8.31.2012

Words from Teddy Roosevelt

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

8.27.2012

On Paul Ryan

Funny note I had forwarded to me today.  Thought you might enjoy it.

Well, two weeks ago we learned that Congressman Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin, is to be Mitt Romney’s pick for the next Vice President of The United States. What are we to think of this selection? He’s not a graduate of Columbia University. He’s not a graduate of Harvard. He wasn’t selected as the President of the Harvard Law Review. He didn’t get a special free quota scholarship ride to any prestigious university and, instead, had to work his way through Miami University of Ohio. For God’s sake the man drove the Oscar Mayer Wiener Truck one summer and waited tables another! 

One morning when Paul Ryan was sixteen years old he went in to wake his father up and found him dead of a heart attack. He didn’t write two books about that experience. Instead, he assumed the role of adult at an early age, never having the luxury to pursue youthful drug use and the art of socialist revolution. Instead, Paul Ryan and his mother took his grandmother,suffering from Alzheimers, into the household and served as the primary care provider for his grandma.

His grandma wasn’t the Vice President of the Bank of Hawaii so she could offer nothing in return, except the element of “need”. Once Paul Ryan got his BA in Economics from Miami University of Ohio he was hired as a staff economist in Wisconsin Senator Kastin’s office. The job must have not paid well because young Ryan moonlighted as a waiter and fitness trainer. No one offered him a “token honor” position at the University of Chicago and a $200,000 dollar a year salary. When a still young Paul Ryan returned to Wisconsin to run for Congress he didn’t demonize his opponent and dig up dirt to shovel against him. He waited until the standing Congressman vacated the office before seeking the office. In Janesville, Wisconsin they don’t have a big political machine to promote you, to criminalize your opponent; instead Paul Ryan had to go door to door and sit at kitchen tables and listen to his future constituents.

After getting elected to Congress Paul Ryan didn’t triumphantly march into Washington, buy himself a Georgetown townhouse and proceed over to K Street to rub elbows with lobbyists. He bunked in his Congressional office and used the house gym for showers and a fresh change of clothes. Paul Ryan then married and took his bride back to Janesville. He lives on the same street he lived on as a kid and shares the neighborhood with eight other members of the Ryan clan. He hunts with the local Janesville hunt club and attends PTA meetings and other civic functions. For those who can’t make those public functions, Paul Ryan bought an old bread truck, converted it into a “mobile constituent office” and drives around to meet with those who need his help and attention.

No, I don’t know if we can vote for a guy like this. He doesn’t have a regal pedigree; he’s Irish for God’s sake! No one awarded him a Nobel Peace Prize two months after getting elected. No one threw flowers or got “chills down their spine” as a he took his seat in Congress. What is most despicable about Paul Ryan is that he has had the nerve to write the House Budget for three years in a row. He is brazen and heartless in advocating in that budget for a $5 trillion dollar reduction in federal spending over the next ten years! The House passed his budget three years in a row and three years in a row the Democratically controlled Senate has let it die in the upper house, without ever proposing a budget of their own. 

What is wrong with this guy? If Congress were to cut $5 trillion dollars from the budget where would the President get the money to give $500 million dollars to a bankrupt Solyndra? Or $200 million dollars for bankrupt Energy 1? Or $11 billion dollars to illegal aliens filing INIT, non-resident tax returns to claim $11 billion big ones in child tax credits, even for their children living in Mexico? I don’t know. Paul Ryan seems heartless to me. He keeps wanting to cut government waste, he keeps wanting to put a halt to those big GSA conventions in Vegas and, worse, he keeps trying to make people look at that $16.7 trillion dollar deficit! The guy’s no fun at all! Who wants a numbers cruncher? Who wants someone spoiling the party by showing folks the bill? Nothing will spoil a party quicker than sending the host the bill before the party’s over. Party Hearty folks! At least until November.

8.22.2012

The Rich Says

Having gone from Reagan to Obama in my life......  It's rather like going from an aisle seat in first class to a middle seat in the last row.

8.17.2012

Words from Joe Biden

Folks, where's it written we cannot lead the world in the 20th century in making automobiles?

8.14.2012

Words from Ulysses S. Grant

In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.

8.10.2012

Statistics

Some interesting statistics for your reference.  All sources are footnoted below.


January 2009
TODAY
% chg
Source
Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S.
$1.83
$3.44
84%
1



Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)
$43.48
$99.02
127.7%
2



Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)
$38.74
$91.38
135.9%
2











Corn, No2 yellow, Central IL
$3.56
$6.33
78.1%
2



Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL
$9.66
$13.75
42.3%
2



Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb.
$13.37
$35.39
164.7%
2



Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall
7.6%
9.4%
23.7%
3



Unemployment rate, blacks
12.6%
15.8%
25.4%
3



Number of unemployed
11,616,000
14,485,000
24.7%
3



Number of fed. employees
2,779,000
2,840,000
2.2%
3



Real median household income
$50,112
$49,777
-0.7%
4



Number of food stamp recipients
31,983,716
43,200,878
35.1%
5



Number of unemployment benefit recipients
7,526,598
9,193,838
22.2%
6



Number of long-term unemployed
2,600,000
6,400,000
146.2%
3



Poverty rate, individuals
13.2%
14.3%
8.3%
4



People in poverty in U.S.
39,800,000
43,600,000
9.5%
4



U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings
5
9
n/a
10



Present Situation Index
29.9
23.5
-21.4%
11



Failed banks
140
164
17.1%
12



U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate
89.76
82.03
-8.6%
2



U.S. money supply, M1, in billions
1,575.1
1,865.7
18.4%
13



U.S. money supply, M2, in billions
8,310.9
8,852.3
6.5%
13



National debt, in trillions
$10..627
$14..052
32.2%
14












Sources:
(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration;
(2) Wall Street Journal;
(3) Bureau of Labor Statistics;
(4) Census Bureau;
(5) USDA;
(6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor;
(7) FHFA;
(8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller;
(9) RealtyTrac;
(10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ;
(11) The Conference Board;
(12) FDIC;
(13) Federal Reserve;
(14) U.S. Treasury

8.07.2012

Words from Lincoln

I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist. But I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.