christmas

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. We can now look forward to the new year.  We can hope that the new year will be more prosperous and pleasant than what we have been subjected too for the last couple of years.

     Soon we will be swearing in our new president and the new Congress will begin doing whatever it is they do between gridlock sessions and we'll see how the economy reacts. 

      I, myself, hope to get some of my many projects completed. That is, assuming, I still have a job. I am getting too old to continue to accumulate projects without finishing any of them. My Gransport needs to be back on the road and my street rod needs to get at least running under it's own power.

Bailout

Anyone else getting sick of all this bailout bullcrap? Now that the floodgates have opened with the Wall Street handouts everyone one else has gotten in line. It appears the latest one, however seems to be in doubt. That's the "Big Three" automakers for people who have gotten tired of following the soap opera.

       I know, I know, there is supposedly thousands and thousands of jobs riding on the outcome. But stop and think about it......... if there is a market for the cars someone will build them, be it GM, Ford, Chrysler, or someone new. Thus the people will have jobs producing them. If there's no jobs available it's because there's no market for the product or service. What are you going to do pay people to produce products that no one buys? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me!

      To make things even more bizarre, as if coming to beg for a handout in a multi-million dollar jet wasn't strange enough, the amounts needed are seemingly anybody's guess. First 25 billion is the number asked for, then coming back for the second round they ask for 34 billion. Now the number of 14 billion is being kicked around as the amount available. Are you kidding? GM loses more than that in less than 2 months the way they're operating now! What happens then? Give them some more money? Maybe bankruptcy and reorganization isn't a bad option.

       

Holiday Season

It looks like the Holiday season is upon us. Time to enjoy family, friends, football and fine food. I am looking forward to spending time with my wonderful grandchildren this coming week. A few days off work does a body good. Especially good if it keeps your mind off the economy and the fact that work is experiencing a slight downturn. It'll give me a little time to work on my projects

PEST (post election stress syndrome)

Thank goodness! The election is finally over! Now we can get back to the real world. Well, at least for a little while until the hoopla that will inevitably popup when the inaguration takes place and at least for the first few weeks after the new president takes charge.

Now is the time to get back to the personal problems we all have and our methods of dealing with them. Try to avoid watching all the gloom and doom on the news networks, pick back up your hobbies, if you don't have one, get one. 

It's Iowa weather as usual at it's best this time of year... snow and cold one day, 60 degrees the next, sunshine and 30 Monday, rainy and 50 on Tuesday. This time of the yeat that old saying is really true... "don't like the weather, wait a minute, it'll change!"

Anyway I'm going to try to lighten up a little. I've been told my posts are a little depressing. It's going to be hard but I'll try.

Things to ponder:

Way back in 1787 a Scottish history professor, Alexander Tyler wrote this about the fall of the Athenian Republic, the first real democracy in human history....
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government"
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury"
"From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates who will promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years"
"During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"
That was 221 years ago, so we're already 21 years past the average. How much time left do we really have as a free people? Perhaps as someone just said maybe it's "time to cling to our guns and religion!"

power

      Ever notice that almost every elected official, no matter how good and normal they seem to be before assuming their positions, inevitably seem to get absorbed by the machine. With time they become just another cog in the machine. They all become obsessed with power whether they realize it or not.

      It seems that government, no matter if it's city, county, state, or federal becomes an entity that only wants to control everything. Because of the fact they (the politicians) are elected and could be booted out can only have control if you let them, have devised many schemes to accumulate that power. 

      The biggest weapon they have in their arsenal is fear. It is the fear of the unknown, the fear of the market collapsing, the fear of the other party, the fear of government itself is all thrown at a normally apathetic public who mostly just shrugs it's symbolic shoulder and never speaks up until the day it effects them. Government has learned to start by picking on the groups who have the least amount of support to stand up for them. Smokers for instance is one of those groups. Through stories in the news and constant vilification this group became the lowest common denominator which makes it OK to discrimate against them. And that is exactly what they have done in many places like Iowa where it is now illegal to smoke in ANY building the public has access to. It doesn't matter they also took away the property rights of businesses that might want to cater to smokers. It is control.....

      What will be the next target? There's already talk about fat people...... pay by the pound for flying, not giving insurance to people who meet arbitrary guidelines, what's next taxing food by fat content? Then there's religion, there's the books you read, the internet sites you visit, the guns you own. 

   We need to be careful what we idly sit by and let get legislated aginst the American public.

bailout

Anybody else out there uncomfortable with this bailout of money men the president and Congress is trying to ramrod into effect? This is one of the biggest travesties of public trust in recent memory. They are basically wanting to reward irresponsible behavior. People who have squandered huge amounts of capital on risky investments and exorbitant spending; who have lived the lifestyles of the rich and famous; who have rewarded themselves with golden parachutes that would make a third world dictator blush are now coming to Washington, hat in hand, asking to be bailed out. It is not a good idea to blindly accept the notion that this is something that we, the american taxpayer, should accept.

     When you raise a child you do not reward bad behavior- that just encourages irresponsibility, and repeated offenses. You try to make them accept personal responsibility.

      If we reward the irresponsible gamblers in the markets we are in effect punishing the people who were doing the right thing. The banks and lending institutions who did things properly, who didn't just act for greed, will get the wrong message. They should be commended for their ethical behavior and the poorly managed companies should be allowed to sink or swim.

Reasons to write

Well it's the start of another week.

     The news is full of gloom and doom. The politicians are busy calling each other names and accusing each other of everything under the sun.

     But meanwhile in the real world the price of gasoline is too high, the cost of insurance is unrealistic, the pay rates never meet the cost of living; and yet we continue because we're Americans, and Americans believe that as long as we're free we have the opportunity to improve our lot in life. If we lose a job, we can start our own business. If it fails, we pick up the pieces and go on. This is the land of opportunity.

     Enough of these digressions. I need to write, no I like to write, to relieve the stress of life in general. Whe you write you can go anywhere or do anything you'd like. You can be the smartest person you know or a bum. It's all in what you say. If you have a bad day at work- write down how you feel; you'll feel better. Life kicking you while you're down? Express your frustation. Go ahead and write down the good experiences as well. You'll be able to relive the good times anytime you want to review your documentation.

lovely week

Well, it looks like the start of another lovely week. Not only is it time to go back to work, the news is chock full of bad news about the the economy, about lending companies failing, and just general reporting that "we're in a recession", "it's George Bush's fault", "Barrak's the answer", "McCain's the answer", yada, yada, yada... 

     Most people really can't get extremely concerned about the drivel that drools from the TV, radio, internet, and other news sources because they are busy making a living, working day to day, dealing with personal issues, etc.  Believe it or not, most people make up their minds, not from media input but from their own personal experiences. If gas prices go up... there's a problem! If the value of their IRA goes down... there's a problem! If they can't afford health insurance..... they know they're an accident or sickness away from disaster.

      But then again, they know this is America! If you get down, you can get up! Government can change and adapt. (well in theory, anyway) The stock market doesn't always go down, it can (and will) go back up.

Greatest Generation

I was riding my bike today and listening to the "Drive By Truckers" on my MP3 player I was kind of struck by the lyrics to the song "The Sands of Iwo Jima". This song just epitomizes the kind of people who made this country great. Not as soldiers per se, but as personalities. These were people that put their country and their fellow human beings ahead of self interest to fight in World War II. Instead of paying tribute to these people and their achievements so many people today, especially Europeans and the uninformed have forgotten they would be speaking either German or Japanese if it were not for these brave Americans.

     I remember hearing my father and some of his aquaintenances occasionally discussing their experiences during that time of great upheaval. Most of the time they had a smile on their faces and spent a lot of time laughing as they reminisced. I always had a feeling, even as a kid, that the laughter and smiles were somehow forced. You know kind of like whistling as you walk past a graveyard after dark They never talked in public about some of the absolute horrors they experienced. They never talked about the months and sometimes years of nightmares and insomnia that followed their return home. They kept that to themselves, because that's the way they were. It was their cross to bear and they were willing to do it. Some tried to drown the nightmares in alcohol and drugs, some turned to religion, and some just suffered through. But no matter what they never complained. They picked up the pieces and went on.

     When I see so many people today who feel the world owes them a living; who think the government should take care of them from "womb to tomb"; who feel it's OK to have the government redistribute wealth; who aren't willing to work and sacrifice to get ahead bitching and moaning about how rough they have it I can't help but think "what losers!" It's enough to make a person puke! These people are like parasites... always taking, never giving.

     The World War II generation is almost gone from us now. The hands of time stand still for no one. It is up to those of us who benefitted from their heroism and patriotism to carry on their memory and legacy.

     God bless our service people, past and present!

Another week in Paradise

Good thing it's Friday! It's been quite the week.

     Bowling season started on Tuesday evening which was a real treat after not even picking up a bowling ball since Memorial Day. One decent game and two lousy ones which is better than first week last season when I had three bad games.

     Spent most of the week at work preparing for customer audit scheduled for Friday the 12th. Everything looked pretty good and the customer was pleased with what they saw so I guess the hard week was worth it.

      It's been really hard to get much bicycling time in this week since it's rained almost every day this week. Imagine that! Rain in Iowa!! It's been rain straight since late Wednesday so we are now under flash flood watch once again.

      Even though it's forcasted to rain until Saturday afternoon at least the Iowa-Iowa State game will give me something to do to pass the time until it stops.

weekend thoughts

Haven't had much time to think about putting anything on here for the last couple of days. I've been busy working on installing new tile in my kitchen. You know how it is when you have an old house..... there's always something that needs to be done. I know it will be nice when it's done but it seems to take forever.

       I haven't even spent any time working on my restoration project... a '61 Morris Minor. It's currently up on barrels while I replace some floor panels.

      I did take some time to go on a bicycle ride, something I try to do everyday. I went 9 miles today since the weather was decent. I usually go 5-7 miles everytime I go. Between bicycling and NutriSystem I've lost 60 pounds since April 10th this year. That was the day I first started. 310 pounds was just too much weight to be hauling around at my age. 250 lbs. is a lot better, not as good as 200 would be, but one day at a time.

conventions

     Well the political party conventions are finally over. Anyone else glad the election is almost here? The Democrats for all their pomp and circumstance still were just reiterating much of the same stuff they've been using for the last thirty or forty years. "They're going to help the little guy, they'll reduce our taxes by raising taxes on corporations, they're going to make sure everyone gets everything whether they work for it or not"

     Well, guess what, corporations don't pay taxes by reducing profits, they merely pass costs on to consumers so in reality WE pay the higher taxes. 

      Outside of the Palin speech the Republicans weren't a whole lot better. Promising change doesn't mean a whole lot when the Congress isn't willing to cooperate.