Gays and Global Warming

I guess I never answered the questions about gays and global warming.

First, Gays. I have friends and clients that are gay. I've been to two gay weddings. I don't hate gays. Do I believe they should be allow to marry? No, but as a libertarian I also don't believe the government should be in the business of sanctioning any marriage. It's a contract like any other in my mind and the government should not be in the business of deciding which contract is acceptable and which ones are not.

I do believe gay sex is a sin but no better or worse than extramarital or premarital heterosexual sex.

Again, I don't have the answers but I have lot's of question. First, if gays are "born that way" what about bisexuals? What about pedophiles.... are they born that way? Why shouldn't we give them a pass. If I see a 85 year old guy with Anna Nicole, I think it's disgusting, why? Wasn't he just born that way.

If we allow gay marriage, why not polygamy? Are you not infringing on the rights on certain religions by prohibiting it? If I'm bisexual shouldn't I be allow to marry one woman and one man? What if I want to marry my sister just so she can go on my insurance? is that OK? I'm a 40 year old + man, shouldn't I be allowed to marry a fifteen year old girl? The fact is we have lot's of prohibition on marriage and it's not exclusive to homosexuals. How do we justify allowing any one of these without allowing the others?

There is more evidence of a gene that can predetermine alcoholism and drug addiction than sexuality. Given that, should we just excuse alcoholics and tell them it's OK to drink. Afterall, he was just "born that way"? Hey Joe how about another shot of Wild Turkey.

Do I think homosexuality is a choice, probably not. I don't think someone would choose a lifestyle that would create much angst for themselves and families, as a result, I have compassion for many gay struggles.

As for Global Warming.... again let's go back to Theory versus Law. Given the fact set we now have, scientist should be able to predict what the earth's temperature is going to be next year. To my knowledge they can't..... they throw out numbers over decades that we will not be able to evaluate until the time is over.

Also, what bothers me most is the debate itself. Do you remember "acid rain" and sulfur dioxide emissions... what about flourocarbons from aerosol cans and freon discharges, then it was carbon monoxide and now it CO2 emissions. Just what the hell is the problem? Twenty years ago, Time and Newsweek were reporting on the coming "Ice Age", so within 20 years we're now in a global warming period despite tremendous reductions in airborne pollutants.

I don't consider myself one of the smartest people on earth but I watch what the "experts" do and I see Al Gore jet setting across the globe getting this award and that award and he could be the perfect person to show how satellite technology can negate transcontinental flight and yet he doesn't. He also manages to heat four and cool four homes. So just how real is it?

Is global warming yet another Y2K, alar, or daycare abuse, scare to give the media something to bait the public? Just call me skeptical.

You see once again, I've got all these questions (and you can read all of them in my earlier posts) and yet I'm just ridiculed as "hilariously misguided" like some kind of doofus instead of engaging in the debate. Well why the hell doesn't a liberal answer these questions? or maybe they can't.

So here's the deal, all comments on this blog, except for spam get posted. My request is that all comments either bring some element of wit or something new to the debate.

From Liberal to Libertarian

This past week there have been a few comments on the blog that I think I need to address because it's obvious that people don't read the entire blog and have some sort of preconceived notion about who old Gordon is.

First, I grew up as a lower middle class youth in central Ohio. My Father, a former Teamster, was and still is the hardest working guy I know. I witnessed him doing paint jobs with a broken neck while our family was on food stamps so I know what hard times and work ethic are.

I always had it that rich guys were out to hold the poor working guy down. My friends are always surprised when I tell them I voted for Jesse Jackson, Mike Dukakis, Walter Mondale, Howard Metzenbaum and worked briefly on Jerry Springer's gubernatorial campaign.

But after I reached adulthood and a level of maturity I started to question the conventional wisdom of certain aspects of life, namely, under who or what moral authority is it OK to take someone's money and give it to someone else; regardless of the benevolent purpose? I also started to hang out with rich people and you know what, they don't have time to hold down poor people..... they are too busy working.

Well Gordon, it's a democracy, it's the consensus of the public to take wealth and use it for benevolent purposes. Is that right. Then please invite me to your house some night and me, Tony, Sal, and Fredo will take a vote on whether or not you should deed your home over to us so we can make sure we provide for some construction workers' pensions. My guess is that you'll decline.

In my profession, I am bombarded with clients, middle class schleps just trying to make it in life, crushed with back tax debt. I want any liberal out there to tell me what's fair to those people and where do they come up that number.

Yeah, but Gordon, we vote to put leaders with wisdom to take and allocate those funds. Rightttt! All those clowns in Congress are full of collective wisdom. Like Sheila Jackson-Lee's quest to make sure African American's have hurricane's named after them or maybe the wisdom of Ted Steven's bridge to nowhere when the money could be spent more wisely, like say, schools.

Therefore, I ultimately came to the conclusion that government cannot do something for someone without causing harm to someone else. You want to know how SUV's came into existence... look no further than CAFE standards that forced automakers to build more efficient vehicles, notice how we no longer have station wagons.

From a social perspective, I then started to question the theory (note, theory, not scientific law) of evolution and I've never had anyone answer this question..... Before there was anything in the universe, there was nothing, who or what happened to create something from nothing? In addition, I have yet to hear of a scientist that could take a combination of dirt, heat, air and water and make living organism out of it. If you are a believer in the big bang and a primordial soup, how did living organisms just pop up out of it. You see, it's a theory, not law. To be law, one has to be able to repeat the experiments and predict the results before they occur. That has never occurred with evolution.

I do believe in micro evolution; the process where species change as a result of changes in environments. But there is no evidence of macro evolution; the process whereby new species are created out other species' gene mutation(s). I'm sure everyone has heard of the "missing link" but no one really understands what that means. It appears, that from the beginnings of human life we cannot find a link to other animal species. If we are so close to the chimp family (or any species for that matter), why haven't they managed to find a way to build skyscrapers or airplanes after all these eons of evolution. Heck for that matter, no other species has found a way to be a Congressman, the rock bottom of basic human intelligence.

Humans have all this technology to clone yet no one, to date, has ever been able to mutate a gene from a pig and make it anything other than a pig. In addition, if one were to believe that all life began out of one primordial soup it would make sense to me that there would be a common DNA strand among all humans, crocodiles, whales, trees, tulips. To my knowledge, that link does not exist.

Maybe the most influential turning of my social outlook was the behavior of liberals themselves. In college I was always struck as to why the champions of free speech were always shouting down or ridiculing conservative thought in a way that those thoughts could not be heard. What were they afraid of? I was shouted down and ridiculed myself by a professor even though I was a card carrying liberal (see my post on Pygmalian effect) simply for questioning the conventional wisdom.

As far a being Bush's towel boy. Far from it. I'm really not a big Bush fan because he's a big government conservative. At the same time, I also feel obligated to defend his position on the war because, frankly, there are lot's of people taking pot shots at him but no one has offered a solution. Bush lied! is not a solution to the war as it stands today and if you are one of those people firing out that answer what is you opinion of the link on the video I posted below where everyone prior to 9/11 assumed that Saddam had the WMD capability, including the liberals GOD, Bill Clinton.

Finally this is the thing I've always noticed about liberals, they are the first to have compassion as long as they don't have to get their hands dirty. When it comes to actually doing something you'll find that it's God fearing conservatives doing the heavy lifting. I didn't hear of the giant pack of atheists heading down to Katrina to take care of people down there. There were plenty of them on TV asking why the government wasn't doing something.

I did see Matthew 25 ministries down there. You see, like most Christians, I believe that God commands us to be charitable, individually. Jesus never said one word about the government doing anything in the Gospels but he did call each of us out individually to help the "least of us".

I can be very compassionate about every problem in the world as long as you pay for it but is that really compassion?

So for the person who wants to call me out and ridicule me (anonymously, of course) what solutions do you offer or is it just your deal to sit back and take shots while everyone else carries the bucket?

Selective memory

Here's a great you tube video showing a little historical prospective on the Iraq War. I guess Bill Clinton lied about WMD as well.

Comments

Thanks to some porn site, I've had to start editing comments before they get posted. It's my goal to post every comment regardless of how ridiculous it may be as long as it's not some kind of spam.

So I apologize for the delay in posting some of the comments, I thought blogger was going to email the comments to me so I would know when to publish those. It's my hope that lots of dialog occur on the site. I'll never possess all the answers but I'm determined to always ask the relevant question

So for the person who wants to know whether I'm a "gay and dino" republican who doesn't believe in global warming I say "what the hell is a gay and dino republican?"

The Clue Phone is Ringing... Is Ohio Listening

To the side is a graph reported in the Wall Street Journal showing the Michigan income as compared to the national average.

You can see the nice trend downward. As a result of the decline in personal incomes the state's income tax receipts continue to decline.

What do you do to turn things around? Well if you are Jennifer Granholm, Governor of the state of Michigan, you slap on an extra billion dollar tax burden on businesses.

Does it work? Well ask Comerica, who decided this week to relocate it's corporate headquarters and lots of nice paying jobs to Texas; which, by the way, has no state income tax.

Now the state will have even less revenue coming in so they'll increase taxes even more which starts a cycle not even those nice Jeff Bridges ads will pull them out of.

Governor Strickland, are you listening? Or will you pull a Bob Taft and follow suit so that the only sounds we'll be hearing will be Woody Harrelson spouting all the virtues of doing business in Ohio.

The Bengals will always be losers

Subsequent to my post on why the Bengals will always stink, the team lost Eric Steinback and it looks like they will be losing Kevin Kasevaharn through free agency and they cut Brian Simmons.

But at least they replaced them through free agency, right. oops, I guess they haven't.

This team was 8-8 last year, to improve you must gain more quality than you lose.

Well at least they be able to use the draft to replace what's lost right?

Here' a look at the draft picks since Marvin took over the team. The guys in bold have made some contributions to the team but you'll notice that three of those will be lost to injury, drugs or free agency.

• 2006
• Johnathan Joseph CB South Carolina
• Andrew Whitworth OT Louisiana State
• Frostee Rucker DE Southern California
• Domata Peko DT Michigan State
• A.J. Nicholson LB Florida State
• Reggie McNeal WR Texas A&M
• Ethan Kilmer S Penn State
• Bennie Brazell WR Louisiana State231
• 
  
• 2005
• 
  
• David Pollack LB Georgia
• Odell Thurman LB Georgia
• Chris Henry WR West Virginia
• Eric Ghiaciuc Central Michigan
• Adam Kieft OTCentral Michigan
• Tab Perry WR UCLA
• Jonathan Fanene DE Utah
• 
  
• 2004
• 
  
• Chris Perry RB Michigan
• Keiwan Ratliff CB Florida
• Madieu Williams FS Maryland
• Caleb Miller LB Arkansas
• Landon Johnson LB Purdue
• Matthias Askew DT Michigan State
• Robert Geathers DE Georgia
• Stacy Andrews OT Mississippi
• Maurice Mann WR Nevada
• Greg Brooks CB Southern Mississippi
• Casey Bramlet QB Wyoming
• 
  
• 2003
• 
  
• Carson Palmer QB Southern California
• Eric Steinback OG Iowa
• Kelley Washington WR Tennessee
• Dennis Weathersby CB Oregon State
• Jeremi Johnson FB Western Kentucky
• Khalid Abdullah LB Mars Hill
• Langston Moore DT South Carolina
• Scott Kooistra OT North Carolina State
• Elton Patterson DE Central Florida

So with the current draft history the Bengals can look forward to getting about four draft picks make a contribution to the team. That barely covers the three they lost.

But Gordon, they're almost at the cap limit. Yeah but they could have used some of their cap money from last year to lock up Justin Smith but instead franchised him which is putting a squeeze on this year's team.

If you are going to make draft picks the way you build your team you have to have more than a former high school coach run your drafts but the Bengals want it both ways which is why they will always be losers.

One more reason to hate Time/Warner

I've always had a frosty rear end for Time Warner. I will never subscribe to their cable service, buy Time or Sports Illustrated magazine and I dropped my AOL service right after the merger. If I knew a movie was done at a Warner Bros studio, I wouldn't watch it.

In my opinion it's one of the scummiest business operations in America. Their production of Hip Hop music complete with cop killa lyrics; their use of gratuitous nudity and violence in movies and TV programming; their relationship with Ted Turner; and their overly liberal bias on CNN and Time magazine makes them the perfect company for me to absolutely hate.

Every medium their company produces accommodates the lowest common denominators within our society.

So it comes as no surprise to me that Sports Illustrated would come out with a Global Warming issue on line. My toilet lines are too good for me to flush one of their publications.

Atlas Shrugged

Here's a nice piece in the Christian Science Monitor regarding the 50th anniversary of the book Atlas Shrugged, one of the most prolific novels to advance the conservative/libertarian cause.

In fact, the novel, written by Ayn Rand, inspired the pen name Midas Mulligan for one of our posters. It's not a light read, 1200 pages, but powerful none the less.

The article in the Monitor even has a little plug for old Gordon Gekko; "Greed is Good" credo.

Guess who?

"I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs... I think he would be appalled, actually."

You're probably guessing Pat Robertson, Jesse Jackson, Jerry Falwell some priest in the Catholic church. If you did, you would be wrong.

This comes from John Edwards, class action suit attorney/politician. You may know him as the guy who's currently building a $6,000,000 home just so he can help out some low income construction workers.

Just to answer Mr. Hairspray. Yes, Jesus would be appalled, but I don't think he'd be all fired up with a government stealing people's money in the name of poverty just so they can turn around and give it to a bunch of union bosses.

Socialized medicine

A couple of house cleaning items

First, I changed the skin on the blog because the blue skin wasn't running all the way through. I may or may not change it back.

Second, with Midas down in Sarasota braving global warming and me preparing tax returns 24/7, the postings will be down a little. My postings will pretty much be resigned to linking to other good articles/blogs unless some little punk decides that he can't walk 30 feet of driveway to his bus.

Third, a good post by Neal Boortz regarding the Walter Reed hospital scandal. His conclusion....
If you like the idea of socialized medicine, imagine what kind of service we'll get once Hillary care goes into force.

Mark Steyn

Here's a great piece by Mark Steyn related to "Reverend" Al Gore's enormous carbon footprint.

He's Walter Williams with a better sense of humor.

Seven dirty words

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned various postings by a few liberal blogs full of obscenities and vulgarities towards people of faith.

One of the reasons I usually don't read liberal blogs is the barrage of obscenity. Don't get me wrong; I have a fairly foul mouth, but I usually save that for the Bubba's. I don't use foul language with my clients or on this blog because I understand there is a time and a place for that language.

When you read a blog where there is continual use of profanity, it takes away from the point the writer may be trying to make if, in fact, the writer is even trying to make a point.

It has always been my opinion that liberal conversation always turns into a barrage of foul insults because they can't win the debate; it's also why liberal talk radio cannot sustain an adequate audience because over time, the debate always loses.

I don't know how anyone can possibly listen to Randi Rhodes for more than one show. Actually, I can't even stand to listen to conservatives like Michael Savage, even though I agree with many of his opinions, yet he is far less disgusting than Rhodes.

If you can't win the argument on a philosophical basis then you are just an a&$h>le.

Where am I'm actually going with this? A blog named Newsbucket actually attempted to measure foul language on the most popular liberal and conservative blogs and here are the results (click on to enlarge).

It's not the most scientific study but it seems to fit my stereotype of liberal debating style.

Just remember it's all George Bush's fault that &*% of a #(^*%!

Mars warming?

Here's a National Geographic article regarding Global Warming on the planet except the planet is.... Mars?

I bet you'll never see Katie Couric reporting this on the CBS News.

This has always been my point about global warming. The Sun is not a 60 gizzillion watt GE light bulb that emits a constant stream of energy; it warms and cools. When just a normal tilting of the earths axis results in 100 plus temperature swings is it too much to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the sun might be emitting more energy.

Remember the Ice Age never would have ended without global warming. Unfortunately, Al Gore wasn't around to line his pockets.

the apocalypse is upon us

I'm pretty convinced the end of the world is near.

This morning I'm driving behind a school bus through a suburban area. I'm used to seeing kids sitting in mama's mini van until the bus picks them up and mom heads off for work or the nearest tennis pro. Or I might see a kid waiting inside the house until the bus stops and then they come out to the bus.

Today was the kicker; bus pulls up to end of the driveway. Kid walks out of the house into waiting mini van, mom takes mini van 40 feet, kid gets out and gets on bus, mini van backs up and mom gets out (I guess the tennis pro was inside). But this is the real butt frosting. The kid must have been 14-15 years old; he had facial hair.

It was absolutely unbelievable.

What's this kid going to tell his grandkids

Well, when I was a kid, I had to walk up a six degree incline to the mini and actually had to flex my abdominal muscles to get into that passenger seat before I had to walk up three steps into the bus.

Granpa that's nothing.

Well it was six degrees both ways

I'm trying to decide how a nation can lose patience with a war when their collective level of sacrifice amounts to a luke warm mini van.

AK Steel

It appears the AK Steel lockout has ended and it's worker will be able to go back to work soon.

The workers have been out of work for over a year. I wonder how many hours of work they have to endure to make up for the loss of pay.

While I appreciate the plight of the average working guy, today's worker needs to be taught some economics 101; especially as it concerns supply and demand. You see, this isn't the 1960's. American industrial dominance no longer exists. US company's can no longer pay more than the market will bear for unskilled labor. If they do, they will soon be a closed US company.

To the side is a graph. I lecture this graph to every man, woman and child that will hear it. It shows the supply/demand curve in a somewhat different format. It shows the correlation between income and marketable skills. Notice I said "marketable". Records scores on X box are not marketable to companies like AK Steel.

The days of increasing income just from years of experience are over. As a recruiter once told me "there's a difference between 12 years of experience and 12 x one year of experience".

In the 21st century, we will all be required to increase our skills in order to yield increases in pay. Those that don't will end up spending a year on the picket line.... ask the AK workers.

Garage Sale - The Movie

A friend of mine, Tim Baldwin, is having another screening of his movie, Garage Sale - The Movie, this Saturday, March 3rd - 4pm at Studio 35 in Clintonville (Columbus). (www.studio35.com)
Admission $5

If you are an executive from a movie distributor, I'm sure they would let you in for free.

Legos - The Building Blocks of Capitalist Pigs

Here's an absolutely unbelievable article in TCS Daily regarding a school where they banned Lego's.

Here's the money quote

According to the article, the students had been building an elaborate "Legotown," but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore "the inequities of private ownership." According to the teachers, "Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation."

The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown "their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys." These assumptions "mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society -- a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive."

I have to believe this is some kind of a prank, read the other headlines. If it's not, no wonder people are moving to home schooling in the droves.

Politicians Lie?

Here's a nice piece over at the politico and apparently Nancy Pelosi is not living up to her campaign promises.

Nah, politicians saying one thing and doing another.

SOB Alliance

taxmanblog is now a member of the State of Ohio Blogger Alliance.

We appreciate Matt & Tom including us in the alliance.

If you get a chance, check out the site. There are links for every conceivable taste; unless you're looking for an Al Gore for prez site.

This is probably a good time to thank Midas for his help in contributing to this blog. It's been just over four months and I'm amazed with the evolution that's occurred in the site.

I'm still looking for another person to help post. If you are interested in trying it, email me and I'll get you set up. I'm dying to get another picture of a dog on the site.

Inconvenient Hypocrite

Here's why this clown can never be taken seriously.

"The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions, issued a press release late Monday:

Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy. Gore’s mansion, [20-room, eight-bathroom] located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average. "

Tennessee Center for Policy Research: For Immediate Release: February 26, 2007

Right on cue...

Why does the federal government think it needs to chime in on every little problem that comes up? It's micro-managing at it's worst. I'm no fan of sitting on a runway for 6 hours but this situation was obviously a very rare occurrence. And, if they do get into the habit of doing this sort of thing more often, you can bet that the market will take care of Jet-Blue and switch to one of it competitors. There's no need for Congress to poke it's nose into the situation.

"Right on cue, politicians are making a fuss about a "passenger bill of rights" and demanding Congressional intervention after last week's JetBlue airline debacle. The irony is that the marketplace is already moving to address the problem, and the government could really help by relaxing some of the rules that incentivize airlines to discomfit passengers in the first place.

The benefits of any such rules are speculative, but higher costs are certain. The airlines would face more paperwork, bureaucracy and cost--and just wait until the trial bar piles on. These costs would be passed on to consumers whether they wanted these new "rights" or not. "

OpinionJournal.com: Come Fly With Congress

America at War?

It's always been my thought that the American public is not against the Iraq war as much as they are tired of hearing about it in the news night after night.

No way Gordon, the American people are tired of the casualties and loss of lives over there.

If that were the case, there would be more people in this country who could point out Iraq on a world map than tell you all the number of times Brittney has entered rehab.

The fact is, the American public has the collective attention span of one news cycle. Anymore than that and it's time to find out who the next father of Anna Nicole's kid is.

The picture is appropriate.

Enquirer

On the side is a picture Tom Callinan, editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the local paper of record, who decided earlier this week to print all the names of the jury and personal information in a high profile murder case this week.

This morning he printed an apology/rationalization of their decision. Here is the money quote.

Yes, the names, ages and occupations of jurors are a public record, and there's good reason for that. We want a system that allows us to know who is judging us.

Yeah, I wonder if the same thing would be true of reporters and editors covering the case. After all, they have biases that could taint the reporting and the ability of the accused to get a fair trial.

So I'll make a deal with Mr. Callinan, Since he finds that it's ok for the public to know this information I'll make sure to report all his pertinent information as soon as I get it.

Since we all know where he works, maybe I'll print the names of his kids and where they go to school instead.

Problem Solving

I caught this on the Best of the Web yesterday.

Crime is back in New Orleans, even though the city's population is less than half what it was before Hurricane Katrina, Reuters reports:

The larger problem is that New Orleans has too many social problems--drugs, poverty, broken families, poor education--all present before Katrina.

A recent murder encapsulated the difficulties. After a 17-year-old was beaten up, his mother gave him a gun and told him to get revenge, and he killed the boy he fought with.

When police went to his home to investigate, they found the mother with cocaine and a family photo on display of the son with a gun in one hand and a fistful of cash in the other.

"For us to correct this, we have to look at the root of the problem. The root of the problem is our education system," Police Superintendent Warren Riley said in an interview.

So let me get this straight, Mom gives Jr. a gun to kill someone and somehow it's the education system not doing it's job.

Do you want to know why inner cities around the country cannot correct their problems. Maybe because they spend to many resources fixing problems that don't exist.

Seriously, did you learn from the education system that if someone beats you up it's not OK to take a gun from your mother and go cap the guy?

Our education system in inner cities has a lot to be desired, but I'm pretty sure that not even Harvard grads were taught to not kill people.

This is why cities will never improve because no one has the guts or the smarts to identify the real problems. Subsequently, if you are so inept you can't even identify the problem or do not have the backbone to publicly state what the problem actually is, how can you possibly solve it.

Freedom/responsibility of the Press?

Yesterday, a local newspaper (I won't name them because I'm sure they would want the notoriety) decided to print the names, ages, employers/positions, and marital status of jurors in the trial of Liz Carroll who, along with her husband and their girlfriend decided to lock a child up in closet until he died (allegedly).

The trial for Liz ended this week so the local rag decided to print the names of the jurors. Why? How is knowing the names somehow in the public interest? Would you feel as though you we're more informed by knowing the names of jurors in a very public trial? Would you feel safe knowing that everyone in the world knew you were one of the people who locked up a potentially dangerous person with dangerous family members? Does this action make it more or less likely that quality people will live up to their civic duty and work jury duty?

Just because you have the freedom to print anything, doesn't mean that you should. With every freedom comes a responsibility. It occurs to me that this particular paper decided to print this information just because it could and yet those in the mainstream media have the stones to mock bloggers. Get real.

Sowell again

Thomas Sowell has a great piece in NRO blasting Barack Obama's thoughts on jobs and the economy.

While his piece focuses mainly on jobs, he has a small snipet regarding the cost of education

Money quote

Senator Obama is for making college “affordable,” as if he has never considered that government subsidies push up tuition, just as government subsidies push up agricultural prices, the price of medical care and other prices.

I have a question for all libs out there. Why are college education rate increases, on average, almost double the rate of inflation?

Could it be that increased financial aid and availability of student loans contribute to the rate increases?

Absolutely not Gordon it must be other factors.

Well consider this on a micro economic basis. Assume I have a commodity that you need to earn more money and I'm willing to sell it to you for $1,000. You agree to the price because you know you'll be able to turn that thousand into $10,000 in a short period of time.

Now assume that Uncle Sam wants to allow poor people access to my widget so they are willing to give everyone $400.00 to buy it. Do I keep the price of my widget at $1,000.00?

Hell no I don't. I now have a larger supply of people with money to buy my widget. In addition, I already know that the market place has already set a price that people are willing to pay $1,000 without the subsidy. So guess what, I now increase my price to $1,400. Rich people are still out of pocket $1,000 and poor people still can't get in. So people like Obama now have a platform to increase the subsidy to $600.00, which only allows me to increase my prices yet again. It's a never ending cycle.

But Gordon, if you increase your prices won't competitors come in to the market and lower prices. Yes, more people will come into the market place but, I would argue that they come into the market place and take the $600.00 subsidy from poor people and deliver them a shoddy education. Look at all the "colleges" springing up in nearly every office park in the country.

So everybody wins, except the poor schmuck who's now on the hook for a $30,000 student loan that qualifies him to be a Cincinnati city councilman or a car salesman.

Sorry for the slam on car salesman.

Rx Price Control

Both Gordon and I discussed this topic right after the November elections. Let's face it, the federal government isn't good at very much. Why would we even think for a second that it would be good at pricing drugs?

"At first glance the idea makes sense. Instead of multiple companies competing to negotiate drug prices, have one big powerful entity do the negotiating. Wouldn't that lead to lower prices?

It might -- and that's part of the problem. We should be suspicious when someone promises benefits from a government monopoly. Government doesn't produce things. It simply uses force to move things around. So why think that Medicare, hardly a paragon of efficiency, should be given the power to negotiate -- in reality, control -- prices?

The last thing we should do is give federal officials more power. When government controls prices, it must eventually ration supplies. Consumers suffer. When the product is medicine, the results could be catastrophic."

John Stossel: No Drug Price Controls

Chief Illiniwek RIP

Normally, I couldn't care less about what Illinois University decides to do with the mascot they choose to represent them.... They could go by the Illinois University Flying King Weasels as far as I'm concerned.

However, I read this article about the retirement of Chief Illiniwek and the smell of hypocrisy is worse than the smell of a south Chicago landfill on a hot August day.

Where to start. Well, let's start with the NCAA.

The NCAA has threatened all Division I schools with offensive nicknames by not allowing those schools to host NCAA sanctioned tournaments and championships. They've threatened sanctions on the University of North Dakota for their use of the nickname "The Fighting Sioux" despite the fact that Sioux tribal leaders have endorsed the University's use of the nickname as non offensive and a positive promotion of the tribe. The NCAA comes back with "No, It's surely offensive to you folks. You must be too dumb to realize it."

So how does that relate to IU? The NCAA is going to allow IU to keep the Illini nickname despite the obvious naming after a native American tribe because "it's short for Illinois and the school can use the term Fighting Illini, because it's considered a reference to the team's competitive spirit. Yeah, I can now see why tribes are disgusted..... all those references to competitive spirit and all is surely offensive.

Why is it that Illini is not offensive to native Americans when it's clearly derived from the tribal name but Warriors is offensive when it has no reference to a tribe at all. Could it be that Illinois has more pull than Marquette, Hawaii, and UND. Nah... It has to be principal. Right?

Now let's hit the "Activists". The most persuasive argument these people offer is that we don't nickname teams with caricatures of other ethnic groups such as the fighting Jews, or Zulu's etc., Well, have you ever heard of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Western Washington Vikings or the Monmouth College Fighting Scots? I bet all those Northern Europeans are pissed as hell at the disrepect.

If it's so offensive, why is it that schools on the rez all have these nicknames?

By the way, what do we do with all these state names? Iowa, Ohio, Missouri, the Dakotas are all tribal names. We obviously don't have states named after other ethnic groups so let's change those names as well.

For that matter, what about all those streets in the 'hood where I grew up, Shoshonee, Cherokee, Wyandot, Miami, Shawnee, Mohawk etc. Ohhhh, the disrespect is everywhere!

The fact is, there is a country where all the names of minority groups where eliminated just like this. The country? Bosnia. Only there they called it Ethnic Cleansing which is what the Native Americans would be calling it if Anglos were leading the charge on this.

In any event, if my almamater is interested in renaming their nickname I think the $250.00 I've donated over the years warrants changing the name to the "Fighting Gekkos".

Fore!

When you look at the amount of money governments spends to "help the poor" in this country, it makes you wonder why they don't just cut everyone a check and skip all the administrative costs associated with the handout process. But what about golf courses?

"Among the many rationales used to defend the welfare state, the most powerful is that it is necessary, in order to take care of the poor and the downtrodden. But the amount of money required to bring every poor person in the country above the official poverty line is a fraction of what is spent by government on the welfare state.

Put bluntly, the poor are in effect being used as human shields in the political wars over government spending, which extends far beyond anyone who could even plausibly be called poor.

Politicians will spend money wherever that is likely to increase their chances of getting re-elected. Of all the things that governments spend money on, none is further removed from fighting poverty than municipal golf courses."

Thomas Sowell: Priceless Politics

Lenten Season

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Lenten season. A time that many Christians use as a period of sacrifice and somber reflection on faith.

I believe that when God created humans, he created them with an empty spot in their soul. That empty spot, devoid of the noise of everyday life, is the quiet place where we have our relationship with God. However, he also gave us free will, the ability to place anything in the spot that we choose.

As a result, many of us try to fill that spot with food, booze, drugs, sex, control, pornography, the internet, TV, politics, popularity, cigarettes, work, etc. The list goes on and on and on....

What many of us eventually find is the buzz from our elixir is often short lived and really does not satisfy long term; it takes more and more and more to get that ever precious feeling of security. Some times we just try to keep the place noisy so we never have to deal with the solitude. Many never learn the lesson and die in their attempts to fill the space, ie Anna Nicole Smith, Kurt Cobain, et al.

So as we enter the Season, I would encourage all of us to sacrifice some of those things we use to fill the "hole in our souls". For me, that would be beer and pizza.

Even if you are a non-believer, I would ask you to try it. What could it hurt? Many health professionals would tell you that it takes a month to a month in a half to give up a bad habit and replace it with a good one. Once you empty that space out and eliminate the noise from day to day life, I think you'll be surprised at what fills the vacuum your life. And maybe you'll lose a few pounds.

God Bless

Another Cincinnati Homicide

While city leaders are busy making sure people in Washington know they are against the Iraq war, another homicide takes place; number 11 if you're counting.

That puts the city a pace well ahead of last year and we are not even in the busy summer murder season yet.

I guess there is one thing that has me slightly curious. The victim last night was shot last night at 3:44 am on Central Ave. Who in their right mind would be out that late, outside, cold as hell? It was 10 degrees out last night.

I hear community leaders keep saying that black youth get into trouble because there's nothing to do in the city. I beg to differ. Apparently, there is some good stuff going on in a city when it's worth getting shot to check out.

As the legendary Vince Lombardi once said to Max McGee

"Max the next time you miss curfew I'm fining you $100.00 and the time after that I'll fine you $250 and then I'm going to fine you $500.00.... Max, if you know of a place that's worth $500.00.... will you wake me up and take me with you."

So if anyone's up to checking out what's going on in the west end at 3:00 in the morning on a freezing weekend night, let me know and we'll head down. It must be a damn good time if people are willing to risk their lives for it.

State Farm Insurance

Yesterday State Farm Insurance announced that they would no longer underwrite home owner's insurance in the state of Mississippi.

If you are unfamiliar with the insurance industry's issues in Mississippi let's take you back prior to Katrina. If you were not aware, your home owner's policies do not cover flood damage. If you live in a flood plain, you may buy flood insurance that is backed by the federal government which keeps the premiums low.

However, many in Mississippi did not have flood insurance so when Katrina hit the state attorney general threatened lawsuits to force the insurance companies to pay off for flood damage; something never factored into the original premiums.

As a result, State Farm, who underwrites 30% of the state's insurance, has decided that it's not worth doing business in a state when "We've reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is no longer prudent for us to take on additional risk given the uncertain legal and business climate"

So congratulations to the AG, he's single handedly going to increase the home owner policies for millions of homes in Mississippi astronomically by 1) create an environment where there is less insurance competition and 2) Give insurers incentive to increase policies rates so that they may be able to cover contingencies for which they may be forced to pay for but not covered in the original policy.

When is a contract not a contract?

Let there be light (and heat)!

Many thanks to the Duke Energy crew that repaired the down wires on our road. The Mulligan family is grateful. It's dangerous, back breaking work.... you guys honestly earn every dollar you make. Thank you!

It's amazing how thankful one becomes for the basics in life when you lose them for even a short period of time. We're spoiled brats.

"essential" employees

As I was half listening to the school and business closings, I heard this particular closing

"City of Hamilton, only essential employees are to report to work."

Call me cynical, but if you are non essential, why do you have your job?

They may want to change their terminology around a little.

By the way it's 2/15/07, the temperature is -0- , yes, zero degrees. Can I have my global warming back?

Who profits from "Big Oil"

Ever since the government and tort vultures picked "Big Tobacco" clean, they have to move on the latest/greatest revenue source to line their pockets.

Last week, Hillary Clinton offered that she would "take all oil company profits....."

Now this week is this little diddy from the new governor of Wisconsin. He has introduced legislation to tax the oil companies 2.5% on all oil earmarked for the state. Here's the kicker, if any company passes along the tax to the consumer those responsible will go to jail.

For the most part, I'm indifferent to the oil companies, they sell me a product I use and as long as that relationship continues I'm OK with them.

But, unlike the average politician, I decided to do some research, so I went to the ExxonMobil website and downloaded their most recent 10Q report (a quarterly SEC filing). Here is their 1st quarter, fiscal '07, Income Statement....

		2006
REVENUES AND OTHER INCOME
Sales and other operating revenue (1) (2)	$	96,268
Income from equity affiliates		1,778
Other income		1,547
Total revenues and other income		99,593
COSTS AND OTHER DEDUCTIONS
Crude oil and product purchases (2)		49,364
Production and manufacturing expenses		7,057
Selling, general and administrative expenses		3,412
Depreciation and depletion		2,730
Exploration expenses, including dry holes		352
Interest expense		281
Excise taxes (1)		7,764
Other taxes and duties (2)		10,163
Income applicable to minority and preferred		292
interests
Total costs and other deductions		81,415
INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES		18,178
Income taxes		7,688
NET INCOME	$	10,490

You'll see that the company made roughly 10 billion on 99.5 billion in total revenue a 10.5% net profit margin. That's a lot of money.

But is it? Look at all the excise taxes, duties, and income taxes paid by the company. If you total them, they amount to $25 billion in various payments to governments, a whopping 25% of the total revenue.

So in reality, the state makes more money than the producer, you know, the guy that pays for the equipment, hires the employees, repairs damaged oil rigs, delivers the product, listens to customer complaints, fights frivolous lawsuits, etc.

What does the state do in this equation? Nothing.

Imagine having a convenient store and every Monday, Sal and Tony from the neighborhood stop by to sell you "protection" and they take all the money you earned for that day. That's how the government operates; except Sal & Tony are only getting 14% of your receipts.

I get frustrated with politicians who are getting more brazen in their theft language, indicating to me the average Joe thinks its a good idea to just take money from people who earn it for whatever reason. Well, at least you get good trash pickup from Sal & Tony.

Oh the irony

Global Warming conference cancelled due to ice storm.

Hillary

“It helps her because we know Bill Clinton and we love Bill Clinton. We know him and his foibles. We know he loves his Dunkin’ Donuts; we know his love for burgers,” said State Representative Patricia M. McMahon, a longtime ally of both Clintons. “It shows that she’s human, too, and appreciates her husband and likes him as much as we do.”

One of the quotes in this article regarding Hillary Clinton (aka Rodham).

However, maybe someone could explain to me that if we all love Bill so much why couldn't he ever seem to muster more than 50% of the popular vote? And let's face it, he couldn't even muster that against Bob Dole (aka oatmeal, floormat, corpse, etc.).

It's one of the myths that I hope gets a silver bullet through the heart during this presidential campaign. Let's face it, everyone knows that Hillary is every bit as charming and warm as Bill is.

I want my global warming

They are driving the Daytona 500 this weekend and Mardi Gras next Tuesday yet it looks like I won't be able to get out of my driveway if the weather guys' apocalyptic forecast comes true. Now why should Ohioans be deprived of all that good time? We could have that big old parade right through High Street in Columbus if it wasn't so damn cold.

Where the hell is my global warming?

Why the Bengals will always Stink

If you ever wonder why the Bengals will always be a pack of losers check out the quotes from their loser coach.

“You can put all that to rest. We have the (4-3) personnel,” Lewis said. “We’ll continue the way we are and not take any side steps. We need to get better and keep progressing with our players and that’s the best way for us to do it the quickest.”

“People continue to point out the teams that (spend) in free agency win less games,” he said. “It takes chemistry. It’s people working together. It takes time. When we get a guy off another team, invariably there comes that adverse time within the game that he reverts back to other things that he knows from another place and another time. That’s not the reaction you need at that critical moment.

“The answer is to always try and reserve some of your own players and continue to progress with guys in the draft,” Lewis said. “Continue to let them mature and develop as football players in the NFL. They’re trained in your system, they’re trained your way and that’s the way teams continue to get better.”

Apparently Marvin Lewis has the intelligence to be a City Council member when he retires.

This is the NFL... your team was 8-8 last year.... simply drafting good players keeps you even with everyone else... they get seven picks as well. You cannot make it on the players you draft alone. Do the math. If the average NFL player career is five years and every single one of your draft picks makes the team, you have 35 guys - but your roster is 53 guys.... you still need free agents to fill the roster.

The Bengals are 16 mil under the cap for 2007. They were under the cap last year when they could have signed Justin Smith to a long term deal. The Bengals will always be losers because the days of signing draft picks alone are done. By the time you get a team together through the draft, the guys you started with are leaving through free agency (ie Eric Steinbach).

Look at the Patriots, every single year they rotate 15-20 guys off the roster and replace them with more cap friendly free agents and draft picks. They also have about ten extra scouts that know exactly the type of player they are drafting. Remember Drew Bledsoe, Curtis Martin, Adam Vinatieri, Ty Law, Troy Brown. et

This is why they don't have these types of pictures floating around the net.

FIRE, POLICE, STREETS AGAIN

With White Death on it's way to the Cincinnati metro area, it's nice to see that city council is on top of the game to make sure we don't have another repeat of last week's snow disaster.

Oh wait, no that's not with council is concerned with. No, it's more important to vote on a resolution against the federal government sending more troops to Iraq.

Let's pretend we're a Cincinnati City Council member (a big stretch, because if you can read this blog you're too smart to be a council member).

In a councilman's world, the city crime rate rivals Mayberry, the exodus from a city Moses would be proud of is just all the drug dealers heading to Detroit, and the streets are all plowed to perfection. By God, the only thing left is to make a statement about Iraq troop levels that we no absolutely nothing about.

The money quote from Leslie Ghiz

“I don’t support any resolutions that don’t pertain directly to city business. Next thing we’ll be looking at is supporting certain people for president and certain documentaries by former vice presidents about global warming."

Marcus Feisel

The trial of Liz Carroll starts today. If you don't remember her, Liz, her husband David and a "friend", Amy Baker, wrapped one of their foster children, Marcus, in a blanket, duct taped him and stuffed him into a closet during the hot summer day so they could go to a family picnic. He ultimately died.

As you read the information about these characters, you'll notice a common theme... Where are the jobs?

No one had a damn job in this crew; not Liz, not Amy, not Donna Trevino, the birth mother, not David Carroll, who was supposedly "disabled", although not disabled enough to coach a local youth football team.

The fact of the matter is, none of these people did anything but milk off the government tit.

One of the reasons I'm against government subsidies for the poor is that it leaves way too many people unaccountable. Both the donor and the recipient. It's the perfect recipe for anti social behavior.

Government assistance leaves too many people with a hand out long after it becomes apparent the person isn't interested in reforming their lives. Even Jesus once asked a paraplegic "do you want to get well" because he understood that some people don't.

There is something about work that adds to people's lives above and beyond sustenance, there's a building of character that occurs when you have to work to pay for housing, cars, booze, even drugs for that matter. You learn to serve others... often when you sure don't want to. You start to develop respect for other's lives and property and you understand that life's not always convenient; like taking a difficult child to a family outing.

It's the same kind of respect people have for property when they own it versus renting it.

Anyway, let's hope Marcus gets some justice out of the following trials. Unfortunately, his death is more of a symptom of our corrupt welfare system and another tragic death, like his, is likely to be repeated soon.

Snow Daze

As another winter storm races towards the Cincinnati area, take note of the following from NOAA.org:

TODAY MARKS THE 14TH DAY IN A ROW THAT IT HAS BEEN BELOW FREEZING AT CINCINNATI, COLUMBUS AND DAYTON. IT SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED THAT ALL THREE LOCATIONS ARE CURRENTLYWORKING ON A RECORD FOR AVERAGE TEMPS IN FEB. FEB 1978 REMAINS THE COLDEST FEB ON RECORD...AND THE AMAZING THING TO NOTE ABOUT THIS FEB IS THAT AVG TEMPS ARE CURRENTLY RUNNING 3-7 DEG BELOW THE 1978 AVG. EVEN MORE AMAZING...THE AVG TEMP AT DAYTON THRU FRIDAY WAS 9.7 DEGREES! MORE THAN HALF THE MONTH REMAINS AND COLD WEATHER IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE AT LEAST FOR THE NEXT WEEK TO 10 DAYS.

As Gordon would say, "Where the hell is my global warming?"

Minimum Wage Hike in Practice

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a client who is part owner of a clothing manufacturer with his family. They employ roughly 30 people. (as a courtesy, I won't name the state the company is located in)

They have been struggling for years to keep the doors open for this company and quite frankly haven't been able to to price it's product competitively due to union labor contracts. They already shut down their Ohio plant years ago and have been hanging on for years with this other plant

He told me that in 2006 the union passed along an $11,000 year increase in the union run health care coverage ($367 / employee). In addition, the union passed along another $11,000 increase in the union run pension plan.

The state this plant is located in had the infinite wisdom of passing it's minimum wage law which kicks the minimum wage up significantly in the next year (I won't say the amount for the reasons above). While his company does not pay minimum wage, the base rate in the contract is pegged to the minimum so any increase in the minimum is an automatic increase to his employees.

As my client says, "if we raise our prices more than 3% per year we might as well hand them our competitors business cards".

So now confronted with a 20% increase in the cost of labor within one year, they are moving their production to Columbia or China and will have the plant closed by the summer. Oh yeah, the city this plant is located in isn't exactly a hot bed of economic opportunity for low skilled laborers.

So for all you do gooders trying to help out the little guy, congratulations, you just helped out some poor guy in Bogota.

More Walmart Hate

Why does the Left hate Walmart so much?

On Tuesday, "two Democrat-appointed judges on what many consider to be the most liberal federal appeals court in the country gave trial lawyers the go ahead for the largest class action employment discrimination lawsuit in American history. Sounds like a big deal, right? Well, the numbers show just how big a deal it really is.

The class of plaintiffs approved by the two judges includes each and every woman who has ever worked at a Wal-Mart or Sam's Club store nationwide over the past eight years. According to the pair of judges, the class "encompasses approximately 1.5 million employees, both salaried and hourly, with a range of positions, who are or were employed at one or more of Wal-Mart's 3,400 stores across the country."

CFIF.org: Legalized Extortion

Lieberman Quote

Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), on Congressional Resolutions Disapproving of the War in Iraq:

"For the Senate to take up a symbolic vote of no confidence on the eve of a decisive battle is unprecedented, but it is not inconsequential. It is an act which, I fear, will discourage our troops, hearten our enemies, and showcase our disunity."

Lefty Blogs

In the past week, I had the "pleasure" of going to a few liberal sites to read some of the postings of their readers.

Here at the Daily Kos , is an interesting post by someone titled "Why I hate America".

On Shakespearessister, a blog by a John Edwards campaign staffer, is a nice post where she refers to conservative Christians as "christofacists", but it's offset by all the f-bombs written all over it.

And here is one at pandagon.net Where the writer asks an interesting question about the immaculate conception "What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit?"

I keep hearing about how the Democratic party is the party of inclusion, especially for people of faith. Yeah, I get that when these are the thoughts of staffers and influential opinion makers for the party.

For the life of me, I still do not understand why Catholics and Jews are still a vital voting block of the DNC when this kind of mockery of faith is rampant throughout the party.

At least there are some intellectuals out there who are willing to acknowledge that people of faith care about society. Here's an interesting piece written by Roy Hattersly the money quote is in the byline "We atheists have to accept that most believers are better human beings".

Maybe if the DNC leadership were willing to acknowledge the premise of his piece, they might be able to attract more religious conservatives.

Anna Nicole Smith RIP

In a shocker for every dead pool out there, Anna Nicole Smith died today.

While I would like to be solemn about the ending of one's life, the fact is, Smith represented every thing that's wrong with our culture today. It's all about celebrity over substance; consumption over contribution; exhibition over class.

It's not ironic that she had to buy her only redeeming quality.

Unlike Hendrix, Joplin, Monroe, & Dean she was famous for simply being famous.

When someone like Smith dies, it always has me remember Princess Diana and Mother Teresa who died within months of each other.

Who had happier more fulfilling life? I would bet that on her death bed, Mother Teresa had a much more sense of peace, purpose, and accomplishment with a life spent surrounded by the worst poverty and squalor in the world, as opposed to Diana, who lived what most would think was a fairy tail of wealth and glamor.

I usually opt not to acknowledge people like Smith, T.O., O.J., Pete Rose, Bob Huggins, The Clintons, etc. because that's what they crave, the spotlight. They are the worst of the narcissists.

But maybe someone reading this blog today will get the message that the quality of your life will always be measured by what you give... not what you get. If one person gets that from her death, then Smith will not have died in vain.

iPod Ban?

The Nanny State rears it's ugly head again... in New York, of all places.

First it was cell phones in cars, then trans fats. Now, a new plan is on the table to ban gadget use while crossing city streets.

If you use them in the crosswalk, your favorite electronic devices could be in the crosshairs. Legislation will be introduced in Albany on Wednesday to lay a $100 fine on pedestrians succumbing to what State Sen. Carl Kruger calls iPod oblivion.

Bill Banning iPods

Freedom of the Press?

Many are probably unfamiliar with Josh Wolf, a San Francisco blogger who defied a court order to turn over a video of a demonstration in the city.

He now holds the dubious distinction of being jailed longer than any other journalist in history.

While libs want to hold up the constitution and scream "freedom of the press", the constitution never said that freedom of the press included immunity from court orders or immunity from government secrecy or treason laws. The freedom of the press was written into the constitution so that people could be critical of the government without being jailed... not the case here.

I'm against shield laws because it gives immunity to "journalists" above and beyond what the common citizen would get. I'm also against whistle blower immunity as well for the same reason.

Here's a concept for Mr. Wolf, turn over the tape or enjoy your bologna sandwiches.

Driving in snow

The drive in was good for me the roads seemed pretty clear in Maineville & Loveland

Of course the evening was complete with listening to "Cincinnatians don't know how to drive in the snow" from my NE Ohio girlfriend.

This is the thing I always point out to people. Their recollection of people driving in bad weather was 20-30 years ago when people drove with studded snow tires and chains on their tires. You can clean up a road pretty quick when people are chewing it up with those babies.

Unfortunately, these are now illegal. So we're forced to drive in this crap with all weather radials.

Anyway, it was 5 degrees coming in this morning. I'm still waiting on my damn global warming.

Cincinnati snow jobs

My drive in to downtown Cincinnati wasn't too bad this morning, Clermont Co, Montgomery, Loveland, etc., have done a great job.... but then I passed the Welcome to the City of Cincinnati sign near Norwood. From that point on into the city, the roads looked like they had never been plowed. I guess they're hoping the snow will melt off the highways? Or maybe the snow plow drivers left early with the rest of the city yesterday afternoon? Glad to see they're putting the 2.1% of my income they take to good use. Keep up the good work guys!

Time to toughen up!

What's happened to us? We can't handle a little snow and cold?

I always said I'd never start a sentence with the words "When I was a kid...", but I'm going to anyway. When I was a kid... I remember standing outside waiting for the bus with my ears feeling like they were going to fall off, my feet numb and the boogers in my nose frozen solid.

I'm no fan of the cold, I'd much rather be in St. Thomas right now. But even after all the "global warming" of the past couple decades, schools shutdown for an inch of snow or the sniffles and people head for their bunkers when the weather starts acting like it should in Ohio during February. And it's pretty obvious we don't have the guts to win a war anymore. There's too many wimps, sissies and cowards in charge these days.

Where's John Wayne (or John Galt)?

Naga RIP

My favorite animal at the Cincinnati Zoo died yesterday.

Naga, a 9 foot Komodo Dragon passed away of an abdominal infection. He was every bit the "hero" that Barbaro was. Let's hope the NY Times reports his life in the same manner.

By the way, it's 4 degrees outside, where the hell is my global warming? With Global Warming, lads like Naga could make Canada part of their habitation.

Mexican Tortilla Shortage

For those who love to help out the global warming alarmists by purchasing ethanol, please note, you may be starving a Mexican.

Why would that be? Because the US has increased production of ethanol brought on by more state requirements, the price of corn has shot up tremendously. As a result, tortillas, a staple in poor Mexican diets have become increasing expensive. So much so there are now riots in Mexico City protesting the prices of tortillas.

To make matters worse, it actually takes more energy to produce ethanol than we get from the use of the fuel. A scientist at Cal Berkeley (not exactly a conservative hot bed) has produced a study reporting the disparity.

It is now 5 degrees outside, where the hell is my global warming?

Question answer

My question last week regarding a family making a $120,000/yr.

First, note that this familial income puts you in the top 10% of all household incomes in the country. Congratulations, you are rich. So when some clown running for office talks about tax cuts for the rich they are talking about you.

Here's the tax breakdown

Federal tax $15,009
FICA tax $7,440
Medicare tax $1,740
State of Ohio tax $4,797
City of Cincinnati $2,520
Real estate taxes $3,000
Sales tax $1,192 ( per IRS table )
Total taxes paid $35,698

We now have $84,302 remaining which stills sounds like a lot but let's back out a mortgage of $2,200 a month, utilities & phone of $400.00/month, insurance $50.00/mo. a couple of car payments $800.00/mo., auto insurance $100.00/ month. groceries $700/month.

You now have $51,000 in annual expenses related just to home and car.

That leaves you with $33,302 to pay for retirement (401k), soccer fees, vacations, gas and oil, repairs & maintenance (car and home), cable, entertainment, clothing, appliances, day care/school tuition, gifts etc, etc, etc.

So in my mind if someone says "it's a tax cut for the rich" my response is "it's about damn time".

Da Bears

Rex Grossman sucks. The only thing keeping his quarterback rating above 0.0 is the fact there is no factor for fumbled snaps in the equation. To be an NFL quarterback it's assumed you can do that.

Maybe next year.

By the way, where the hell is that global warming.... it was -1 when I came into work today.

go Bears

I couldn't agree with Midas's post more on the boorishness of the Super Bowl (all rights reserved) pre game.

Regardless, By ten o'clock I expect to be doin' the Super Bowl Shuffle.

Of course this coming from the same guy that predicted the GOP would keep the House....

Super Bowel

Well, it's finally time for the Super Bowl (am I allowed to say "Super Bowl" or do I have to use the phrase "The Big Game"?). After two weeks of hype and endless analysis from the idiots at ESPN, it's finally time to actually play a football game. Let's just pray that it's a good game.

If I (Midas) could make some changes, I'd do the following:
1. Play the game on Saturday instead of Sunday.
2. Have only 1 week after the AFC and NFC championship games.
3. Blackout ESPN for the week leading up to the game.
4. Ban the lame and painfully long half-time shows.

The Super Bowl might be the greatest spectacle in sports. Good and bad.

The good?

It’s a day for football. It’s a day for friends and family. It’s a day to eat, drink and be merry. Maybe we should follow the lead of a few people who are lobbying to turn the day into a national holiday. Come on, would you really miss Presidents Day if we replaced it with Super Bowl Day?

The bad?

It’s one of the most disgusting displays of excess in sports. We’ve come to accept the hype that surrounds the game, but should we have to put up with the lunacy, blatant commercialism and hypocrisy it attracts?

Rick Taylor: It’s the underbelly of the Super Bowl that rubs me raw this week.

What Constitution?

"There they go again. House Democrats should at least provide variety in their venality. Last Wednesday, fresh from legislating new ethics regarding relations with lobbyists, they demonstrated that there are worse forms of corruption than those involving martinis and money.

They again voted to give the delegates to the House from Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico, the right to vote in the House when it is sitting as the "Committee of the Whole,'' which is how it sits almost all the time. It is in that status that almost all debate about and amending of legislation occur."

George Will: Voting Rights Chicanery