Hear the Crickets??

While looking up sources for yesterday's post about the president's link to CCX, and Al Gore's, and Goldman Sachs', I found one source for a few blogs about the subject.  It was a link to Canadian Free Press' site.  Today, I found page after page after page of links on a Google search.  Want to take a guess how many of them were from American newspaper sites?  How about two?  You would think that a story that links the president of the United States financially to a company that stands to earn $10 trillion annually if his legislation is passed would be front page news all over the country!  Then throw in a 10% share of the company being blamed for the financial crash that cost the country 11 million jobs (according to one congressman in today's congressional proceedings), Goldman Sachs.  Just for added interest, add a 5% stake in the mountain of money to a company headed up by Al "I invented the internet and won an Oscar and Nobel Prize" Gore.  Oh yeah, also link CCX to the United Nations and Fannie Mae, whose mismanagement was the real cause of the country's financial crash.  And not a word from any U.S. newspaper.  Except for the Washington Examiner, who basically summarized Glenn Beck's television program from Monday, with a Youtube video of Beck's blackboard.  And a line from the writer that she had verified as true Beck's claims.  Then the Dallas Morning News shows up on page 2 of the Google search.  The link goes to a comment page about the media's relationship with President Obama.  After scrolling down approximately three pages, there was a comment from a reader asking why no DMN investigation.  That's it.

Front and center all over the nation's media watchdogs, Sandra Bullock has adopted a baby!  How was she able to keep such a big secret????  Shocking!  Next we will learn that Kate Gosselin was voted off Dancing with the Stars.

Today I found several stories from British newspapers about the scandal.  I knew from the site I linked to yesterday that Fannie Mae owned the patent to a device that measures carbon output.  Guess what?  It was modified for use on manufacturers, but was originally designed to measure household carbon output.   Household output.  The plan calls for individual American homes to have a carbon cap.  Just like businesses, individuals can buy additional carbon certificates when they have reached their annual cap.  Buy the certificates from individuals in third world countries that don't create the emissions that Americans do.  According to the site, the cap would be set at 2500 pounds of carbon produced per year.  Over two times the amount produced by the average citizen of a third world country, but coincidentally only half the amount produced by the average American.  So basically Americans would be forced to purchase carbon certificates from people in India or China or South America, through the Chicago Climate Exchange of course.  After taking their cut, CCX would pass that American money on to the citizens of the unindustrialized countries.  In theory anyway.  Want to give odds on how much of that money makes it to the average citizen of Sri Lanka?

By the way, does your electric company give you the option to buy "green" energy, at a higher rate than traditional energy?  Green ain't cheap!  The idea is that it lowers your carbon output, so you won't exceed your cap so quickly.  Pro-choice again, give your money to the electric company or a Bangladesh villager (minus CCX;s cut of course).  Or you can pay to plant a tree, like the Vatican chose to do, in order to be carbon neutral.  Guess what, no trees were planted for the Vatican.  The payments were taken though!  Like Glenn Beck said, scamming the Pope pretty much guarantees some very warm temperatures in your future!

How's that for redistribution of wealth?  Mainly redistributed straight from your pocket to that of Barack Hussein Obama, Al Gore, Goldman Sachs, and Fannie Mae.  I guess the New York Times has laid off too many "reporters."  They missed this one.  Hear the crickets?  Oh, yeah, Sandra's baby is a healthy 3 month old boy.  And she has filed for divorce from Jesse.  Shocker!

Evil, yes. Stupid, no

It is the end of April.  Two feet of snow today in New York.  High of 35 here in Gunnison tomorrow.  So let's talk about global warming.  Like I wrote in a previous post about redneck snow skis, I know that cold weather halfway through spring does not mean that global warming isn't true.  But surely ten years of cooling temperatures does.  And false data by leading climate change (global warming is sooo 2009) researchers should make even the most rabid Al Gore sycophants wipe off their Kool-Aid mustaches.  

Then there's the cost.  The president himself says that under his plan, electric rates would "necessarily skyrocket."


So what exactly is cap and trade? Manufacturing produces carbon.  Carbon, according to the global warming "experts," leads to warming temperatures.  So, something must be done to discourage manufacturers from producing carbon.  Under this plan, a manufacturer would have a set amount of carbon emissions allowed as a by product of their business.  They would receive a certificate for that amount carbon emission.  If they go over the amount covered by their certificate, they can buy another manufacturer's certificate.  


Let's say that Cathy and I decide to go into the potato chip business.  We register as a potato chip manufacturer and receive our certificate to produce 2 tons of carbon dioxide.  Well, we are not really that into potato chips, so we only make a couple of batches of chips a year.  We didn't produce even an ounce of our allowable emissions.  Frito Lay, on the other hand, is realllly into potato chips.  They have produced all the carbon they are allowed, and they want to make even more chips.  They are selling a lot more chips than Cathy and me.  But they aren't allowed to make any more.  They have no more carbon certificates left.  Well, I'm smarter than the average rock, I'll sell them my unused carbon certificates.  Frito Lay is more than happy to buy them from me.


Small problem.  Who decides how much the certificates are worth?  How does Frito Lay find Larry and Cathy?  Where do they find even more?  It's not like there's an exchange similar to the New York Stock Exchange for carbon certificates.  Now, there would be a money making idea!  Guess what?  There is one!  It's the Chicago Climate Exchange or CCX!  Now there's some forward thinking folks.  If global warming weren't such a scam, I bet they could make some major bucks matching certificate buyers to certificate sellers, and of course taking their commission.  We are a capitalist society after all.  They could sell the certificates of manufacturers in third world countries to U.S. companies and basically give them boatloads of money (minus CCX's cut of course) for producing nothing!  CCX estimates they would process $10,000,000,000,000 in transactions.  A year.  That's $10 trillion a year.  That will buy a pretty nice house, won't it, Al Gore?  What's Al Gore's connection to this $10,000,000,000,000 a year business?  Oh, just a little thing.  He's on the board of a British company that owns a 5% share of Chicago Climate Exchange.  So, that's how he can afford such a non-environmentally friendly estate.  Compare Gore's estate to that of a nature-hating, let's melt the icecaps I love heat anyway George Bush.  When you stand to get even a piece of a 5% share of $10,000,000,000,000 a year, you can stand a little skyrocketing electric cost.

Nice story, but no one is forcing companies like Ford and DuPont, or local governments like the city of Chicago and Miami-Dade county to participate in this wonderful Enron-style scheme (they are already buying and selling certificates voluntarily so they can advertise as "carbon neutral"), right?  Not yet.  But that's the very basis of cap and trade legislation in front of Congress right now!  Requiring companies and local governments to participate.  Forcing the cost of their goods and services to skyrocket.  Amazing.  

So how does a start-up like Chicago Climate Exchange get started in 2003 with no cap and trade legislation on the horizon?  Through charitable, almost untraceable grants from a wonderful foundation called the Joyce Foundation.  They were supported by a Joyce Foundation board member who secured the funding for them.  The board member who was such a forward thinking visionary?  An up and coming Illinois state senator.  His name?  All together now, Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm.


Now that should give you something to think about.  Here's a link detailing all the viper's nest of ties to the United Nations (where most of the global warming "research" came from).  Just for grins, let's throw in 5 CCX board members from Goldman Sachs, a 10% share in the company to Goldman Sachs, and a compleeeeetely coincidental link to Fannie Mae.  No conspiracy theory.  Facts.  It's mind-boggling.  Almost as mind-boggling as the fact that no U.S. newspaper or news organization has mentioned any of this.  The link refers to a Canadian Free Press site.  Free press, remember when America had one of those?  Another fact, NBC is owned by GE.  General Electric.  Think they might have a stake in this game? 

Ban It!

Here's an interesting story about the importance of education and the average American's willingness to let the government take care of them.

A reporter went to Times Square on a weekday late afternoon, just as office workers were crowding the street to go home after a work day.  He stopped 200 people at random and asked if they would favor the federal government either banning or strictly regulating the use of dihydrogen monoxide.  Dihydrogen monoxide is a very commonly found chemical that, through simple inhalation, kills thousands of people per year in the United States alone. It's use by businesses and individuals is essentially unregulated.  No licenses are required for its purchase or use.

As a former resident of Arizona, and frequent radio listener in the Phoenix area, I can tell you that the state ran public service ads hourly warning about the dangers of the chemical, especially to young children.

The poll results?  70% of those questioned said the government should ban the chemical compound immediately.  15% said it should be strictly regulated.  The remaining 15% were obviously libertarian nutjobs that protest government regulation of anything.  After all who is not in favor of banning di(meaning 2) hydrogen (highly explosive, right?) mono (one) oxide (oxygen)?  Or H2O.  If you still don't get it, you must be a recent American high school graduate.  It's water.

We not only allow, but encourage these people to vote!  Change, yeah!  Sign me up!  Oh yeah, what are we changing to?  Hope it's good.  Got any water?

Catch!!!!

Remember when you were a kid and your friend would throw a ball at you and then yell, "catch!!?"  His goal was usually to hit you in the face.  Hilarious, huh?  One of our football drills was similar.  The receiver would stand inside a circle of 6 other players.  The coach would yell out a clock point, 12, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10.  The player at that point would throw the ball at the receiver as he spun to catch the ball.  The coach would yell out the points out faster and faster, until you had footballs flying from all directions.

Right now, average Americans are the receiver in the middle.  And the Obama administration is surrounding us at all points of the clock, down to the seconds.  First they fire a fast, hard one at us.  A 2000+ page health care takeover.  We turned,  but not quick enough and took that fastball to the face.  Good news is that Americans threw it back hard enough to get their attention for a couple of minutes anyway.

Now they are firing away from every direction.  Here comes cap and trade.  Look out, here comes immigration reform.  Pow, there is another western state land grab Zoom, there went FCC regulation of the internet Voting on a change in language for statehood ballots for Puerto Rico Didn't see that one coming There went representation in the House for D.C. Lobbed in legalizing carrying firearms in national parks, while zipping in voting rights for convicted felons Ouch At least it is called the Democracy Restoration Act, how bad could that be Student loans as part of health care How'd that one get by It will be a revenue stream to reduce the cost of health care, oh, ok How's it going to produce revenue when it doubles the amount of grants given (those don't have to paid back)And if you work for the government you don't have to pay back your loan at all Boy, we fumbled that one Federal regulation of all U.S. waters, right over our head Goldman Sachs executives being excoriated by the Senate.  Caught that one.  Good.  Let those evil thieving bankers have it.  Almost destroyed our economy with their shady home loans.  Wait a minute, Congress required them to make those risky loans.  They protected their investors by hedging their bets, didn't they?  If I had money invested in Goldman, I'd be adding them to my Christmas card list!  Dropped that one too.  Stop, we need a break!  Put down that banking regulation reform!  Look out, here comes Supreme Court nominee!!

Obama's Lemonade Stand

I remember a Dennis the Menace comic strip from my childhood.  It had Dennis at his lemonade stand, with a sign that advertised $5 a cup.  The caption said "I only need to sell one."

Price management is one of the most difficult and most important task of any business.  I've worked in the retail industry most of my career, so that's the example I'll use.  The business' number one task is to earn a profit for its shareholders.  It seems like a simple concept, sell your product for more than you paid for it.  The difficulty comes in trying to decide how much more.  At my book store, it was fairly simple.  I bought used books from customers for 25% of retail, and sold them for 50% of original retail.  It was a nice margin, and the store was in business for more than 25 years.

If you have read the Joseph Heller classic, Catch 22, you will remember the supply, clerk Milo, who bought cotton stock for 50c a share and sold it for 25c, "but we are making up for it in volume."

With the rental car company, I learned yield pricing management.  I had to look at reservation demand, car availability, and competition prices and set our prices to get the highest possible revenue from each rental, without running out of cars.  For example, on a Monday we would have high rates because that's the day most business travelers would arrive.  Tuesday's rates might be higher still because we would have fewer cars available, and so would our competition.  By Wednesday evening, rates would go down because we would have more cars returning than being rented.  By Friday, rates would be extremely low for cars that would be returned in time for the Sunday evening rush.  So, it's a little more complicated than "buy low, sell high."

In general, there's a curve graph of profitability.  Starting with a price of zero, where of course you lose money; to a price of, I guess, infinitely high, where you would still have a loss due to no sales.  Somewhere in between you have a maximum profit.  For example, at Stride Rite, a style might make the company a profit of $500,000 with a retail of $49.99.  Raise the retail price to $59.99 and you get more profit right?  No, because then the customer does not see the value of the shoe and chooses a cheaper competitor's merchandise.  So a higher retail price might earn a lower profit.

The same applies to our federal taxes.  Former Reagan adviser, Arthur Laffer devised the Laffer Curve.  His studies show an optimum tax rate, similar to the curve you see in retail pricing.  At its most basic, government provides services for a fee, your taxes.  While we still see some value in the service, Americans are willing to pay the fee, and revenues rise.  At some point, the fee becomes  too high for the perceived value and Americans become less productive, resulting in lower revenue.  For example during World War I, President Wilson's administration needed more and more revenue to fund the war and the explosion of federal programs instituted under Wilson.  They created more and higher taxes, targeting businesses and the wealthy.  The more taxes they imposed, the less revenue they collected.  So they raised and created taxes even more.  They peaked with an income tax of 77% on the wealthiest Americans.  And still revenue collected actually decreased.  It decreased because the wealth creators saw no value in the government's services.  They chose not to buy, or produce income that would only be taxed.  This led to a depression in 1920.  

Warren G. Harding became president in 1921 and one of his first and most important appointments went to Andrew Mellon as treasury secretary.  Mellon immediately proposed cuts to tax rates, especially Wilson's "excessive profit" taxes.  And like the Laffer Curve or retail pricing models show, revenues increased.  As Mellon said, "Any man of energy and initiative in this country can get what he wants out of life,” he wrote. “But when initiative is crippled by legislation or by a tax system which denies him the right to receive a reasonable share of his earnings, then he will no longer exert himself and the country will be deprived of the energy on which its continued greatness depends.”  

Seems pretty simple.  Who is going to work to their maximum capability when most of the rewards for their hard work is going to fund a federal government whose policies and practices they do not necessarily support?  As one scholar joked, "three presidents served under Mellon" during a prosperous time now celebrated as the "Roaring '20's." 

Here's a link to a history of income tax in the United States, that illustrates, albeit unintentionally, Laffer's Curve. Maybe our next president should have a business background, rather than a community organizing background.  Our present organizer-in-chief seems to have only learned economics from Dennis the Menace, and didn't even operate his own lemonade stand.

Trust Each Other, Unless You Live in D.C.

I have worked for many, sometimes it feels like too many, years in management.  My first management job was in a small bookstore.  It was basically me and one part time associate.  Obviously there was not much delegating.  If something needed to get done, I did it.  My next management position was with Stride Rite shoes.  With Stride Rite, I had several part time associates and an assistant.  While with Stride Rite, I learned a lesson that our government needs to learn.

Part of my job as manager was to train my assistant to be a future manager.  Tisha was one of my first assistants who was serious about getting her own store.  After some basic training, we split the daily tasks and paperwork.  Once on Tisha's day off, I had finished all my usual activities and had probably listened to the Dino Dave recordings a couple of times too many for the day.  I went back to the office and noticed that Tisha had a couple of days' paperwork still unfinished.  So I decided to do her a favor and finish it for her.

I was off the next day, but got a phone call from the store.  It was Tisha, and she was irate.  She asked if she should start looking for a new job, or maybe a transfer to another store.  I had no idea what could possibly be the problem.  I thought everything was going well.  Finally she calmed down enough to ask me if I thought she was incapable of doing her job.  I told her, no. I thought she was doing well and would be able to take her own store soon.  She then asked why I would do her job if that was the way I really felt.  She was insulted at my doing her job for her.  From my point of view, I was doing her a favor.  It seemed a case of "no good deed will go unpunished."  From her point of view, her manager did not trust her or did not think she was capable of doing her job.

Tisha went on to get her own store with Stride Rite and did very well.  She eventually moved on to another management position with another company with even more responsibility.  She taught me a lesson that I think about each time I "help" a trainee.  I always tell them this story and let them know the reason I'm "helping" them.  The story is used as a motivator for those who may not be as self-motivated or as capable as Tisha, in addition to teaching them a management lesson that I learned the hard way.

Unfortunately, I have had trainees that did not have the drive or capability of Tisha.  In their case, I "helped" them a great deal. Until they either caught on or moved on.  As a rule, the more "help" they required, the more likely they were to move on.  

I don't know if the good folks in D.C. think we are capable of taking care of ourselves.  The majority of Americans will gladly take care of themselves and do the right thing.  All we ask is that the government get out of our way.  We are more than willing to help each other and contribute to causes in which we believe.  As long as the government leaves us the resources to do so. I believe most of our representatives think they are doing the right thing.  They feel a little like I did during the phone call from Tisha, "no good deed will go unpunished!"

More and more, I have come to believe that our government doesn't want to trust us.  They take our tax dollars and spend them for us on causes the majority of us do not believe in or support, in order to further their own agenda or strengthen their positions.  No non-profit should receive federal funds.  That's no, none, not any, for any reason.  Nowhere in the constitution does it give the federal government the authority to collect money from the general population to give to any non-profit organization.  Leave that money in the hands of the individual who earned it.  Let that person decide where his/her contribution will go.  Let the non-profit organizations compete for our dollars.  Then let's see if ACORN gives tax advice to pimps for Salvadoran teens, or registers the lineup of the Dallas Cowboys to vote in Las Vegas(you knew I had to work the Cowboys in here somewhere).  Or if Planned Parenthood takes 15 year old girls from their school in Washington and gets them a free abortion without notifying their parents.  If they do, and you choose to support them with your hard-earned dollars, that's your choice.  In that case, I am pro-choice, as are most Americans.  But do not force us to contribute.  We will gladly contribute to causes we believe in.

We need to learn which representatives want to control us, and which just need a phone call from Tisha.  Soon, while we still have any choices left.   

This Window is a Door

Ever hear of the Overton Window?  Joseph Overton was a researcher, author, and senior vice president of a public policy think tank.  His theory was that public opinion fits into a window on a scale.  If a policy does not fit into the opinion window, politicians will not support or push the policy, for the sake of job security.  So, if the politician or government knows  the policy in question is good for the people, how do you get politicians to support it?  You move the window.

It's kind of like negotiating for a raise.  You ask for 10%.  Your boss says he will give you a 20% cut in pay.  You say, no, I'll quit first.  Your boss says fine, we will compromise.  I'll only cut your salary 10%.  You win.  He didn't cut your pay 20%!

The health care takeover is another example.  Americans are screaming that they do not want the federal government running their health care.  The administration says it will provide public funding for abortions.  America screams absolutely no!! Obama says fine, we'll compromise, no public funding for abortion in the health care takeover.  America says great.  We won that one. Um, didn't we?  They moved the window.

Americans need to stick to our principles.  Move the window back our direction.  Once Americans know the game, we can play it too.  Education is the key.  Know our principles and our history.

Budget Cutting for Idiots, i.e. Congress

Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance and from under the eye of their constituents . . . will invite the public agents to corruption, plunder, and waste. . . . What an augmentation of  the field for jobbing, speculating, plundering, office-building, and office-hunting would be produced by an assumption of all the state powers into the hands of the federal government!
                                                         ---Thomas Jefferson

Did you know that  representative Shaddegg from Arizona has introduced the Enumerated Powers Act each year that he has been in the House of Representatives.  The Act would require congress to define exactly which of the 18 enumerated powers the Constitution gives the federal government justifies any law passed.  If nothing else, the act would force congressmen to study the Constitution.  Even after being introduced 15 times, each year since 1995, the Act has yet to make it out of committee.  I'll pause while you get up off the floor.  I know you are shocked.


Hopefully you are recovered now.  Another Texas representative has introduced a resolution that on September 17, Constitution Day; when every school receiving federal funds is required to spend at least part of the day studying the Constitution, Congress do the same.  To repeat, on September 17, all schools receiving federal funds are required to spend at least part of the day studying the Constitution.  Representative Conaway is suggesting that Congress also study the document, you know the one they swore to uphold and defend, on that one day as well.  His committee chairman said that was "the stupidest idea I've ever heard."  And do you know of any school that observes Constitution Day?  Or even knows of its existence?  It's been around since Robert Byrd (Democrat) introduced it in 2004 and it was passed as part of the Omnibus Spending Bill.  


Article I Section 8 of the Constitution lists the 18 enumerated powers.  The 10th Amendment states:  The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

There's the easiest way to cut the federal budget.  Each line of the budget should have a reference to which of the Enumerated Powers justifies the spending.  No Enumerated Power, no funds.  Pretty simple.

Kindergarten Socialists

Remember the first day of school when you were a kid.  It was exciting.  Not only did you get to see all your friends after the summer, and meet the new kids in town, you got to go shopping for new school clothes and supplies.

We always made a trip to Fletcher's in Gruver for new clothes and shoes.  Fletcher's had a window display with a water faucet hanging with fishing line from the ceiling.  Water flowed from the faucet into a bucket on the floor.  We never could figure out how they did that.  I also remember how embarrassed mom and Judy were when one of the Lindsey boys came running to his mom crying, holding a mannequin arm.

Being Texans, we got Levis or Wranglers.  My favorite shoes were Trax.  They made you run faster and jump higher.  Talk about false advertising!  I remember picking them out of a big bin.  And digging for the match when the one shoe in my size was not still attached to its mate.  Also finding someone's old shoes in the pile.  I just thought they wore the new ones and didn't need the old pair anymore.  Later as a shoe store manager, I hated finding old worn shoes in our bins or in a box.  It meant someone had stolen from us.

For a boy anyway, clothes shopping was torture.  But we loved going to Spearman to the TG&Y to buy school supplies.  Looking back, I know we were on a tight budget, but it always seemed like we got what we wanted.  In my case, it was pencils with Dallas Cowboy logos on them, and most importantly, a pencil sharpener inside a plastic Cowboys football helmet.  

Most kids today don't get those choices.  Even many public schools today are requiring school uniforms.  Parents accept the idea because it takes the pressure off.  Don't have to give in to the peer pressure and buy high dollar brand names. Everyone wears the same styles and colors.  No one has to feel bad because they don't have the latest fad.


School supplies aren't yours anymore.  They all go to the teacher to be passed out to the entire class.  Since mom knows you won't necessarily get what you take to class, she buys the boring yellow pencils and square pink erasers and red, green, yellow, and blue notebooks.  No more Dallas Cowboys or Smurfs or Spongebobs today.  Everyone has the same blaaah stuff.

Socialism starts early.  Gets us accustomed to giving up choices.

Where's My Hovercraft?

When I was in college, I subscribed to both the Dallas Morning News and Dallas Times Herald newspapers.  I read both every morning before going to my 8 am class.  Guess I've always been a morning person.  My main reason for getting both papers was the sports sections.  The Morning News had Randy Galloway and David Casstevens as columnists.  The Times Herald had Skip Bayless and Blackie Sherrod.  All were very good writers and seemed to have changed papers a couple of times before the Times Herald finally went under.  I always looked forward to Blackie Sherrod's Sunday column titled Scattershooting.  Each column began with the phrase - "Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to..." and was just a collection of random thoughts and observations.

So, with respect to Mr. Sherrod:

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Blackie Sherrod.

Scattershooting refers to shotguns for those non-western readers.

Remember when Popular Science said that "the internet is the pet rock of the 90's?"


Popular Mechanics predicted that helicopters would become so cheap and easy to fly that they would replace cars by the year 2000.


Alvin Toffler's Future Shock predicted the computer would reduce the average American's work week to 30 hours or less.  With unemployment at 10% and rising, we may be close.  Doesn't take too many zero hour work weeks to offset those 60 hour ones.


Why is it always 75 year old fry cooks who win the lottery?  And why do they always say they will still go to work on Monday?  Shouldn't a psychic win at least once?


Why would anyone making more than $250,000 a year vote for Obama?  A better question, how could anyone that stupid make $250,000 or more a year?  If you want to help the unfortunate, give to the cause you believe in.  Does anyone, anyone with a brain anyway, believe that giving your money to the federal government to help others, actually helps others?  Well, if you count government employees and bureaucrats, I guess it does help others.  Is that what you intended?

Colin Powell, how is endorsing Obama for president just because he "looks like you" not a racist act.  Or have you been lying about your beliefs for the past 20 years?  Especially over a member of your own political party and FELLOW SOLDIER!!  Liar or racist, tough choice.

Remember when kids played basketball, baseball, and football without adult supervision and always kept score?  And learned more from losing than winning.  Mainly that it was much more fun to win!  And don't taunt your opponents or do a dance after a score.  Like Tom Landry told Drew Pearson, "act like you've been there before."

I miss Tom Landry. And Bear Bryant.  I hope Joe Paterno and Mack Brown never retire.  Remember when a reporter asked Paterno if he was interested in an NFL job?  He answered, "and leave college football to people like Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer?  Never."

Air powered hovercrafts have been advertised in the back pages of comics since the 60's, or maybe even longer.  They should work.  Why hasn't someone perfected them yet?  Probably George Bush's fault.


Thanks Blackie.

Let's Pretend

As I've said in this blog before, I'm a big sports fan, especially football and the Dallas Cowboys.  So today, let's pretend we own the Dallas Cowboys.  We've got a pretty good head coach in Wade Phillips.  He's a good coach and everybody likes him.  He's a popular choice.  We feel pretty good about our choice.  Wade's the football guy, so unlike Jerry Jones, we are going to let him pick his coaching staff and players.

Wade picks his staff, none of them have been successful and seem to have some funny ideas about how winning isn't important.  We think, well, not who I would've picked, but hey it's Wade's choice.  Now, Wade's going on a tour of the NFL.  He visits Oakland, bows to Al Davis and apologizes for those Super Bowl wins in the 1990's.  Wade then promises that it won't happen again.  He will work hard to see that Oakland wins a Super Bowl soon.  Next stop, Seattle.  Same theme.  Jacksonville, more bows and apologies.  Similar stops in Miami, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Tennessee, Houston, and Pittsburgh.  He visits 36 teams, won't be able to make it to Phoenix or Washington.  Only one more to go.  Huh?  Time to have a little talk with Wade.

We owners have a meeting with Wade.  He lets us know immediately that he doesn't care what we think about his methods.  We hired him and we knew who he was when we chose him.  We did listen during the interview, right?  He said he was going to "fundamentally change" the Dallas Cowboys.  Could it be that we just don't like white men?  Well, we are basically nice men and women, so we decide that maybe we are being unfair.  Let's just let the season start and see where it goes.  

Well, it doesn't go well.  Wade refuses to play our best players.  "It's time for them to step aside and let someone else have the spotlight for awhile."  Wade holds a press conference to inform the league that our combination of Tony Romo throwing to Miles Austin is too good.  In the spirit of fairness and to compensate for our past success, Romo won't be throwing to Austin, unless the opposing team has a quarterback/receiver combination just as good.   A reporter asks, what if the other team has a great running back and runs up and down the field scoring on you?  Wade says, no exceptions, unless their passing game is as good as ours, we will not pass, period.

We visit practice.  We have to do something about this!  Did you hear that?  Our offensive coordinator just told the team that "you can't expect to be number one in everything indefinitely.  One of the most appropriate responses to this degree of levelization of the playing field is to cooperate more, exchange more."  What?????  First of all, is "levelization" even a word?  What do you mean we can't be number one forever?  Did you hear the line coach?  He refuses to put all the linemen on the field at the same time.  Something about the stadium "tipping over and capsizing!!!!"  These guys are under contract until November!  And we're stuck with Wade for another two years.  Can we afford to wait that long?  We won't even discuss what he's done with the training room! 

Sound familiar?  This week our president has promised not to use nuclear weapons, even if we are attacked with biological or chemical weapons.  If the attacker has nuclear weapons, then we might respond with our own.  The "levelization" quote is straight from the president's science adviser, John Holdren (not to be confused with his attorney general,Eric Holder, who says we are a nation of cowards when it comes to race), in a speech to students.  He's also the author of a book advocating compulsory abortions and for putting infertility drugs in the drinking water, where necessary.  He was quoted as saying that infants eventually develop into human beings.  In his defense, Holdren says he wrote those books in the 1970's and they were only theory.  He wouldn't really try any of those programs.  Whew, I feel better now.  Remember the previous post about President Woodrow Wilson's eugenics program, led by Margaret Sanger (founder of the organization that became Planned Parenthood, quite a coincidence!)?  Holdren is President Obama's Sanger.

I wish I caught the name of the lady on Fox last night.  Commenting on President Obama's stance at this nuclear summit, she said that instead of "speak softly and carry a big stick, this president's policy is to whisper and leave your stick at home."  I wish he would follow that policy on domestic issues too.

Rangers Win the World Series!! Or Maybe Not

Hell must've frozen over.  No, the Rangers didn't even win their regular season game today, much less the World Series.  An even more rare occurrence.  I heard an intelligent comment on National Public Radio.  Of course it was at 3:30 this morning on a BBC rebroadcast, and it was made by an Indian (from India, not Native America).  

Mark Twain once said that democracy was like the steam powered printing press that he invested his life savings in.  It worked one time. In a dark room.  With no witnesses.  Intelligent commentary on NPR is just as rare.  But I did hear it!

The story was the typical NPR drivel about businesses destroying the planet with greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.  Specifically they were telling how polluted the Ganges River has become.  The Ganges River is sacred to the Hindus in India.  At least once a year they bathe in the river as an act of purification.  Even with raw sewage, industrial waste, and dead oxen floating down the river!  

The Indian scientist being interviewed was telling about his studies of the self-purification qualities of the river.  He said that something about the river itself purifies the water more quickly than other rivers being studied.  His hypothesis was that an element present in the huge quantity of leaves that wash down off the Himalayan mountains speeds the purification process of the river. But the cleansing process has been slowed because of the dams that have been built in the past 50 years slowing the flow of the river.

The interviewer asked why, if the river is so sacred to the local population, did they allow it to become so polluted?  And not polluted just by industries and businesses, but by the local population?  The Indian scientist said he blamed the British.  When the British controlled India, they set up government agencies to regulate the businesses and control the quality of the water in the river.  He was not blaming the government for loose restrictions on the industries, but for trying to regulate the water's quality in the first place.  He said the regulatory process created a disconnect between the local people and the river.  

In all the previous history of the area, the people took responsibility for keeping the river clean and keeping it sacred.  The British had good intentions when they tried to regulate what was being dumped into the river, but by taking control of the water quality, they took away the local population's respect of the river as well.  The scientist 
said people no longer feel responsible for keeping the river clean.  The government takes their tax money and says it is to keep the river clean.  So the people feel that it is the government's job.  Even though the citizens are the ones who bathe with bloated dead oxen floating past, they don't feel the need to keep their water clean.  It is the government's job.  They also feel that it is o.k. to toss their ox in the river.  The government will clean it up.

I have seen similar results of government intervention on the highways of northern Arizona.  The Navajo of the high desert along the Arizona - Utah border reputedly have a deep respect for the earth.  Their religion teaches that they actually came from a world inside the earth to this world through a sipapu, or small hole in sacred areas of the earth.  So the earth is literally their mother, and like their mother, to be respected and revered.  When the state and federal highways were built through the reservation, the government took responsibility for keeping the land clean.  A drive along Highway 160 from the Four Corners area through Tuba City on the western edge of the reservation features beautiful scenery.  The scenery that John Ford made famous in his John Wayne westerns.  But the current scenery also includes a highway lined with literally millions of empty beer bottles, beer cans, and more trash than you would find after a spring break frat house party.  The American Indians feel no need to clean the area, or no reason not to throw their trash along the road.  The government will clean it up.  It's their job.  And like every other job taken on by the government, they don't do it very well, if at all.  Although they are pretty efficient at collecting the tax revenue needed to pay for the job!

Now they have taken responsibility for keeping us healthy.  Or at least they will take the responsibility in 2014.  In the meantime, they will take the revenue starting today.  I was taught in human resources classes on interviewing and hiring, "past performance predicts future results."  The government's history tells us this will not end well.


But I did hear an intelligent comment on NPR!  Can the Rangers' World Series rings be far behind?

Grandpa Doode's Last Vacation, Sam Bass, and Swimming Pigs

When I was about 12, we took a family trip to Padre Island and Corpus Christi.  My mom, dad, two sisters, Grandpa Doode, Grandma Lucille, and me all piled into one vehicle and took the trip from north Texas down to the coast.  I'm not sure what vehicle we took, those were the pre-minivan days.  For that many of us, we must have taken Dad's old International Harvester Scout.  I do remember a trip that LeAnne and I fought over who got to ride in the cargo area of the Scout.  So that must've been the trip.  I can't imagine any other vehicle where the seven of us and our luggage would have been able to travel the 400+ miles.  The cramped conditions are probably what prompted Grandma to inform us that this would probably be Grandpa's "last vacation."  The statement and her certainty about it shocked all of us, including Grandpa! 

We drove through Austin and saw the Capitol building.  I was impressed because it looked just like the pictures in the textbooks.  If my memory is accurate, we drove through on a weekend, so there were no tours.  And I definitely remember that it was a very seedy looking neighborhood.  I expected to see Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch on the street corner.  That may have been the real reason we didn't park and take a tour.

It's been a week without a football story, so here's one.  The son of Huggy Bear plays running back for the Oakland Raiders, or at least he did.  I think he may have been released after this past season.  He played on the national champion USC team that beat Texas in the Rose Bowl.  Oh wait, the LONGHORNS won that game!  It must have been another year that he played.

From Austin, we went south to San Marcos and Aquarena Springs, a small amusement park built around the San Marcos river.  The river is spring-fed and was perfectly clear.  We took a glass bottom boat tour and heard about the giant catfish that used to live in the park.  He escaped during a spring with heavy rain and was next seen on the front page of the local newspaper, the victim/trophy of a local trotline fisherman.  Sometimes the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence.  The real highlight of the park was Ralph, the swimming pig.  The audience sat in bleachers and watched Ralph dive and swim with his human friends.  The bleachers were at and below the level of the water and behind a plexiglass wall, so you could see Ralph's little pig legs paddling like mad when he hit the water!  Cathy and I lived in San Marcos in the early 1990's.  When we visited Aquarena Springs, there was no Ralph.  Since the park was being run by the University, Ralph was probably retired due to political correctness.  He has used his retirement years to learn computer skills.  He now has his own Facebook page.  I bet Grandma Lucille never dreamed she would see the day when a swimming pig had his own page on the internet!

A little further south in San Antonio, we visited the Alamo.  It's hard to imagine the scene of the battle right in the middle of downtown in one of the ten largest cities in the country.  The Alamo compound was a church, not a fort, so other than the famous arched church front, none of the site looks like you would imagine.  When the city was repairing the streets downtown in the 90's, they did a lot of archeological studies, looking for the Alamo's well and of course the required lost treasure that always goes with such legendary sites.  I learned that the site of the actual final battle at the Alamo was at Wendy's, a couple of blocks from the shrine.  Some myths should not be burst.  One of my most vivid memories is of the old Buckhorn Saloon down the street from the Alamo.  It is an old west type saloon filled with mounted big game trophies from all over the world and a huuuge collection of antlers.  

Our San Antonio visit was only a few years after the World's Fair was held in the city.  The HemisFair tower was a reasonably new attraction in the city that we had to experience.  An elevator ride to the top of the tower took us to the rotating platform where you could see the entire city and look down on the Alamo.  My youngest sister, Lori, stepped between the warning signs and dropped a bobby pin over the edge to watch it fall.  Mom lectured us all on the dangers of dropping something as small as a dime from such a height.  She could've dropped that hair pin on Grandma Lucille (she and Grandpa Doode didn't go to the top, Grandma doesn't like heights).

I don't remember much about Corpus Christi or Padre Island.  I have never been much of a beach person.  It's hot, humid, the sand never feels as good on your feet as you think it will, and it smells like dead fish.  So, no, I'm not impressed, although years later, I did like the Oregon coast with its redwood tree driftwood.  No redwoods in Texas,so the only thing I remember liking was the fried fish at the little shack on stilts right on the beach.  And I was probably more impressed with the shack on stilts than I was with the fish!


The part of the trip everyone remembers most was the drive between San Antonio and Corpus.  Lori was maybe three at the time, and she had had enough fun for the day.  She started a hundred mile tantrum and for such a little girl, she could wail. 
Finally we reached a point where even Grandma Lucille had run out of patience (I think Grandpa Doode had turned off his hearing aid).  Dad pulled over and Lori and Mom went for a "walk."  Mom's walks didn't involve much walking and definitely didn't leave you in a mood for sitting afterward, if you get my drift.  As an aside, never trust her when she asks if you want to go see the horses during a church service either.  Lori came back much subdued and we actually enjoyed a little peace at the end of the drive.  As we neared the end of the trip, Mom said, "well that whooping seemed to have done a little good."  Lori said, "yeah, but I might still need another one later."

 On the return trip, we went to Longhorn Caverns near Burnet.  It is not a large cavern, but it was a fun trip.  The guide told stories about the Comanches using the cavern as a hideout when the Texas Rangers were chasing them.  It was also a speakeasy during Prohibition, complete with dance floor and chandeliers hanging next to the stalactites.  The guide informed us that it was also a hideout used by the infamous murderer, stagecoach robber, and gunfighter, Sam Bass.  Grandma Lucille was embarrassed, but still needed to tell us that Bass was a distant relative to her side of the family.  She did not hesitate to tell us of the relation, probably because if she didn't Grandpa would.  And he would say it loud enough that someone else might hear.  Then she would really be embarrassed.  She would never understand the modern need of people to air their dirty laundry on national television.  

It seems like we did a lot on this trip.  It might also have been the trip that we spent a day with Grandma's sister and visited the space center in Houston.  Lilly worked for Texas Instruments and they had just come out with the portable calculator.  Portable for the 1970's, it was sized somewhere between a Blackberry and a netbook, only about twice as thick as either.  Lilly's husband showed us a trick with a riddle whose answer was ShellOil.  When you did the math on the calculator, the answer was 71077345.  Turn the calculator upside down and the red LED numbers spelled ShELLOiL.  Primitive nerd humor.  Being kids, LeAnne and I soon figured out that if you left off the S and the oil, you could spell hell on the calculator.  We probably spent an hour giggling over that, all the time watching to make sure Mom didn't catch us.  We were definitely the rebels!

Quite an eventful trip for Grandpa Doode's last vacation.  Well last if you don't count those trips to Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and South Dakota and stops in between.  Even Lori survived to take a couple of more vacations.  

Would Reagan Recognize Us?

Ronald Reagan once said that he had hope for America because we were a nation of strivers, not of coveters.  He said that when an American sees someone succeed, they strive to achieve the same success.  Reagan's Americans do not covet the rewards of others, they strive to earn those rewards through their own success.  The rags to riches story is the story of America.  Or it was.

I told this story to a friend before last year's election.  His response was "you must be from somewhere different."  He was from California.  He said that where he was from, people just wanted to take what they needed from someone who had it.

One of my favorite tv shows is Survivor.   When the show first came on, everyone assumed it would be won by the contestant that performed best in the challenges.  From the very first season though, it was clear that it would be a social game.  Last season, a contestant named Russell probably played the game harder than anyone in the history of the show.  From the day he got on the island, he worked on alliances.  He worked alliances and manipulated players and basically controlled the game from the first day.   He also spent every spare moment searching for immunity idols.  He found all three, two without clues and before anyone else even looked.  He dominated the game and went to the final with a cute girl that basically rode his coattails to the end.

In the final episode, players previously voted out decide who will win the million dollars.  If I remember correctly, Russell only got two votes.  The other players resented the way Russell worked and earned his way to the end.  They chose to give the prize money to someone who just tagged along with a successful player.  

There was a similar outcome in the show's second season.  Colby dominated the game physically.  He won every individual challenge and took a nice single mother with him to the end.  The other players voted at the end to give the money to the single mother because she "needed" it more.  No one argued that Colby did not earn the reward, but they felt that the woman needed it more.

Survivor has become a metaphor for our country now.  As a rule, Americans no longer strive to duplicate another's success.  Now, we are guilty of coveting their rewards.  Instead of striving for a career that allows us to provide for ourselves and our loved ones, we want our government to take the rewards of success from others and give it to us.  Because we need it.

It will be hard for our society to survive when covetors outnumber strivers.  As Margaret Thatcher once said, "One of the problems with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of people whose money you can take."  Or to put in Survivor terms, when your tribe has more Sandras than Russells, you'll be spending a lot of time in tribal council.

Glenn Beck and Al Sharpton --BFF!!??

I saw David Barton on Glenn Beck's show about a month ago and he had him on for the full hour today.  He is an American historian/author whose book, Original Intent, looks very interesting.  He is also the owner of the largest collection of pre-1812 American letters and documents.  Coincidentally, he was also part of the commission that rolled back some of the progressive changes to American history in Texas' history curriculum.

He owns one of the twenty-two surviving copies of the Bible actually published by Congress, with a note on the cover page that states that this Bible is published specifically to be used in schools.  Our founders wanted freedom from a "national religion," not separation of church and state as it has been twisted today.   They founded our country on Christian principles, not a specific denomination, but basic Christian principles.  They had no problem with individual states choosing a "state religion," as Massachusetts did until the early 1820's.  The federal government was prohibited from supporting a specific religion, but it was a right reserved to the states.  Like many other areas, the founders were willing to let citizens vote with their feet.  If Pennsylvania wanted to support the beliefs of Quakers; New York, Judaism; Rhode Island, Puritanism; Georgia, Baptist; and California, worship of the endangered fruitfly; the states had the right to do so.  And citizens were free to move from one state to another in pursuit of their happiness.  

Mr. Barton has the hand-written sermons from ministers from many denominations who led church services held in the House of Representatives, founded and attended by Thomas Jefferson.  Obviously his interpretation of "church and state" was much different than that voiced today.  He also encouraged services that were held in the chambers of the Supreme Court!


Another interesting story he told about Jefferson involved his relationship with John Adams.  He and Adams were close during the revolution and in the very early days of the republic.  They had a falling out over differing ideas about the government.  Jefferson felt that Adams was destroying the nation and defeated Adams in the election to become the third president.  The two did not speak for years.  A mutual friend named Benjamin Rusk, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, told Adams about a dream.  He said that in the dream that he, Rusk, was holding a book of letters between Adams and Jefferson and he felt that it was a message from God.  Adams said that he too, believed that it must be a message from God and he made the first move to re-connect with Jefferson.  Mr. Barton now owns the letters between Adams and Jefferson, many of them about the role of religion in government.  One other cool, or maybe spooky point in the letter, Rusk also said that in the dream he saw both Adams and Jefferson would die on the anniversary of the founding of the nation.  Both Adams and Jefferson died on the 4th of July 1826.


The point of his appearance was again how progressives have changed history to meet their points of view.  He went founder by founder from a painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and showed letters and documents written by the men showing their views on religion.  They believed that America should not have a federally mandated religion; that Americans should be free to choose their own religion, or no religion at all.  It seems that today, the only choice the liberals/progressives want Americans to have is whether to let their baby live.


When you get down to principles, America does have a strong, common foundation.  And yes, it is based in Christianity - the Ten Commandments.  We need to get away from the specifics that keep us divided and get to the foundation that we have in common.   Don't let the people at the opposite ends of the spectrum tear the country apart, but allow the strong middle hold it together.  Unfortunately right now our government and media is way to the left or progressive end of the spectrum and is trying to drag the rest of us their direction.   Yesterday the Reverend Al Sharpton was on Glenn Beck's show.  They both admitted that they do not agree on many, if any specifics, but they do have a common belief in the basics or foundation.  They just disagree in how to get down to the foundation, or where to build from the foundation.  That's where the founders' belief in state's rights comes in.  Let each state decide what services to provide, what taxes to collect, what recreational drugs to outlaw, whether to mandate health insurance and even whether women have the right to kill their babies.  Then let the citizens vote with their feet.  But keep the federal government out of it.  If Al Sharpton and Glenn Beck can find a common ground, maybe there is some hope for the rest of the country.

Rainbows, Unicorns, and Government-Created Jobs!

The Obama administration has already hired their 16,000 IRS agents to help enforce the new healthcare laws and their 1.5 million census workers.  Apparently those were their only two ideas.  Now they are asking for ideas from the public.  Well, any ideas except those dealing with tax cuts to businesses that can actually create jobs.

Two ideas that have already been dismissed:  1.  Do away with self-service at gas stations.  Attendants would be required to pump your gas and make sure your tires are properly inflated.  Remember the tire gauge was going to end our dependence on foreign oil according to candidate Obama.  Well maybe not.  The administration decided that would just be a "make busy" job.  
2.  Federal subsidies for "urban farms" like Michelle Obama's.  Unless they were growing medicinal marijuana, it would again be a "make busy" job.

One they did like?  If a company is contemplating layoffs, they should eliminate a position, and take the two full-time employees and make them part-time.  Then no jobs are lost!  How easy was that?  They also announced the reason for the continued high unemployment is that for every new job listed, there are five applicants.  And not as many jobs are being created as are being lost.  Whew, that clears up that question.

 Completely unrelated, I love this web ad from the republican party.  
 

Potato e????

Anyone old enough to remember Dan Quayle remembers his spelling mistake.  A student spells p-o-t-a-t-o.  Quayle says "don't you need an e? P-o-t-a-t-o-e?"  The media ran with that tape.  It ran over and over and over and over.  What an idiot!  Can't even spell as well as a 4th grader!  And the republicans picked him to be vice-president.  Hope President Bush is healthy!

Our current vice-president, Joe Biden asked a congressman at a rally to stand and be recognized.  Problem was the congressman, supposedly a "longtime friend," was in a wheelchair.  Last week, he told a story about another "close friend's" mother, "God rest her soul."  What?  She's still alive.  Well, God bless her!  Then at a big healthcare conference, with C-Span cameras rolling, Biden tells a fellow senator that he has the easiest job in the world.  Don't have to do anything.  "Kind of like being the grandparent instead of the parent."  And of course at the press conference announcing the passage of the healthcare takeover.  Biden again forgets about the open microphone, and says to President Obama, "this is a big f____ing deal!"

Remember the stories about Sarah Palin saying that she could see Russia from her front porch in Alaska?  How stupid!  Only problem, she never said it.  Tina Fey said it in a comedy skit where she portrayed Governor Palin.   Or the NBC morning hostess making fun of Sarah Palin for saying that George Washington was her favorite founding father.  The hostess chose to move Abraham Lincoln back almost 100 years and make him her favorite "founder."

Now we have Rep Steven Cohen from Tennessee saying that the Tea Party is only missing their hoods and robes, and are "followers of George Wallace."  Coincidentally Wallace, like Cohen, was a democrat.  How about congressman Phil Hare a democrat from Illinois?  He is on video saying that he "doesn't care about the Constitution."  He then quotes the Constitution.  Oops, that's the Declaration of Independence.   Then he claims to have read the healthcare law three times.  A total of 8,100 pages!  And he can't answer a specific question about the law.  Still waiting to see that one on the news.  

Former democratic presidential candidate, congressman, and Democratic National Party chairman, Howard Dean stated in an interview, that "of course, the president's agenda is a socialist agenda."  And his advisor/supporter Al Sharpton, says that America "voted overwhelmingly for socialism when they voted for Obama."


But will anyone ever top congressman Johnson from Georgia, yeah, he's a democrat too.  8,000 marines and their families might cause Guam to tip over and capsize!  That's just too easy.  A friend suggested that we import thousands of elephants to the Texas panhandle.  That much weight would tip the state up and make it easy to just scoop up all that oil.  No environmental concerns there!  

I think maybe the president himself topped the list when he claimed that one of the biggest benefits of the campaign was the opportunity to visit "57 states so far."  And he wasn't going to be able to get to Alaska or Hawaii.   Just "one left to go."





And he's the "smartest man in the room???"  Only when he's in a room full of democrats.

No More Kings, Then We Elected One

Forget history taught in public school.  We should've just paid more attention to Saturday morning cartoons.  I've already commented on How a Bill Becomes a Law on Schoolhouse Rock.  I had forgotten this one.  The song is not as catchy, but boy, the message  is important.  Watch this one and compare King George III to our current president.  Then tell yourself that learning history (or teaching it to our kids) is not important.  

I think Robert Fulghum should write a new book in addition to All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, how about All I Really Need to Know I Learned on Saturday Morning Television.

Photographs, No Politics

I'm going to take a break from current events and politics for a couple of days.  It's getting too frustrating.  

I'm being a bachelor this week, so I spent some time going through my old photo files.  One of my biggest problems in photography is that I take the photograph with the final result already visualized.  If the photo doesn't come out like I expected, I discard it without considering whether it is good, even if it isn't what I planned.

I've always liked this quote, but for some reason, not the photo.  I don't remember what I was trying for, but I kind of like this one now.  I read a biography of Ansel Adams when I first started getting serious about photography.  In the book, there was a story about his first trip to the Grand Canyon.  A lesser known photographer said the canyon was his favorite subject.  He said he had taken hundreds of exposures on his first trip to the canyon.  Adams said he took two.  He visualized the shot and then created it, first on location, then in the darkroom.  I'm not talented or patient enough to spend time necessary on Photoshop to create art, so I need to look more seriously at creating photographs.

Mount Crested Butte

I took this one a few weeks ago.  I never looked twice at it, but Cathy and a couple of other people that saw it on Facebook, liked it.  Now, looking at it, I like it a lot.  I think I will spend some time this week going through my files and see if there others that I have overlooked.  Might need a couple of days.  I think I have somewhere around 5,000 photographs on file.  Not counting the ones with people in them, Mom.

Potato Processing Plant and Reflection 

Monte Vista, Colorado

Old Brazos River Bridge

Near Newcastle, TX

Are We at a Tipping Point? Congressman thinks Guam is!!

Tipping point has been a hot phrase for several years now.  It is basically the point of no return.  Global Warming activists have claimed for the past five years or more that our climate was at a tipping point.  If the melting of the ice caps continued for even another year, the flood of warming water would push our climate over the edge and we were doomed.  Then it was actually reported that temperatures have been cooling for the past five years.  Oops.

Some folks take the phrase literally.  Like the good congressman from the great state of Georgia.  Take a look at this video from yesterday, where he was grilling an admiral about plans to increase the number of marines on the island territory of Guam.  The first 1:46 is painful to watch as Congressman Johnson struggles with the concept of length and width.  If you can't take it anymore, fast forward to about 1:40 in the video, where the good congressman makes us all proud to be Americans.


My first thought was, April Fools!!! Then I looked at other videos featuring the congressman. He is an everyday fool, April 1 has nothing to do with it. At a townhall meeting this past fall, he actually argues that the Preamble to the Constitution mandates the federal government to provide welfare for the citizens. "To promote the general welfare" is open to interpretation, I guess. Then after Congressman Wilson's "you lie" outburst during one of President Obama's speeches, Congressman Johnson makes the brilliant observation that Americans will soon be donning their "white robes and hoods."

With morons like this in positions of responsibility, I believe we are at a tipping point in America. How much damage can we allow them to do before we get to a point where we are unable to recover? When I managed a department store, we gave all applicants a 5th grade level math test to qualify them to work in the store. Only about 70% of the applicants passed, but that's for another post. Maybe we need a very basic knowledge test for all applicants for public office. And we definitely need one for voters who put these idiots into office. I'm not sure who should be more embarrassed, Congressman Johnson or the voters of the 3rd district of Georgia who thought he was the best choice to represent them!

Now I have a new worry. With the masses leaving the cesspool that voters and government have made of California, will the U.S. start to tip? I heard that many Californians are moving to Texas. Will the extra weight cause the country to tip south and east? It must be all this tipping because I'm getting nauseous. Stock tip of the day - buy McNeil-PPC, makers of Dramamine. We're all going to be dizzy before these guys are done.