because Taiwan is talking with China. This is the same Taiwan, by the way, that the USofA won't recognize as a country because the USofA is afraid of pissing off China. The same China that keeps tossing reporters and human rights advocates in jail. Maybe the USofA figures that countries that jail significant percentages of their population have to stick together.

Labels: government

Ethics

Gosh, another scandal strikes the Obama campaign. It seems one of his staffers did naughty things with a mortgage company. Gee - willickers, who would've guessed. Have you noticed that a lot of people, not just politicians by the way, find a lot things just fine to do, until they get caught doing it?

Obama seems to have no problem dropping anyone who comes up negative once that person is outed. He thought it was perfectly fine to go to a church for twenty years, but all of sudden dropped it as being wrong. Just like the guy somewhat earlier who just happened to get Obama a good deal on a house and connected lot back in Chicago - not that any political shenanigans go on in Chicago.

Governor Spitzer's another dude who while passing legislation against hookers was using them. And what about that wide stance dude from the Northwest? Oops, I'll bet he doesn't support much legislation against shorter stall walls.

Non political ethics...
Which are sucking as well. Yes, I understand that people are paying more and making less and I'm one of those. But! Why on earth are people stealing everything now? I just read where farmers are getting ripped off big time by diesel fuel chiefs. And those goddamn metal thieves are running rampant. This past week they've stolen crosses, flower pots and medals from graveyards. Not to mention a roof from a mausoleum.

Around here, they're cutting catalytic converters off cars parked in apartment complexes, air conditioners from offices, and copper water pipe right out of the walls of houses. A new hotel going up near here had 22 flat screen TVs stolen to the tune of $24,000.

And then there's the real idiots who do armed robbery of 7/11s and dollar stores. If you're going to risk going to jail, at least do something worth the time - $50 at a 7/11 isn't one of them. And I'll bet these robbers would be the first to gripe after being tased by a policeman. And in this case, I much prefer a cop using a .45 to put one of these guys down than bothering with a taser. By the way, does it cost more to tase a guy or shoot them?

Labels: crime, government, michigan

Backwards

Why is that things are heading backwards now? Things that should be helping people are going down. Houses, savings and wages are all dropping down. My 401k and house have both dropped a bunch. The percentage on my savings is going down as fast. Worker's wages keep going down. American Axle, just one of many, watched their pay drop 30-50%.

On the other hand looks what's going up. The cost of almost everything is going up - and not just a little. Gasoline, milk, eggs, bread; all that stuff that has no substitute is climbing rapidly. The government's consumer price index was just published and showed only a small increase. The problem is that those idiots in government who put that report together don't include food or fuel! That is beyond reasoning to me. What the hell do they check? There's a lot of stuff that you can do without, but fuel and food aren't part of it.

My parents had their 30 year pensions - I've got one from the military. How many folks working now are going to get a pension? They have to put savings in a 401k or other account and hope the account doesn't disappear. My 401k lost thousands last quarter and everything I'll have to buy has increased. What a way to retire. Thank goodness I'm not thirty and thinking about raising a family.

Labels: government, gripes

USofA to Iraq

Sorry about shooting your prayer book. The rest of your country and 100,000 civilians? Oh well - that's the way it goes sometimes.

Labels: government, religion

Stupid Government

Wall Street Journal:WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumer prices were under wraps last month, a government report showed, especially when food and energy prices were stripped out, further evidence that the economic slowdown is easing some of the inflationary effect of recent sharp gains in food and energy prices.

Makes you wonder what people this government is about. How on earth can they say consumer prices under control but not count food and energy. I haven't met too many citizens of the USofA who don't have to buy food and energy. That's kind of like saying Death Valley will be a fine place to live, as long as heat and water aren't counted.

It makes you wonder just how far from reality the government has really gotten. The president is so far removed from you and me that he hasn't a clue what is going on in "normal" America. Wouldn't you like to take him for a ride down some subnormal American urban street to watch the pushers and gang bangers hanging around in front of some local market covered with PayDay Loans and WIC Accepted signs on it. Hell, I'll bet JCPenny or Sears would be enough to send him for a loop. Can you imagine Cheney or Bush going out to fill up their truck with gas and pick up a pack of hotdog buns? The problem is that they all so many layers of sycophants standing by they have completely lost contact with us - the people.

But you know? Thank goodness our government has decided that consumer prices haven't gone up - I feel much better now since I'm only imagining my $4 gas and $3 bread.

Labels: government, gripes

The 'creaking' US airline industry

Like much of America these days, the airline industry feels tired, worn down, and old.
That is surprising in a country that often likes to think of itself as the best.
Arguably, it once was, but the airline industry - like the health system, like schools, roads - you name it, feels like it is just creaking along and leaving its passengers ever more frustrated.

That's a recent quote from a BBC reporter.

That should bother you, assuming you're an American, quite a bit. Not that it should surprise you, just bother you. If you read this very often, you'll see I've already talked about the 30% graduation rate in Detroit's schools. Half of this city looks like a set from Dawn of the Dead with abandoned buildings and weed covered lots - and that's downtown. A road here in Saginaw recently won a statewide competition for the biggest pothole. Also here in Saginaw we just finished a trial where a bunch of teenagers were convicted of murdering a 14 month old kid in a drive by shooting. Every street around the area has houses on sale - and some of those have their copper pipe or aluminum siding stolen and sold.

Yeah, we've got people doing good stuff here, but there is so much doom and gloom. It seems like for every teenager who works for Habitat for Humanity there's three others who are dealing guns and drugs. Did I mention the 75 college kids recently busted for drug dealing in one college in California this week? How about the three cops who were videoed beating up some suspect? Yep, we have our postal service running a charity drive this weekend while at the same time they have to stop service to some homes because it's too dangerous to deliver mail. Think about that - it's too dangerous for a mailman to deliver a letter in broad daylight.

What the hell is going on?

Labels: crime, government, gripes, michigan

Act Normal!

OK - you're being warned. Don't act differently or you may have the FBI looking for you. I'm basically screwed. We go driving by a tourist scene and I'm ogling the bulldozers and cranes on the scene. Show me a cruise ship and I wonder what kind of propulsion system it uses and how the tugs get it into the wharf. When I drive over the Bluewater Bridge I'm as much interested in how much the expansion joints have opened as I am in the view of the river below - and more than the river, I'm interested in what type of ships are going by.

If you look at my photographs you'll see they're very short on people and sunsets and high on buildings and vehicles. It doesn't mean I want to blow them up, I'm just interested in how they work and what kind of power they have. That doesn't make me bad or dangerous, just a little weird.

Labels: crime, freedom, government

Gas Tax

What do you think of the politicians latest bit of pandering? The suspension of the federal gas tax for the summer. Isn't that just stupid? You're going to end up saving under 7% (the fed's tax is around US$0.19 per gallon) - and if the gas keeps going up, even less. For the couple of months during the summer. And then come September, gas will pop up US$0.19 again out of the blue.

How about you tell folks to just drive 10% less. Or better yet, drop the national speed limit back down to 55 mph. Actually, if you really want to save 10% just drive slower - that's pretty easy. At least slow down a bit. I drive 11.4 miles to work and most of the traffic is whizzing by me, by quite a bit. I'm not driving slow, I'm actually at or just a tad above the posted limit. I watch the lights and try to manage my drive so I don't catch any reds. That means slowing down early and watching traffic as I go. The funny thing is I drive a little New Beetle getting around 28 mpg and most of the folks passing me are driving full size pickups, SUVs and large American cars.

Even if I did drive like an speeding idiot, I'd probably be getting double the mileage of many passing me on my way to work.

Labels: driving, government, gripes

Surveys

Here's another subject that really bothers me. How can people make conclusions based on survey answers? One today read, "One in six drivers drink sometimes: report." This was reporting about how many people drive drunk. This reminds me of the police scam where they send letters to people with warrants and let them know they've won a free TV or car or some such stuff. When the bad guys shows up, the cops toss them in the slammer.

The cops should try a survey scam. Ask people on the street if they've indulged in some kind of illegal action like using illegal drugs, shoplifting or even, say, driving while impaired. Then when the moron says, "Yes, yes I did drive drunk," they can toss him in the can.

I've taken surveys about stuff. Do I like Coke or Pepsi (Coke) or how often do I shop at Lowes (too often). Stuff like this I don't mind talking about. Even politics is OK. You know the kind, "If the election were held today, who would you vote for? Candidate A, B or C."

I don't do the stupid ones however. You know the kind, the kind with two or three questions that are written with one answer in mind, like, "I oppose letting vicious murders out early so they can terrorize my neighborhood and stomp on my pets? Do you strongly agree, agree or disagree?" I've noticed that those types of surveys usually also ask for a donation of some kind.

So, the next time a survey asks you "Do you cheat on your taxes? Yes or No," will you disagree, strongly disagree or follow your questioner to court?

Labels: government, gripes, scams

Elitism

I love the presidential candidates arguing about who is the least elite. As if any of them have any idea of the average joe american. When's the last time you figure Hillary wore clothes from Sears or Walmart or grabbed a quick lunch at Macdonalds - without it being a set up photo op anyway. Come on, she made $100 million dollars in the last few years! How many common Americans have done that? Not to mention attending Wellesley College and Yale.

Obama isn't any better. His house, according to the Chicago Tribune, "a 96-year-old Georgian revival home that has four fireplaces, glass-door bookcases fashioned from Honduran mahogany, and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar...", cost him $1.65 million ($300,000 under asking price). BTW, that whole real estate deal is interesting - does anyone else notice that Obama has a lot of old acquaintances who have suddenly become bad choices? And his alma mater, Columbia University isn't exactly a community college either.

Now both of them are trying to be like what they think the average American is. Bowling, beer drinking and eating hot dogs. Let's face it, what chance does the average American really have to become president? Even if you came from average roots, by the time you've become a viable candidate, you've traveled so far from those roots, you'll be lucky to remember them.

Labels: celebs, government, gripes

Draka

Have you ever heard of the series of books written by S.M. Stirling concerning the alternate world of the Draka. The Draka are a people consisting mostly of loyalists and slave owners who settle in South Africa after the USofA Revolution. They manage to conquer the rest of Africa, followed by Asia, Europe and eventually the Americas. I think the stories are great and have re-read them several times. The first, Marching Through Georgia, is the best and the rest seem to lose a little as the series winds on. (BTW, I think the Georgia in the title can be thought of the Georgia in both Europe and the Americas).

The stories bring up some interesting thoughts about slavery and cruelty and power. Is slavery all that bad compared to other free life styles? Does being a mom living free in Darfur watching your kid starve to death beat being a slave who is housed and fed? And how does what degree of slavery matter? How do you balance a domestic slave cleaning a house twelve hours a day with a slave in a mine being worked to death in ten years?

How about power? Is a Draka who conquers for the sake of conquering and kills to conquer better than a Nazi who kills for the sake of racial purity? Is there a difference? Depending on the roll of the dice being a slave to a Draka might not be all that bad. You work 12 hours a day, get fed, watered and have visits to the vet as needed. As a free American, many people work 12 hours a day, eat and try to afford a doctor. OK, some would argue you're free, but to what end?

I have a pretty good life now. A couple miles away people are living in dumps with bullets coming through their raggedy walls, and will be lucky to graduate high school and have a one-in-ten chance of ending up in jail before they're 30, and whose idea of fun is watching the drug dealer on the corner making change.

Sometimes you have to wonder just how much freedom is too much?

Labels: crime, government, reading

President

This year's election is the pits. My original plan was to vote Democratic. However, I live in Michigan and the Democrats decided that Michigan voters don't really count. That got me to thinking why should I vote for a party that has already decided to abandon us Michigan voters? That leaves the Republicans (let's face it, we don't have a multi-party system). That party's leader has gotten so Big Brother thinking, that they downright scare me. Can McCain be better - or will he continue the police state we're working up to. After all, he has said he sees the war going on for another hundred years.

Even if the Democrats hadn't abandoned us, these two candidates are scary. One compares herself to a war-story telling combat vet - that not only pisses me off, it disgusts me. Sniper fire indeed. Before that, there's just something about her, that bothers me. I can't really put my finger on it, but there's no way I'd vote for her. It's not that she's a woman, I did vote for Ferraro in '84. And being Clinton doesn't bother me, I did vote for her sometimes husband.

The other Democrat bothers me as well. As much as I hate to say it, I'm sure race has something to do with that. Ever since leaving the USAF and moving into Saginaw, my racial outlook has been deteriorating amidst shootings, drug deals and arsons. But that's not all it is. The fact that Obama can follow a hate-preaching, anti-American preacher for twenty years and then dump him once the preacher becomes a vote hindrance really bothers me. Do I believe Obama's past twenty years of belief, or his past twenty weeks. I'm not too pleased with Obama's choice of realtors either.

On a practical side, I don't think he has much in the way of political or life experience. Granted, the current President shows you don't need much knowledge to be president, but I'm hoping for a change to something better.

There you have it. The three current candidates; none of whom I'm really forward to as the leader of our country. Maybe I'll just move to Taiwan with my wife under President Ma.

Labels: government, michigan

Politics Suck

The noble profession known as politics. What a bunch of choices we have this year.

We have one dude who has been listening to some preacher bad mouth the USofA for 20 years, and just now decided that's a bad thing - ooh, do you think now being an election year has any bearing on his feelings?

We also have a dame who can't remember the difference between running across an airfield under sniper fire and greeting some little kid in front of TV cameras. Oh yeah, she also claims to have brokered the Irish peace treaty - more or less; or at least had a lot to do with that, or heard of it anyway.

There's another dude who plans on a 100 year Iraqi war. And the way that party has been going for the past eight years, may just end up with a thousand year Reich instead.

We have a current president who wasn't aware gasoline prices were approaching $4 a gallon and thinks thousands of foreclosures and major banks going bankrupt make for "interesting times."

The vice-president, who is in power to serve the people of this country, when told the people don't think the war in Iraq is a good thing says, "So?"

There's a mayor in my home state who feels he's been sent by god to lead the city and just coincidently has no problem with committing adultery. He also apologized to his wife and the city for the act, which he also claims he didn't do.

There's a governor who got caught with his, er, stuff, in a (more than one?) prostitution ring - at $4,500 a night, or over $80,000, and was replaced with a fine upstanding politician who immediately confessed to having several affairs - and so did his wife. I wonder who apologizes to who in that case. Oh, did I mention this shiny new governor also confesses to using heroin and coke?

Isn't it nice we have such an all-American, apple-pie clean sport like baseball to fall back on?

Labels: crime, government, gripes, michigan