What Gun Control?

I was watching a news program the other day and the discussion was about guns. One fella mentioned that since Pres. Reagan was shot and wounded about thirty years ago, guns have become far more accessible, not less so. The moderator pointed out that the NRA has spent millions or perhaps billions to make sure that guns became more easily available. Now of course this show was not on FOX NEWS. I think it was MSNBC. But what's important isn't that Fox wouldn't have had this conversation, or that MSNBC would. What's important is that it's so easy to buy a gun or to buy a whole lot of guns. Don't get me wrong, I like guns. I like to hunt and target shoot. I even respect peoples right to collect guns. I don't care if you want to have a collection that includes every gun model ever made. What I don't care for is the idea that some fool can go out and buy dozens of the same model, usually a Glock or an AK47, or even larger quantities. Not even if they buy them one at a time. The only people that collect guns like that in those kinds of quantities are city gangs, Mexican Drug Cartels and police agencies. And now one of them has been found to be supplying a Cartel. What I don't understand is why the NRA wants to shield those folks. Oh, I know the claim. That they have to draw a line in the sand or the government will take away everyone's guns. Well, that's hogwash, and what's more, they know it. No, the real reason is that the gun manufacturers are paying the NRA millions to help them boost up sales. In the meantime they have good, honest gun owners all over the country believing that Obama is after their guns. You know, that un-American, Muslim loving, gun owner hating, ultra-liberal, snake in the grass. Why, he wasn't even born in America and therefore shouldn't be allowed to be president anyway. Who do he think he am? Usurper to the throne, that's who. Certainly not a fine upstanding conservative like the rest of the free world. Except for France, of course. Please don't get me wrong, I don't dislike conservatives, it's just that they seem to have been misled into thinking they're right. Well, they are right leaning, as opposed to left leaning. But they don't seem to be correct. I suppose that comes from watching Glen Beck on FOX NEWS. Which is a misnomer. It should be called FOX PROPAGANDA.

(ITOS) It's The Oil Stupid.

Hwy. Guess what? We're looking at the beginning of a whole new Middle-East. So what? You don't think it makes any difference to you? Well, you're probably right, or at least partly right. See, we'll still be buying our oil from there, and we'll still be sending our military there to protect our oil, while claiming to be doing it for humanitarian reasons. The folks there will still hate us and will still hate each other. So, there won't be any change to our lives, you think? Think again buster. The price of oil will continue to get higher and higher. Not just because they hate us, although that's a part of it. But mostly the price will go up because India and China are using tons more oil, which neither has. So they'll be buying more and more as their people begin to have more money to spend on items that require more power. Electric and gas. So, that's the good news. The bad news is that the world is unable to keep up with demand. When that happens, the oil will go to the highest bidder.  Unless a supplier nation decides to hold onto it's own oil for it's own consumption, which only complicates the problem even more.Since we are no longer the wealthy nation we once were, we aren't likely to be the highest bidder. Is there an answer? Well, sort of. Somewhere there's somebody with an idea on how to do the job of oil with another energy source. Wind, solar, hydrogen, natural gas, who knows. So why don't we do it? Because politicians would rather collect campaign funds from wealthy oil companies then from poor idea people. See, the poor idea people just don't have the cash necessary to get into the big game. And politicians are addicted to the big game. As soon as a poor idea person gets a few buck together to get into the big game, the big oil companies up the price of admission.

Weight Loss, 101.

Food inflation is upon us. That's right boys and girls. That package of candy or cookies mom bought for you is most likely a little smaller than the last time she bought it. At least the price is the same though. That's a relief. Yep, rather than hike up the price of what you buy, suppliers have decided to sell you less for the same. Of course that doesn't apply to everything. For instance a grapefruit or head of lettuce is still the same. And a pound of ground beef is still a pound. I'll bet there's a move on to change the weights and measures though. What an idea. If they could give you about three quarters of a pound and call it a pound. Or what if  three cups could be called a quart? Ya know that ice cream you love so much? It used to be a half gallon. Check it out now. I suppose they would cut the size of an egg if they could figure out how to do it. You could stop at the local diner for two eggs and home fries and find out they really are one and a half eggs and a home fry. Now, understand, there's good reason to handle inflation this way. After all, if they suddenly started charging more, why, people would buy less. That certainly wouldn't do. No. Better to charge the same but give less. It's sort of playing a game of secrets. Of course, if you buy just enough to provide for one meal for the family at a time, you may find that everyone is losing weight. That may be the one saving grace for this secrets business. After all, Americans are over weight. Well, this is your grocers way of letting you know, without letting you know, that you're fat.

When Are No Taxes Not Enough? Think G.E.

You know me. I don't like to find fault with our government. But for just this once I'd like to say that I disagree somewhat. No, let me rephrase that. I strongly disagree with the idea of reducing the tax rate for corporations while cutting such things as Food Stamps and education and some are even cutting unemployment compensation. Now I know the argument that we have the highest tax rate in the world on corporations. But if that's true, then how come companies like G.E. that had over $14 billion in profits worldwide and over $5 billion in the U.S. is paying no taxes and in fact is owed over $3 billion from the government? Ya know? If I made $5 billion last year, I don't think I'd have the gall to ask for $3 billion in subsidies and tax credits from the government while the government has to cut out so many important lifelines for the poor and unemployed. How does G.E. and a lot of other companies get away with this rot? Well for one thing they hire former IRS and Treasury agents to figure out all the loopholes. Then they buy congress with massive donations to campaign funds and PACs. Of course it doesn't hurt when the CEO of G.E. is President Obama's liaison to the business community. So even the President is is being advised by the companies on how to get their taxes lower. How do you lower the taxes on somebody who pays no taxes? I go back to the argument that the wealthy, those earning over $250,000 per year, need to pay more taxes. The argument that it will stifle growth in industry and hurt jobs is pure rubbish. What will and is stifling job creation is cutting entitlements. The idea that if you give extra money to a rich man he'll go out and create a job, that giving extra money to a company will spur that company to expand and create jobs simply doesn't make any sense. Corporate holdings of cash is well over a  trillion dollars and growing. With that much money on hand, why would extra money make them expand when they already have enough to do it? What will make them expand is more sales of their products and services. That and that alone will spur jobs growth. How do you get more sales? Put money in the hands of the people who buy those products and services. Come on. It's not rocket science. Except maybe for a few folks like Palin, Gingrich, Backman and Trump et al. But then, they still think Obama wasn't born in America. They think the Revolutionary War started in New Hampshire, not Massachusetts. Newt, you should know better. Come on folks, study up a little.

Now, That Was A Close Call.

Boy oh boy. Picky picky. A couple of wimpy airline pilots are complaining because nobody was around at Reagan National airport to hold their hands while they landed. I mean, what's the problem? Afraid of running into another plane? Or maybe they thought a luggage cart might be in the way and somebody's luggage wouldn't arrive on time at the right destination? Hey look at the guy that landed in the river at New York. Nobody was holding his hand, right? If there was, then there was some poor planning there. Who said geese could be in the flight path, anyway? Ya gotta think back to the good old days of flying when pilots sat in open cockpits, held onto the stick and guessed at where the ground was. A little excitement in our lives is good for the constitution. Of course that's not to excuse the tower personnel (or person) in this story. He, or she should have been on duty 24/7. That's what bed pans are for. Any time a single person can't manage flights for a major international airport at our nation's capital, there needs to be an investigation. And wouldn't ya just know it, there are several in progress. You can bet they'll find somebody to blame. You don't suppose there should have been more than one person on duty, do you? Our country can't do a lot of things, but the one thing we can do is to hold hearings in investigations and find fault with somebody. In fact, we can find fault better then any country in the world or in all of history. Hey, even I've been known to point a gnarled finger or two, from time to time. Nothing serious, mind you, but point I do.

Keep An Eye On Your Neighbor.

Hey, how about that. We're going for the record. This makes three wars at once. I'm not sure if we need to get into another one to set a new record or not. One thing I am sure of is that we don't need another one. We don't need the three we're in now. How did we get where we're at, anyway? I mean, how did we tick that many people off that we had to get into three fights at the same time? Not even Bruce Lee would have picked this many fights all at once. Let's face it, we're not too bright at times. Now I understand how we got into Afghanistan to start with and if we had paid better attention to it, we would have been out of there long ago. But we didn't pay attention. We got all rapped up in going after WMDs that didn't exist and that we new didn't exist. Sure Saddam was a bad guy, but who made him that way. Well, we had a part in it. We supplied him with the wear-with-all to kill thousands of Iranians and his own people as well. Then we sort of gave him the impression it would be okay to invade Kuwait. And if we didn't need middle-east oil so much, none of it would have mattered enough to get involved anyway. Now we're getting sucked into another war. Don't get me wrong, this Qhadafy is one of the bad guys. But we only seem to go after bad guys in the middle-east. Anywhere else and it's "not in the best interests of our country".  Mark my words, even though we keep repeating that we won't go into Libya. No "boots on the ground". Just you wait. The only thing that'll stop us is the need for the draft. Our military is stretched so thin that the only way we can get drawn further into this third war is to re institute the draft. That'll put the fear of God into the hearts of congress and the administration. You wanna see every single member of congress get thrown out of office and the president too? Let em bring back the draft. But they'll walk right up to that line in the sand. They're going to keep using missiles and drones and ships and planes and everything they can without needing  the big D. Wars are the rich mans way of ending a recession. Rich people get richer off wars. Of course, they pretty much get richer off everything that happens, but they expecially like wars because it's hard to find out about the graft when there's lots of action in the news. Anyway, I hope you don't have to fight. Except maybe with your neighbor.

Insuring Made Easy.

I've been giving some thought to automobile insurance of late. Particularly the cost of car insurance. It's high. Like most everything else. Although it's hard to explain, since it's little affected by high oil prices, unlike everything else. I mean, just because cars burn gasoline, that doesn't cost the insurance companies any more, except that maybe the insurance salesmen have to pay more to get around and call on customers. There's a way to get around these high prices though. In fact, there's a way to get car insurance for free. I've been watching the commercials for car insurance on TV, and have come to the conclusion that I've been paying for something that's available for nothing. Here's how I envision it working. First you look to the insurance companies that are offering anywhere from ten to fifteen percent discount or even more, over their competitors. Select a company, take the discount then move on to the next. When you run out of these companies, start with the insurance companies that offer up to $400 or more in savings over their competitors. Be sure not to miss any of these opportunities. And don't pass up accident forgiveness deals either, they can come in handy. Once you've gotten all these savings, you should have enough to pay for your car insurance and have enough left over to enjoy a night out at the movies or a concert, a fine meal at a local eatery and plenty of cash to fill up the tank. So, enjoy, enjoy the great out-of-doors. Take a ride and see the USA in your Chevrolet.  Don't worry about tomorrow, tomorrow never comes. So, what do you think of my idea? A penny for your thoughts. Just remember, it's your money, use it when you want it. But it's my idea and I want a commission on your savings.