Michelle Bachmann says she has always believed in small federal government (even when she was an IRS lawyer) but as President Bachmann she promises to wave her wand and bring back $ 2 a gallon gas. Now THAT'S gas. Forget the fact that the last time gas was that low, the BUSH recession had the US economy in free fall. That means businesses weren't burning up the highways with deliveries, people couldn't afford vacation travel, and demand for gas was at an all time low.
Even pulling out all the stops, all the predictions of the possible increase in gas and oil production in and by the USA are in the ½ million barrels a day range. The world is using about a HUNDRED million barrels a day. So DRILL BABY DRILL (Sarah! Sarah!). It wouldn't make any difference in gas prices (especially since OPEC would reduce THEIR production to keep prices high). Oh, if only things were as simple as the so-called "populist" Tea Party folks say they are.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Why I'm not going back to South Carolina
150 years ago some South Carolinians felt so strongly about their own freedoms, that they started the Civil War in order to maintain the right to own some other human beings. That freedom loving spirit is alive today among those South Carolinians that feel free to dictate to others whether or not they can drink a beer (a belief that is heartily indorsed by the Taliban). Restricting the sale of alcohol in their counties (by local states' rights), they are ensuring that those teens and young adults that don't have the Jesus given good sense to comply with the rules, will drive the maximum distance on curvy mountain roads to a county that does sell beer. Say what you will about the Taliban; they have at least dispensed with the plastic statue of Mohammed on the dash board of their cars (look it up, Crackers). So at least the last thing that their "soon to be dead children" see isn't a symbol of the selfish beliefs of all the people that feel free to make decisions for everybody else.
I've thought a bit about my freedoms. I know that I am free to never spend a single penny more in the state of South Carolina; that's my plan. When I bought a news paper there (hey, there'd been an earthquake back home!), I made a point of sharing this plan with the clerk at the store. I was polite and civil and I even said that I knew that it wasn't their fault (even though it may have been), but that I thought that their elected officials were hypocritical idiots. The clerk agreed, for what that is worth.
Oh yeah. Joe Wilson and Mark Stanford: two, fine, honest, civil, and upstanding Christian men chosen by the voters of South Carolina (Joe's been reelected). Did I mention the Civil War thing?
I've thought a bit about my freedoms. I know that I am free to never spend a single penny more in the state of South Carolina; that's my plan. When I bought a news paper there (hey, there'd been an earthquake back home!), I made a point of sharing this plan with the clerk at the store. I was polite and civil and I even said that I knew that it wasn't their fault (even though it may have been), but that I thought that their elected officials were hypocritical idiots. The clerk agreed, for what that is worth.
Oh yeah. Joe Wilson and Mark Stanford: two, fine, honest, civil, and upstanding Christian men chosen by the voters of South Carolina (Joe's been reelected). Did I mention the Civil War thing?
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Pundits
On August 4, 2011, gold closed at about $1650 per ounce. That's about 22% in six months. This likely reflects the level of confidence so many folks have in our House of Representatives. Unfortunately for us little investors, the really big investors and Governments don't have to pay that 15% charge every time they buy or sell something (nor the tax on transactions), so they're in a position to push the price up and down to their advantage.
The financial pundits are always making fun of the "cash under the mattress" people. Burying stuff in your back yard ala Erskin Caldwell may seem dumb; right up until you pick up the paper and see that your NYSE stocks have lost thirty percent of their "value" in a week, and then they lose another 20 % over the next month or so... Don't we wish we had had our money in gold in September 2008? (When it was about $700.)
We need to remember that those same pundits called "no money down, no principal paid the first year loans" for super over priced houses SECURITIES! (House prices propped up by Greenspan's super low interest rates). "Hey! I can afford to pay for more house than I can use for more money than I have because the Government has interest rates WAY below the inflation rate! And I get to deduct the payments from my taxes! And the house will double in value in three years.*" And the real estate people obliged by hawking the "no risk" investment potential of houses and there were TWO TV shows about "flipping houses" for big bucks.) Now let's bundle the loans and sell them to other banks! Oh Boy!
SECURITIES! Secured by what? A promise to pay made by someone who is spending 130% (average American family debt) of their income on restaurant meals, cars, and vacations? (Also "secured" by a home "equity" loan. Equity that only exists and only on paper because the real estate sales people SAID the house would sell for big bucks because *see above*). SO, does anyone ever ask just exactly where the big bucks sales commissions for Realtors come from? Or where the two billion dollars came from that the Sandler couple walked off with just prior to the implosion of their World Savings Bank? Their bank was so Ponzied with fake "securities" that it brought down Wachovia, the purchaser.
The worst thing in the world that can happen to you is for a realtor to tell you that your house is worth twice what you thought it was IF YOU AREN'T PLANNING ON MOVING! And maybe even if you are, because you have to live somewhere and you'll have to buy another house that's probably over priced by the realtors. "Everything is worth what someone will pay for it." said Publilius Syrus about 2100 years ago. But that is only true if there is money out there. How much money disappeared in the fall of 2008? Everything is worthless in dollar terms right up untill it's sold. A house is two things; an investment and a place to live, don't confuse the two.
We give lip service to the fact that everything comes from somewhere and you don't get something for nothing, but if you're just buying and selling things, houses, and companies, you're not creating anything, you're just moving money around so fast you get to keep some of it (Ayn Rand). Now, just where did all those "profits" come from? It's too complicated, say the pundits, you wouldn't understand.
Back in the 17th century there was a bubble for tulip bulbs in Holland. You could buy two or three houses with the right kind of tulip bulb because the bulb was GOING TO BE WORTH SO MUCH MORE TOMORROW! Forever and ever.
I'm still reading that the housing industry isn't back to "normal". Normal like what was going on in Las Vegas in 2006? I wouldn't live there if you gave me a mansion.
The financial pundits are always making fun of the "cash under the mattress" people. Burying stuff in your back yard ala Erskin Caldwell may seem dumb; right up until you pick up the paper and see that your NYSE stocks have lost thirty percent of their "value" in a week, and then they lose another 20 % over the next month or so... Don't we wish we had had our money in gold in September 2008? (When it was about $700.)
We need to remember that those same pundits called "no money down, no principal paid the first year loans" for super over priced houses SECURITIES! (House prices propped up by Greenspan's super low interest rates). "Hey! I can afford to pay for more house than I can use for more money than I have because the Government has interest rates WAY below the inflation rate! And I get to deduct the payments from my taxes! And the house will double in value in three years.*" And the real estate people obliged by hawking the "no risk" investment potential of houses and there were TWO TV shows about "flipping houses" for big bucks.) Now let's bundle the loans and sell them to other banks! Oh Boy!
SECURITIES! Secured by what? A promise to pay made by someone who is spending 130% (average American family debt) of their income on restaurant meals, cars, and vacations? (Also "secured" by a home "equity" loan. Equity that only exists and only on paper because the real estate sales people SAID the house would sell for big bucks because *see above*). SO, does anyone ever ask just exactly where the big bucks sales commissions for Realtors come from? Or where the two billion dollars came from that the Sandler couple walked off with just prior to the implosion of their World Savings Bank? Their bank was so Ponzied with fake "securities" that it brought down Wachovia, the purchaser.
The worst thing in the world that can happen to you is for a realtor to tell you that your house is worth twice what you thought it was IF YOU AREN'T PLANNING ON MOVING! And maybe even if you are, because you have to live somewhere and you'll have to buy another house that's probably over priced by the realtors. "Everything is worth what someone will pay for it." said Publilius Syrus about 2100 years ago. But that is only true if there is money out there. How much money disappeared in the fall of 2008? Everything is worthless in dollar terms right up untill it's sold. A house is two things; an investment and a place to live, don't confuse the two.
We give lip service to the fact that everything comes from somewhere and you don't get something for nothing, but if you're just buying and selling things, houses, and companies, you're not creating anything, you're just moving money around so fast you get to keep some of it (Ayn Rand). Now, just where did all those "profits" come from? It's too complicated, say the pundits, you wouldn't understand.
Back in the 17th century there was a bubble for tulip bulbs in Holland. You could buy two or three houses with the right kind of tulip bulb because the bulb was GOING TO BE WORTH SO MUCH MORE TOMORROW! Forever and ever.
I'm still reading that the housing industry isn't back to "normal". Normal like what was going on in Las Vegas in 2006? I wouldn't live there if you gave me a mansion.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Your Republican Congressman made a wish.... it came true
If you live in a district that is "served" by a Republican representative, call your bank and tell them that you intend to withdraw all your money today or on Monday. Maybe your banker, or the FDIC (where do you think that they get their "insurance" money?) can get somebody's attention.
The Republicans are starting a run on the banks! Did you see the billionaires "voicing" their concerns? There's nothing like a few Billionaires to apply a little real pressure... Ah, but pressure to whom to do what?
When the Republican party was the minority, they did a great job of "wagging the dog". Now they've got a new Tea Party tail that's wagging them pretty good. Be careful of what you wish for, invent, or use as a weapon. These things don't stay in only your own pocket for very long. So the Republicans are pretending that they CAN'T move the Tea Party, so Obama has to move? How many Tea Party members are Democrats?
So, I suggest that you call your banker and say that you'll be pulling ALL of your money out of all of your accounts; ask if getting it all in CASH today or Monday will be a problem. If enough of us do this, the bankers will be talking to the FDIC and the FDIC will be talking to the President, and I would hope, HE will be talking to American People, some of whom are not rich Republicans. AND, we hope that the not rich Republicans and all the rest of us will be talking to the Republican Congress, and the REAL Republican Congress will be talking to the Tea Party faction, sternly.
During one of the 17 times that the Debt Ceiling was raised under Ronald Reagan, he said:
"The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns."
Can we shame or scare the Republicans into doing what the "Gipper" would do? Or do we just cause a run on the banks? Who knows; I've got all MY money out.
The Republicans are starting a run on the banks! Did you see the billionaires "voicing" their concerns? There's nothing like a few Billionaires to apply a little real pressure... Ah, but pressure to whom to do what?
When the Republican party was the minority, they did a great job of "wagging the dog". Now they've got a new Tea Party tail that's wagging them pretty good. Be careful of what you wish for, invent, or use as a weapon. These things don't stay in only your own pocket for very long. So the Republicans are pretending that they CAN'T move the Tea Party, so Obama has to move? How many Tea Party members are Democrats?
So, I suggest that you call your banker and say that you'll be pulling ALL of your money out of all of your accounts; ask if getting it all in CASH today or Monday will be a problem. If enough of us do this, the bankers will be talking to the FDIC and the FDIC will be talking to the President, and I would hope, HE will be talking to American People, some of whom are not rich Republicans. AND, we hope that the not rich Republicans and all the rest of us will be talking to the Republican Congress, and the REAL Republican Congress will be talking to the Tea Party faction, sternly.
During one of the 17 times that the Debt Ceiling was raised under Ronald Reagan, he said:
"The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns."
Can we shame or scare the Republicans into doing what the "Gipper" would do? Or do we just cause a run on the banks? Who knows; I've got all MY money out.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Republican
Dear Mrs. and Mrs. Republican:
The National Debt Ceiling Was Raised 8 times Under George W. Bush. Where were all the Republicans the whole time the debt skyrocketed? The National debt climbed from about 7.5 trillion to about 12 trillion dollars. The money that could have balanced the budget was spent by George "W." Bush and Dick "Halliburton" Cheney on bombing Iraqis (none of whom had done anything to hurt the USA, as the WMD's were shown to be a hoax) and tax cuts for billionaires. Now we're trying to build roads and pay American teachers, firemen, policemen, and librarians. We've got thousands of badly maimed soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan too. Suddenly, these people and our aging population of retirees are the budget busters and have to be thrown under the bus.
The debt ceiling was raised 17 times when The God, Ronald Reagan was president. Then President Reagan said:
"The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns."
Now it's all different. Suddenly Republicans are adamant against raising the debt limit; you say it will ruin this country. President Obama has to negotiate with you.
Do you think that no one remembers? Do you think that no one is paying attention? Can you spell hypocrite?
The National Debt Ceiling Was Raised 8 times Under George W. Bush. Where were all the Republicans the whole time the debt skyrocketed? The National debt climbed from about 7.5 trillion to about 12 trillion dollars. The money that could have balanced the budget was spent by George "W." Bush and Dick "Halliburton" Cheney on bombing Iraqis (none of whom had done anything to hurt the USA, as the WMD's were shown to be a hoax) and tax cuts for billionaires. Now we're trying to build roads and pay American teachers, firemen, policemen, and librarians. We've got thousands of badly maimed soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan too. Suddenly, these people and our aging population of retirees are the budget busters and have to be thrown under the bus.
The debt ceiling was raised 17 times when The God, Ronald Reagan was president. Then President Reagan said:
"The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns."
Now it's all different. Suddenly Republicans are adamant against raising the debt limit; you say it will ruin this country. President Obama has to negotiate with you.
Do you think that no one remembers? Do you think that no one is paying attention? Can you spell hypocrite?
Thursday, June 2, 2011
An Appalachian Experiment
2:00 PM June 2, 2011:
Oh boy! An experiment! As I was straightening up and digging in the compost/mulch pile under the black plastic, I came across three snakes and three lizards. As two of the lizards ran for it, I gently tossed the two ring neck snakes into the bushes; you see, the third snake was a slightly pissed off copperhead coiled in the mulch. And, after all these years, I actually got bitten by her. Boy she was feisty, only 16 inches long (that was part of the problem; it was difficult to grab her behind the head, there was so little "neck" there). OK, I had on gloves and I used a stick to subdue her thrashing, but she was able to reach around and nick me on the back of my hand where the glove was only cloth. It felt like a mild bee sting so I just went on and caught her and walked her out into the woods an eighth of a mile or so where she'd be safe. Then I took off my glove, and damn if she hadn't nailed me right in that big vein on the back of my hand! So I did a lot of sucking and spitting (got out lots of blood) and then I went in and put some peroxide on the fang wound. Wow, let's see what happens next!
Ah, the third lizard. She was a broad head skink and I'm pretty sure that the copperhead had just nailed her too. That was one dead, limp, lizard. I felt really bad about that. I hate to waste a perfectly good dead lizard as much as the next guy, and the copperhead missed a good meal and wasted some hard earned venom too. At this point I wasn't in the mood to take the skink out to the snake and try to entice her to eat it; call me a wimp.
3:15 PM: Well pooh! Not much of an experiment at all (unless you like negative results). I've been out digging in the hot sun (making dirt) for the last hour and nothing. My hand looks the same (a little edema near the fang entry point - probably from me sucking and breaking capillaries).
4:15 PM: "...and gets into the bloodstream and causes hemolytic destruction of...." That was the radio when I turned it on, not me. I'm still here exactly the same as before, the bite site is like a moderate hornet/wasp sting, no worse; I don't expect annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
THUMP.
Oh boy! An experiment! As I was straightening up and digging in the compost/mulch pile under the black plastic, I came across three snakes and three lizards. As two of the lizards ran for it, I gently tossed the two ring neck snakes into the bushes; you see, the third snake was a slightly pissed off copperhead coiled in the mulch. And, after all these years, I actually got bitten by her. Boy she was feisty, only 16 inches long (that was part of the problem; it was difficult to grab her behind the head, there was so little "neck" there). OK, I had on gloves and I used a stick to subdue her thrashing, but she was able to reach around and nick me on the back of my hand where the glove was only cloth. It felt like a mild bee sting so I just went on and caught her and walked her out into the woods an eighth of a mile or so where she'd be safe. Then I took off my glove, and damn if she hadn't nailed me right in that big vein on the back of my hand! So I did a lot of sucking and spitting (got out lots of blood) and then I went in and put some peroxide on the fang wound. Wow, let's see what happens next!
Ah, the third lizard. She was a broad head skink and I'm pretty sure that the copperhead had just nailed her too. That was one dead, limp, lizard. I felt really bad about that. I hate to waste a perfectly good dead lizard as much as the next guy, and the copperhead missed a good meal and wasted some hard earned venom too. At this point I wasn't in the mood to take the skink out to the snake and try to entice her to eat it; call me a wimp.
3:15 PM: Well pooh! Not much of an experiment at all (unless you like negative results). I've been out digging in the hot sun (making dirt) for the last hour and nothing. My hand looks the same (a little edema near the fang entry point - probably from me sucking and breaking capillaries).
4:15 PM: "...and gets into the bloodstream and causes hemolytic destruction of...." That was the radio when I turned it on, not me. I'm still here exactly the same as before, the bite site is like a moderate hornet/wasp sting, no worse; I don't expect annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
THUMP.
Friday, May 20, 2011
An Ode to Old Tools
I recently rehandled a shovel blade that years ago I had troubled to weld the rolled steel gap where the wood meets the metal. After all, I obsessively make each repair better than the last, and the razing of the old, to rebuild the new/old is harder each time. The ashen wood so heated was hardened like iron and very well rerepaired, steamed, jammed, pounded, and glued into the old curved cylinder of the shovel blade. And I pride myself that I was able to use another old tool that I had broken by prying on it. It was now a resharpened chisel which had less than a two inch blade. And pry as I might, I couldn't break it again. Still, I ended up having to burn the old wood out of the blade in my wood stove, and of course, plunge it into water to temper it again. Ash to ashes.
A friend once told me that a very rich man might have many shovels, that way, though old he might be, he could leave each shovel where last he used it and would never have to carry one from place to place. I have 10 shovels (some with very short handles). I am a rich man indeed.
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