been a while....

been a while since i posted.....no excuse....

there was an interesting opinion piece in our local newspaper .....

here's a link to the specific article....Our Opinion: Obama newly serious on deficit

here's a link to the LA Times article referenced...U.S. deficit: Stakes huge in partisan duel over U.S. deficit

my comments are included here, even though i put them on the site also...

spent all morning trying to figure the best response here. it's obvious that my attempt to portray one of the major differences between reps and dems was not taken as such. for the record, i should state that i did used to be a republican - in fact, i'm still registered as such. however events of the past ten years have given me cause to re-evaluate that position. there's no way i've become a democrat - we're lightyears apart; but there's also no way that i can consider myself any kind of republican in today's world. i find myself disagreeing with both parties. maybe i should join my buddy indep_in_tx or maybe i should be one of those libraryterarians....

anyway, one of the issues i still find myself in agreement with most republicans is my view of economics. i firmly believe in capitalism - "an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market."

the end of that definition is important. "...development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits..."  that simple phrase is one of the major dividing points in our two party system.

in my simple mind, our economic success or failure lies in the ability of those corporations and wealthy business owners to manage their businesses and finances in order to expand and create new jobs and new products to keep the cycle going. i don't believe they should be restricted, charged, taxed or otherwise interupted from doing just that. i acknowedge the fact that there are wealthy - even super-wealthy - people in our world and i harbor them no ill feelings or rage just because of that fact. actually, i hope they make even more money and encourage them to invest it into r&d to spawn new businesses and create jobs for everyone. i love seeing new products on the market and to hear about exciting investments into future productions! it means jobs, new constructions - more people able to enjoy the benefits of our economic growth by participating in it! are the republicans trying to help that cause? sure - but even they have created more problems in trying to ease the burden on corporations and the wealthy. in theory they always portray tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy - it goes to the basic tenet of capitalism.

on the other hand, there are the liberals, whose economic views consider corporations and people of wealth to be the cause of all our problems and would rather see all those monies go to the masses via government-managed programs of support so that everyone can share in their wealth. and we'll create unions, whose job it is to represent the common laborer and get them their fair share of those nasty profit-making rich folks. in order to help this view along, it's necessary to purvey the thought that those corporations and wealthy people are bad - if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be in the predicaments we're in. we need to get more and more of their money so that all of us can have what they have - cars, property, belongings, food and fancy homes. we don't need to work for it - it's just so unfair that they can make all that money and everyone else can't! we need to close all the loopholes (part of obama's plan referenced in the latimes article) and tighten taxation so that these bad corporations and rich so-and-so's pay their (more than) fair share! so the government steps in to manage these "needs of the people" and tax corporations and the wealthy so that their money can be dispensed to those who really should have it anyway. the liberal thought is that it's ok that there are corporations and weathy people as long as they pay larger amounts than anyone else so that everyone else can feel wealthy too. after all, they're making lots and lots of money and getting away with paying only a 35% tax rate! to me it's a system of negative class envy.

and just to comment further on the latimes article that was cited, they even went out and hired two of the largest liberal economic "think tanks" in the country to evaluate the republican plan - gee, wonder what their thoughts are gonna be; why not have two of the largest conservative economic "think tanks" evaluate the plans? hmmmm, different results - really - skews your argument - really? hmmmmmm  political differences? for sure......

however, in my economic view, what happens is that by taking away that 35%, we drastically limit any kind of economic growth - business stimulation or job creation. and we do it from above and below - the corporations and wealthy can't reinvest and create growth because we've limited their financial ability to do so; and we've also created a false sense of economic well-being among people who now have disposable monies and the ability to purchase items at a rate that production can't keep up with because we've taken away the corporation's ability to expand and create.

so we have really high unemployment rates, yet folks with disposable incomes, lousy business growth rates, terrible economy, horribly low interest rates and generally bad times all around. over time - we've also seen businesses move outside our own country (outsourcing) - simply because they cannot afford (literally) to expand and create new jobs in our own country. liberal policies have pretty much forced this to happen over time - corporations simply can't afford to do business in this country. and it's not only liberal policies - republican policies trying to overcome those liberal policies have added to the confusion and downfall of the pure capitalistic system.

by and large it's part of the reason i support a complete erasure of the tax regulations/laws as they stand today. just completely toss'em - effective xxxxxx date there are no longer any tax laws period. no corporate taxes, no business taxes, no personal taxes - - one large shred program to get rid of it - all of it - loopholes included. i support a flat tax - for everyone - corporate, business, private, personal.  you make money, you pay the government 20% - period. no exemptions, no loops, no holes, no offshore accounts, no exceptions.

so in this large post, i've opened up all kinds of issues both politically and micro/macro economically speaking.  but i think it's the foundation of our economic system and also the root of the current dilemma we find ourselves in economically.

grand kids pics!

my better half has posted some great pics of our week-end with the kiddies....

go check out her blog at Seduced By Yarn

the kids came down last Thursday and left on Saturday afternoon......we had a ball.....

on MSNBC??!!

this is interesting - to say the least - - sure someone at MSNBC wasn't paying attention when they decided to have this chap on as a guest.....give a listen....

thursday smile!

i know i have been terrible about posting.....

don't even have an excuse to offer....

i'm not even a poet, so i can't make a rhyme....

here's a pic from our trip to arizona couple weeks ago...

song.......

i ran across this on bubblegum diaries

funniest thing i have heard in a while.....it's sexually explicit lyrics....turn up the volume and give it a listen!

are you prepared to be shocked?

can you imagine?

NAACP Disrespects George Washington at MLK Rally

I'm at a loss to explain, or to even comment on this one.....

smile! it's thursday

anyone have any idea what it's like to look for 20 or so people with a military training background in our small town? oh - yeah - and add to that - these 20 or so people have to have a security clearance! talk about your mission impossible.....

should be exciting though - we're about doubling our company presence here. we're definitely happy about that part! and happy in our own small way to be able to help someone, somewhere get back to work! even if they do have to have a clearance....

.....

since we have a pool in the backyard we have to have fencing - we prefer privacy style fencing. the wood fence that is (and has been) there is splitting, wobbly and the boards are warping and looking downright shakey!

so we're having some fencing folks drop by and give us some estimates on redoing the fencing and gates....

absolutely have no idea of what $$ to expect around here - that's why i've asked 3 or four local fencing companies for estimates..we'll see how this goes....

i'll post some pics as we get into this project....

.....

quick weather update - i think we're past the deep freeze of the last two days. actually made it to 51 today and they say close to 60 tomorrow and for the weekend...course the nights are still 20s & 30s - - but at least the days aren't staying in the 20s & 30s.....

now we just need to work on our drought and get some precipitation in here!

hope everyone is having a good week!

words have consequences!?

"The kind of rhetoric that flows from people like Rush Limbaugh, in my judgment he is irresponsible, uses partial information, sometimes wrong information," Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said today. "[Limbaugh] attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials and that kind of behavior in my ...opinion is not without consequences."


friend of mine put this quote on facebook today. my comment was that it's a stupid statement - lots of things are without consequences - what's the good sheriff's point?

my friend opined that words have consequences - and we should be held responsible for our words. and that enough people don't realize that their words have consequences....

my comment is that what my friend is implying is that i have the right to voice my opinion but if something was to happen that "HE" attributes to my words, then i should be help responsible and punished for expressing my opinion....

in other words, i'm entitled to voice my opinion as long as he agrees or approves.

i totally agree with the concept that words have consequences and people should definitely be aware of what they say. but at what point and whom decides consequences?

if my blog were read by hundreds of thousands of people - and i posted a list of people i didn't like and why i didn't like those people. and something happened to one of those people.

and let's say that the person who caused something to happen to that person was one of the hundreds of thousands who passed by my blog - am i suddenly at fault for that incident?

i just have a hard time with that line of thought. so now before i offer an opinion about anything or anyone, i have to take into consideration anyone who might happen to read or hear that opinion and possibly take some type of action based on that opinion of mine?

does this make sense? am i missing something about freedom of speech? are the thought police moving in?

monday night

God be with those involved in the shooting in Arizona over the weekend and their families.

seen some of the world's stupidest posts since that shooting. politicizing such a tragedy serves no purpose. our progressives should be embarrassed and ashamed - and the conservatives who baited them on should be even more ashamed....disgusting display of "national unity".....

on a different note - -

we actually had .02 inches of rain over the weekend!! not exactly sure what that might mean - but the airport somehow registered .02 inches of moisture! we're all betting that an armadillo pissed in the cup; but who knows!

and now, we're supposed to have our two days of freeze! the high on tuesday is supposed to be 34.....the low tonite and tomorrow night is supposed to be 20 - windchill in the low teens....

gonna be a cold couple of days for us! but then thursday supposed to be back in the high 50's and friday to the 60's.....still no rain.....

hope everyone is having a good week!

it's friday!!!

not a bad day..

the temps around here in the winter hang around the 50's (maybe low 60's) during the day and then it gets cold at night - 20's/30's....

the worst problem is the dryness! it's been month's since we've had any appreciable rain amounts - - and we don't get humidity - it hangs around 20%, may 25% on a good day....

so things are really REALLY dry around here. the outdoor burn ban has been in effect since october!! and the longer it stays so dry, the more dangerous a fire becomes!

the weather folks have been making a bit of noise about some moisture coming into the area next week - - - but it's not promising. most likely just going to be dry through the end of feb and into march when spring begins to move in...

tonight's the cotton bowl! LSU and texas a&m;! i'll be watching....

hope everyone has a nice weekend!