Echoes of the Great Depression

Phil Gramm lays out the similarities and differences between the 1930s and today, and between the American people then and their willingness to try collectivism and their unwillingness today. He's put a pretty positive spin on November's election. I'm not so sure. My generation, although we heard about the Great Depression all our growing up years, has become very careless, and the Boomers? My, they've always expected more and better, and they are the parents of the Gen-Y and Gen-X who just a few years ago needed toys, trinkets and prizes just to show up to work (I assume that has changed since 2008).

Barack Obama is a Marxist--true, not a terribly successful one, but you can see the power of his supporters, now angered by his ineffectual programs, when they show up tomorrow in Washington as One Nation of Trouble Makers Asking for More and More and More. Every Communist, Socialist and crooked union leader will be there, paying the way for their lackey workers to assemble and protest a administration which promised to steal from the rich and give to the middle-class while ignoring the poor (who already have 70 or so programs to help them stay at the bottom).

Phil Gramm: Echoes of the Great Depression - WSJ.com

Melvin remembers Floyd too

Over at American Spectator there's an article on the pay of government workers--it's established that government workers earn twice that of the public sector, and even when all variables are crunched--skills, education--it's 10-20% more. (But they will be out in force October 2 demonstrating in Washington, DC.)

Here's a comment from Melvin at that story that I noticed because he mentioned a hurricane in North Carolina, which I also mentioned today.

"Shortly after a hurricane struck NC a number of years ago, a section of a secondary gravel road had corner washed out. I still being active duty Marine Corps and had a background in construction, was asked for a recommendation by Major Zimmerman in how we could repair the small section of road that was washed out relatively quickly because since the damage was on a blind corner a military vehicle could fall into the hole without seeing it. My recommendation was a tandem load of medium aggregate rock and a backhoe could have it repaired in about 4 hours.

"OK, Ssgt. how long would it take if we ask the civilian government employees to fix it?" I replied " About a year." Flabbergasted the Major said, "Marines could get killed or hurt if their vehicles drove into the hole."

The problem with government employees is, that the bureaucracy is so large and immovable that it will take 50 government bureaucrats in all their safety regalia of hardhats, safety vests, personal GPS locating devices, holographic government ID cards, and the ever present handled communicating device in where they can communicate with fellow bureaucrats all over the world, to come out to that small washed out section of gravel road to say, "Yep, yep, there's a hole their alright," get into the caravan of pickup trucks and leave.

It actually took 11 months and change for the government civilian employees, to come out with a dump truck and a backhoe to fill in the hole. The very same thing I told Major Zimmerman that I could have fixed with Marine Engineers in a matter of hours. And the part that really annoyed the hell out of me is that they had to send out a environmentalist that had a honest to goodness Doctorate degree to come out and inspect the hole to make sure there wasn't any endangered species that had taken up residence there. For crying out loud how much did the government waste by having a doctor come out and inspect a hole in the ground? I don't know about you, but asking a lowly E-6 in the Marine Corps to see if a bunch of critters are living in a hole is much, much cheaper than sending a doctor out to do the same thing.

Oh by the way, I had the displeasure of sneaking a peak at the civilian government payroll roster one day, let me tell you everything you hear about government employees living large is absolutely true, but if you saw what I saw on that roster in terms what they were pulling in, would cause an instant revolution.

Just drive by one day and see what type of vehicles that are parked in a government parking lot (local school board), you won't find any Yugo's parked there, thats for sure."

He said it, he lied, the media sighed

Barack Obama said it. He wasn’t ambiguous and there's no wiggle room. Obama definitely said, "If you like your insurance you can keep it. Nothing changes." Everyone knew that was nonsense, but he said it then, his disinformation staff on cable and broadcast news repeated it.

And now, every day when you open the newspaper you see a change. The end result will either be exorbitant high insurance costs that few can afford, or companies will be dropping coverage (see story on McDonald's) so their employees will go for the government carrot.

Remembering Floyd and our 1999 vacation

"In North Carolina, the nearly 21 inches collected in Wilmington since rain started falling Sunday topped Hurricane Floyd's five-day mark of 19 inches set in 1999, the National Weather Service said."

We had been planning a lovely NC fall vacation in 1999, and then Floyd happened and there was all sorts of flooding--especially those big pig farms and lots of yucky stuff. The photos of floating hogs sort of spooked us, so instead we went to visit people in Fairfax, VA, drove into Washington DC for sight seeing, ate at some lovely restaurants and also made some stops in Annapolis, St. Michael's and Oxford, Maryland. On the way home we visited Oglebay in WV. It wasn't our original plan, but a very nice trip.

Carl Paladino alleges Andrew Cuomo affair

Pot to Kettle. Paladino who has an out of wedlock child claims Cuomo was unfaithful to ex-wife. Really, children . . .

Carl Paladino alleges Andrew Cuomo affair - Maggie Haberman - POLITICO.com

Christine O'Donnell--I like her, but

finding a good mailing address is tricky.  Why do all these young folks working on the campaign not make it easier to use U.S. mail?  I'm still looking.  Meanwhile, here's an article to read about her opponent Chris Coons (lots of Chrises in this campaign).  Remember, the GOP wasn't thrilled that she beat out their candidate in the primary.

Her Facebook page says,

Mailing Address:
Friends of Christine O'Donnell
P.O. Box 3987
Wilmington, DE 19807
 
And the web page has no way to ask without signing in and all that, which I don't like to do.

Support Steve Stivers

Steve Stivers is running in my 15th district in Ohio.  Even if you're out of the district, you can support him. You can donate on line or the old fashioned way, which I find much more personal.  I don't really like the expensive GOP fund raisers (one campaign required me to go to the P.O. to pick up and sign for the item another sent me $1.00), so am sending support to the candidates I like.  Right now the big issues are the deficit and government spending.  If they turn out to be RINOs, turn them out.  If Steve can't do a better job than Mary Jo Kilroy and help stop Obama, then vote him out the next time.

Stivers for Congress
211 S. 5th Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Phone: 614-358-0800

Sean Bielat running against Barney Frank

Barney Frank is a danger to the whole country, so I'd support Sean Bielat if I could, and I can. Lots of little people who are tired of tyrant Barney can send money to support his campaign. Frank can spout off on everything, so I have no idea why he's afraid of a former Marine.



You can donate on-line, but there are 3 mailing addresses, too.
Sean Bielat for Congress
Brookline Post Office Box
PO Box 1143
Brookline, MA 02446

If everyone sent even $5 to the Republicans running against the entrenched Congress people who have taken our country to this terrible state, we could give them a much better chance. Then, if they don't remember why they are there or why they got support from people out of their district, boot 'em out next time.

Also, remember to vote. It's almost November!

Why does the President hate black children?

No, I'm not referring to his stance on abortion, which kills them before birth, in higher percentage than other groups and races.  It's the DC scholarship program that he has ruined for them.

In the fall of 2008, 216 new low-income students were notified by the Department of Education that they had been selected to receive scholarships to get out of violent DC public schools and attend alternatives, like the ones the Obama girls, Malia and Sasha, attend. But the NEA and the AFT teachers' unions helped elect Obama, and now Obama has torn up their winning “lottery tickets” to a good education and has taken back the scholarship money. Most of these kids are black.

This report by the Department of Education is not exactly a page turner, and it's stuffed tables and graphs, but it does say children in the Opportunity Scholarship program had statistically significant better reading scores than students who applied to the program but were not offered a scholarship. Also, read it now, because reports that go against Obamaplans have a tendency to disappear from the internet.

All the NBC channels and cable affiliates are promoting Obama's and Arne Duncan's education plans and theories this week. Why not discuss the alternatives? Because NBC is in Obama's hip pocket and he belongs to the unions who helped him get elected (and will be appearing in full force in DC on 10-2-10 along with the Communist Party USA and other radical groups).

Sigh--That Forsyte Woman

It was on Turner this afternoon--had to give up Glenn Beck.

Equality -- or Freedom?

"On average, Asians earn more than Hispanics; blacks less than whites. Mormons earn more than Muslims; Jews more than Jehovah's Witnesses. And Polish Americans earn more than Puerto Ricans.

Does that prove America is a racist and religiously bigoted country?"

One time I asked my boss, Jay Ladd, why a male librarian hired after me, younger, was earning more. His answer stunned me. "Because he asked for more." When I had children, I left the work force. When he had children, his wife left the work force. But there are lots of reasons women's salaries differ. They take fewer risks; move less; turn down more difficult assignments; don't want to do the out of town trips and work; and there are no "good old girl" networks that even come close to the "good old boys." We tend to stab each other in the back rather than let another woman get ahead.

This article is on the new Paycheck Fairness Act passed by the House 256 to 162.

Equality -- or Freedom? - Pat Buchanan - Townhall Conservative

Return on investment of a college education

There are lots of reasons to go to college, but a nice nest egg when you retire isn't one of them. If your parents had invested your first two years of college expenses in IRAs that you couldn't raid, by age 65 you'd be well set--much further ahead than attending an Ivy League school, or even any college at all. I have a scheme that just might get you the best of both worlds, because really, I'm quite a fan of education. I'm the third generation in my family to have a college education. It's also a good place to meet your future spouse, my grandparents, parents, and my husband and I all met in college.

When your child graduates from high school insist that he/she get a job and work for at least one year--fast food, retail, construction, agriculture worker, county flagman, groundskeeper--you get the idea. It would be nice if they can live away from home and support themselves, but that isn't essential. Then take the amount of money it would cost you for a year at a state university (I have no idea what that is these days, $12,000?) and invest it in the stock market (but not in their name, because otherwise they'll take it the first time they want a car, a nice wedding or new furniture).

After a year in the trenches or behind the counter, they'll probably be better able to take advantage of what college has to offer, and by investing for them, you'll insure they have a nice retirement in the distant future. This will really help if they want to go out and save the world in a low paying job like social work or library science, positions that have lots of simple pleasures but don't pay particularly well unless you want to claw your way to the top and become a manager/director.

I know this works, because I figured it out one day standing in line at the Tremont Goodie Shop in the 1980s while grieving that my children said no to college. Unfortunately, I already had their college money (for the first year) in accounts with their SS# and name and it later disappeared for consumer goods that will be gone long before they retire. But in case you don't believe an ordinary librarian, go read this article.

College: Big Investment, Paltry Return

"Over the past 30 years, the S&P 500 Index averaged about 11 percent a year. Only 88 schools out of the 554 in the study had a better return than the S&P. Everywhere else, students would have been better off—financially, at least—if they invested the money they spent on their college educations and never set foot in a classroom." -- And I would comment that the ROI predicted for any of these colleges is far higher than the 1%-4% I've read in other sources.

Ratty jeans

When loading some of my husband's jeans and cotton casual slacks into the washer today, it occurred to me that the jeans were well past their prime and I decided to look for some new ones when I went to Kohl's to buy a watch battery. The "new" jeans are so awful, so distressed, so ripped, so wrinkled and faded, I decided we'd stay with what we have.

Neither of these were brands at Kohl's, nor did I actually see any this awful (bottom one is $350), but you get the idea.

A sadder but wiser Axelrod packs his bags

Axelrod designed the Hope and Change theme with the logo that looks like it was stolen from a Pepsi ad, and now seems surprised and discouraged that there was no there there.

"In that sense, Axelrod, who announced a few days ago that he will return to Chicago in the spring, is leaving in defeat. It's not really an electoral defeat: Though Democrats will probably experience a shellacking on Nov. 2, Obama's prospects for 2012 will surely rise with the economic cycle. Rather, it's the notion that Obama, who declared on election night that "change has come to America," has failed to change Washington, a belief shared by 53 percent of Americans in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll."

Barack Obama, the most left of all our Presidents, the most fiscally irresponsible and the most narcissistic, has succeeded in helping to destroy the economy, but he has also succeeded in rallying the conservatives as never before. We'll see what dumping Axelrod and Emanuel do to his chances for 2012.

A sadder but wiser Axelrod packs his bags

President Obama calls his followers to DC on 10-2-10

to meet with hundreds of other communist and socialist organizations. This was planned in response to the 8-28-10 Glenn Beck gathering of 500,000+ of ordinary Americans who paid their own way to sing, and pray and listen to inspiring speakers talk about love of country and God. It was peaceful and a family event. The Washington Mall was spotless when they left.

The Communists among us are now fighting back. They'll be bussing them in, paid for by your tax dollars and union dues. CPUSA, is just one of many. Go to One Nation Working Together and look at the sponsors. With all this public and private money they should be able to gather a few million, not just half a million like 8-28. Check out some communist sites. You are known by your friends, Democrats.

Communism has failed in every country that tried it, and has resulted in the deaths of millions. How quickly Americans forget--at least my generation. My children's generation never even learned the facts of what happened in the Soviet Union and China and Vietnam.

Young Communist League

Are you smarter than a third grader in Ohio?

Today I was looking at a Standards Guide for Families, What is Expected in Grade Three. Some schools have a pdf to print at their website, but you can see it at www.OhioAcademicStandards.com, and select the grade you're interested in.

I found some of the questions overwhelming, and here are two examples:

1) Explain the major functions of the government. Right now we have major political parties and grass roots movements like the Tea Party trying to figure that one out. Does a third grader have the experience and the vocabulary to understand the question let alone answer it? Do they know their school is a function of the government? The snow plows? Not sure I did.

2) Describe the changes in religion in your community. Now that was part of a long list, which included among other things, architecture. Again, I think when I was in 3rd grade I knew that our little town (Forreston, IL) had a Lutheran Church (we weren't Lutheran but attended there), a Reformed Church and something across the street from the school that years later became part of United Methodist after a few mergers (I've forgotten its name), and that during Bible School, kids from country churches came that we didn't usually see. I knew our Pastor's name and that at school we each had a little Bible in our desk and took turns reading it aloud. But that's about as much as I knew and we were regular attenders. Kids today? I don't think a lot of them are even aware there are churches.

I also found some terms I didn't know. "Using a compass rose and cardinal directions. . ." What's a compass rose? Not sure I would know what a cardinal direction was either.

Are these tests written to explain to adults what children should know? The vocabulary doesn't seem very kid friendly to me.

Sliced Honey Crisp apple with walnuts--the perfect breakfast

Walnuts. I eat them everyday, and I'm sure they're good for me--omega-3 fatty acids, or something. Supposed to be brain food, I think, but I don't see any turn around in that department. However, there's way too much hype about food health benefits. It's all part of the gnosticism of the environmentalist movement. Other than scurvey and ricketts, not much is cured or reversed with good nutrition. What really works besides chosing the best genes (your parents... and their parents), are all the NO-NOs--not smoking, not drinking, not doing drugs, not being promiscuous, not eating too many "healthy" foods (good food is fattening too), and not sitting at the computer all day. The last No-No is a big weakness for me. Well, at least I got a lot of help from Mom and Dad.

I love this web site

Terrible tragedy in Upper Arlington

Last night a father in our community killed his two little boys and then himself. His wife found the bodies. There are no words . . .

Story

12 reasons Obamacare will raise your health care costs

All of us will see higher health insurance premiums with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). It imposes several costly new mandates and restrictions on health insurers and providers that will raise health cares costs and therefore premiums. This paper lists a dozen factors that will contribute to higher premium costs. Read it carefully, so that when you're accused of being a homophobic racist right wing idiot because you think it should be repealed, you'll have some ammunition.

Have your tried Radio Paradise?

Just listening to Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt sing Kisses Sweeter Than Wine from the album Where Have All The Flowers Gone.

Radio Paradise - commercial free Internet radio - modern & classic rock, electronica, world music & more - picked & mixed by real humans.