This Is Ragnar Danneskjöld Speaking

My experience with government idiocy

2014-07-15T21:12:00.001-07:00

About a year ago my life had come to a crossroads of sorts. My business had taken off to a point where I could no longer stay at home full time and take care of my two little girls, and provide good service to my clients who were coming out of the woodwork to do business with me. Although I enjoyed my time as a work at home Dad, I saw a chance that if I were to play my cards right, that my wife and I could fulfill our goal of getting her home full time. So a plan was set into motion. We would hire a full time Nanny, while I ramped up my business enough to replace my wife's income.

So we hired a Nanny. She is great with the girls, helps out a little on the cleaning up after them, does activities with them, and keeps them busy during the days. I went full bore back into residential real estate, and as I expected my income rose almost 35% in 2013. WOO HOO!! Yes! the plan was working and replacing my wife's income would have occurred about June of this if the growth rate continued. Then taxes time 2013 came, and after paying for the Nanny's salary, which I considered a business expense, I learned that in addition to NOT being able to write of her income as an expense, I also had to treat her as a Full-time employee, and owed the government Social Security and Medicare taxes. So that was 30K worth of salary that I had to pay income taxes on, then another 12.5% (I didn't surprise the Nanny with Hey, By the way, you owe the government 6% taxes on your wages) which was about 4K, so all in all I did all that work, was away from my family for about 10K. I was distraught. Didn't I do all of this so that we could eventually have a better life with my wife as full-time Mommy like she wants? Didn't I work every single day except Christmas Day with no days off, no weekends, so that we could make this happen? So I had to do something different, because this plain sucked. So I came up with another plan.

I drive a lot in my car. About 4-8 hours a day, so i have a lot of time to think to myself. In April of this year I had a singular mission: Get my wife out of a job that was going south for her, and into the job that she wants, and that I want for her. But how could I make it happen. As I mentioned I am a Real Estate Agent, so I know a little about buying and selling houses. I also know that moving sucks, so I had better come up with a plan that was so good that my wife would agree to go through that. So I thought and thought, and finally one day I came up with what I thought was a solid plan. I would sell our house, use the equity in it, and we would buy a farm. My wife had always talked about having horses and llamas, and I wanted a place that was big enough to grow some food, shoot some guns, and raise some livestock. We would become better prepared, more self -sufficient, and have less debt, enabling my wife to leave her job. i was already paying the Nanny 30K, so really I just needed to come up with another 25K of income or cut 25K in expenses. Not wanting to put this out to my wife, until I really had something to show her worthwhile, I searched for over a month for the perfect property. I found a few, but one finally met the needs, and had a cute house on it that was big enough and in perfect condition, for a model home in 1993. It was so dated, but obviously lived in by a cleanly grandma or something. Perfect condition, and I figured we could overlook the mauve carpet and shower. So finally I had my house that I could pitch, I had all the numbers down, and I made my pitch to my wife. She agreed to go look at the house, and it was a hit with her. 5 acres, and a cute well maintained house. She said yes, lets do it. Being the good Real Estate agent I wanted to get qualified for a mortgage before we put in the offer. The plan was to buy new house, move, then fix up current house a little and sell. Not sure if you've ever tried selling a house, but you need to keep it spotless, neat and organized. Spotless, neat and organized are not words I would use to describe a house with a 2 and a 3 year old.

So we finally got or pre-qualification letter, and I am about to make an offer on the grandma model home on 5 acres and I realize that it is under contract. Are you friggin kidding me?!?! That house was on the market for over 120 days and then suddenly when I have all my ducks in a row, it goes under contract. UGH! Ok. On to Plan B. I had found another farm, and this one had 12 acres, a barn, a stable, a second house, and a main house that needed some carpet and paint but overall was pretty good. Now to take the wife to Plan B. Well she loved it. Especially the barn and the stable. Horses here we come!! But this one is a short sale, which are always shaky. We made an offer, negotiated and got it under contract. Woo hoo! YES! So we waited and waited for the bank to either accept the offer (in a short sale the bank is taking less than what is owed on the property, and usually sends back a price that they will accept) or counter with what they will accept. We waited, and waited until finally the bank simply rejected our offer. Now I've been involved in at least 15 short sales transaction, and I had never seen a bank not counter, even if the counter is ridiculous, but alas, no counter. So we upped our offer price by 10K. Still rejected, no counter, and finally we offered the max that we were willing to go. At this point the bank tells us that we were high enough the first offer, but there was a second mortgage that would not accept a lesser payout. So we negotiated again, that the second we would pay cash to, and the first mortgage would accept our first offer. Then the second decided it would only release their lien if they were paid in full. All of this took over a month, and finally the first mortgage bank decided, OH YEAH? little second mortgage? We will just foreclose and you will get nothing. And so Plan B was dead, because it can take up to 2 years before a foreclosed house gets put on the market. It may have been sooner, but we had no time to wait around to see, because... while all this was going on, I was still searching for a backup to the backup, and had found another great farm.

Onto Plan C. Now this was a great deal, and it was a GOVERNMENT (this is important as you will see the stupidity of government in a moment) owned foreclosure. It was a great deal. A main house, a second house, a red barn with a loft, and a storage shed also with a loft, all on 4 acres, for less than 150K. Not sure what part of the country or world that you live in, but here that is a great deal. But there was something else that made it an even better deal... Freddie Mac had prices it as 4 acres, but it was actually deeded as 8 acres. Oh Happy friggin days!!!! So we offer something ludicrously low to get the ball rolling, it was countered, and we countered that. Long story short we went under contract at 132500, which is a great bargain. So there we have it. Our financing is set up, the house is in pretty good condition, but we would update and upgrade a few things, it was a foreclosure instead of a short sale, so the seller would want to sell, and all is great with the world. Until our home inspection, when we found out that some assclowns had gone into the attic and stolen the copper electrical wires. BOOM! Now our regular loan will not be possible. Conventional loans apparently do not exist on houses without electricity or plumbing, no matter how much we put down. So our ONLY option was to get a government loan. Now all of you who follow me understand my distaste for the government. As a matter of fact and record one could call me a hater of government. But what could I do?

So I agreed to do a Fannie Mae, FHA 203K Loan which allows for the repair and renovation of the house. Well since the electrical was going to cost about 4600 dollars, and we already had to get this type of loan, we figured we might as well renovated the entire 2 houses. New paint inside and out, new bamboo flooring, new ikea kitchen, new light fixtures, new plumbing fixtures, tile in the baths, new shower in the "Man House" (I dont have a basement for a man cave so I made the executive decision that the extra house was all mine. That seemed fair. ) New everything basically. Total cost for this was about 35K which would be included in the loan, which we were not going to have for very long anyway, because as soon as our current primary house sold we would drop that equity into that loan and refinance out of the GOVERNMENT MANDATED PMI. So being the (I'm trying to keep this clean, but I swear i wanna curse so bad. errr) Real Estate professional that I am, I searched for comparable houses to Farm C, and found the value as is to be about 160K We ordered the appraisal, and we held our breathe, because appraisal and appraisers are tricky. Due to DODD-FRANK, mortgage lenders no longer are able to just call up and order an appraisal. Instead they have to order the appraisal from a "warehouse" and then that warehouse just assigns the appraisal to whomever is up in their little appraiser cue. This is such a bad frigging idea, because it is best to have an appraiser that is at least moderately familiar with the area in which they will do the appraisals. This is rarely the case now, and I started worrying when I learned that the appraiser was coming from over 60 miles away, in a close in suburb of Atlanta, to appraise a rural property on 8 acres, with a second house. Appraisals usually take about 2-3 days to complete. 2 weeks after the appraisal was ordered I get a call from my loan officer telling me that the appraiser can not find any comparable houses, and cant complete the appraisal. Could I send her some comps to help him out. Now under Dodd-Frank, the appraiser is not supposed to even talk to the loan officer, and cant talk to me the agent or me the customer. So I knew when he was contacting her we were in trouble. No problem! I spent an hour finding 15 comps for this guy and sent them on in. YAY! Then he comes back three days later and says he needs comps that have a second house. BOO! As you can imagine finding houses that have a second house in a suburban or even urban area is a little difficult. Finding them in a rural area? Sigh. But never fear, me being the consummate Real Estate Pro I can find the comps, and I spent 4 hours pouring through mls data to find 4 comps in the area that had second houses. I sent them in and waited for 2 more days. Meanwhile, our contract was about to expire, and I needed to get an extension from Freddie Mac. They agree to an extension till June 20th, but every day longer than that, we had to pay them 50 dollars penalty. being that everything but this appraisal was already done, and we had about 2 weeks, I agree to that. then the appraiser called me directly to ask me how I found those additional comps. he had looked for carriage houses, guest houses, garage apartments, and found nothing. I explained that I searched for a second kitchen and then had to go through each listing to see which w=ones were in a basement, and which ones were not. Anyway...

So we finally get the appraisal in. It is good. The comps (he used almost exclusively ones that I sent him) were as good as they can be for a rural property, and the value was low (appraisers will always bring in the value right above where you need it, this way they cant be blamed if it gets foreclosed on and it sells for much less) but enough. 159K WITH the renovations. I put it at 160K as is, but whatever. It was enough to cover the loan, which is what mattered. So almost done! Just send all of this to the underwriter to get approval and we will be closing on time or even early. Until we ran into more GOVERNMENT and worse still, an IDIOT who is about as logical as a teacher that suspends a kid for eating a pop tart into the shape of a gun. That stupid.

I call this underwriter Apu, because I dont know his name but I do know he is an Indian (dot not feathers). So we need the file back from underwriting by the 16th in order to clear whatever stipulations he puts on closing, usually updated bank statements and paycheck stubs, nothing major, but because we are buying from the GOVERNMENT in Freddie Mac, they need 72 hours to approve the Settlement Statement, before they will release the property to close. The 16th came and went, as did the 17th and 18th, and not a fucking peep from Apu. I knew IF we got the approval by the 19th, there was a slight chance we could squeak the closing in, and even if not, no biggie 50 bucks, okay. Well the 20th came and went so we needed another extension, and we extended the closing to July 7th, because it wont take that long, but at least we have it in case we need it. On the 24th, we finally hear from Apu. The stips were as such: 1) A letter of intent to occupy the house. 2) Change a few things on the bid to be fixed. That was it. No problem. I wrote a letter of intent explaining how this proeprty would be an hour closer to my parents, would be a better commute for my wife, and since I grew up in the area would put me in a position to do business with my "natural market". We changed the little thing on the bid and sent everything back in in about an hour. We were ready to go live our dreams on the farm!!!

Caution: the rest of this will NOT be safe for reading aloud to your children.

Then Apu called me a fucking liar. I heard the voicemail that he left for my loan officer, which is why I know he is an Indian. " I do not believe that they are going to move here. they have another rental property that is free and clear and I believe they are lying about moving from the suburbs to this house in the country. I believe they will be using it as an investment property." You motherfucker!! This is my fucking dream and this cocksucker is calling me a fucking liar? Why would anyone want to move from the suburbs to the country? To BE FREE YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!! So my loan officer asked me if I could lease out my current house, get a lease on it so that Apu would be convinced that we were really going to move. At first I thought, sure, no problem. I have a ton of friends that will do a fake lease for me. Even send in a check for me to hold as my *wink wink* deposit. Then I rethought this. I would not let this cocksucker make me into a dishonest person because he thinks I'm a dishonest person. It took all my willpower but I told my loan officer that if this motherfucker thinks that I'm a liar than he can keep his fucking money. I sent an email to the loan officer where I had resigned from my HOA's Board of Directors telling them back in April that we were moving. Unless I really knew that some stupid ass douchenozzle would have questioned whether or not we were truly going to move back in April, I figured that was pretty convincing but apparently not to the absolute dumbest person on the planet. She asked me if I would list our house for sale. This way he could see that we were serious. So I thought, Ok. I was going to list it anyway, and if this convinces this assclown that I am not lying then so be it. So I listed my house which was NOT ready to show in any way. It is dirty. It is disheveled. It has boxes that are getting packed everywhere. But I will list it. I listed it for 25K more than I thought we would sell it for. I even put in the comments that only agents can see, "Do not want to show house. Putting it on the market to appease an idiot underwriter." Take that Apu! But this would not appease Apu. Then it was suggested that if I had it under contract perhaps THAT would convince Apu. Then Apu gives us another reason he wont approve the loan. He just doesn't "like" the appraisal. I ask my loan officer if I actually got the house under contract if she thought Apu would like the appraisal, since he was convinced that this rural property on acreage is a dream investment rental home? She said it probably would. So my house is a total wreck, but I said Ok. I'll sell the damned thing.

Meanwhile Apu decides that he just really doesn't like the appraisal. It doesn't fit FANNIE MAE guidelines because it only has 2 comps that have second houses, and one of those is 16 months old instead of the 12 month GOVERNMENT regulation for FHA appraisals.

Now I could send you 15 comps that have sold in the last 6 months, within a 3 mile radius of houses that are the same size and condition as JUST the main house, that have sold for over 150K, which is what we needed Apu to agree that the value was. But Apu thinks that having the second house on the property makes it "unique" and harder to sell. So what Apu believes is that the second house, which is a 950sf 2 bedroom 1 bath house with a kitchen and living room, which is actually attached to the first house by a breezeway, makes the property less valuable, and less desirable, because that is what the FHA guidelines say.
Did you get all of that? Yesterday i put a candy bar in my left hand. I put 2 candy bars in my right hand. I asked my 3 year old daughter, 'Which is more? She pointed to the one with 2 candy bars. I asked which one do you want? She pointed to the hand with 2 candy bars. Now if a 3 year old can understand this, why cant a 20 something year old man? Like I said. Apu is the dumbest human on earth.

So I was planning on going to Florida with my family for the entire first week of July, but I sent them without me, so that I could make the house look more presentable. I packed boxes like a madman. Cleaned everything so that I could actually show the house. Took out the Dont want to show the house bit, and really marketed the house to sell. This was on a Friday. I sold the house on Monday. NOW!!!! Apu had to know we were serious and were truthfully moving. But this was not enough convincing for Apu. Now he relied on the old, I dont like the appraisal, because it doesn't have enough comps that have the second house. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! FUCK YOU APU!!!! So my loan officer appealed to someone greater than Apu. Some sort of loan committee. We were awaiting the decision as to our fate from them until today.

Yesterday, I saw that the Farm B was on the market. I called and asked how quickly we could close on it. Pretty much decided to tell Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Apu to go fuck themselves. I'd buy from a bank and use a regular bank loan. I took my brother who is a contractor over to Farm B to make sure all was okay and it just needed cosmetics. It was all good. So I am thinking, no problem, we go back to Farm B, and we close in a month. Then my loan officer called and said apparently the committee had seen how stupid Apu was and agreed to do the loan for Farm A, BUT we have to close on our primary house first.

So now we have to find a place to stay while the renovations are done on Farm A, BUT Freddie Mac wants their 1500 bucks in late fees, and supposedly will not extend the contract farther than the 23rd. I dont believe we can close on our primary by the 23rd, so we may be out of time anyway. So I may not be able to buy a GOVERNMENT owned house, because I cant get a GOVERNMENT loan, because the stupidest human on earth wants to follow GOVERNMENT regulations even if they are quite impossible. I'll know tomorrow which way and which farm we will be getting. If Freddie Mac extends, then we will go with Farm C, rent a camper and stay on the property while the renovations are done. If Freddie Mac will not extend, we will go with Farm B and not have to deal with the government either with buying or financing. I;m sort of hoping Freddie is dumb enough to say no to the extension.

So government caused the problem, government fails in fixing the problem, and I'm left without a farm for the time being. Oh and for anyone thinking USDA LOAN MAN!!! Well that would be the perfect loan for this type of house. USDA loans are for rural properties on acreage, with second houses, barns and such. But in order to qualify for USDA loans one cant make over a certain amount of money. It is really low, and I believe it is 30K or so. Now how can someone qualify for a house with an income of 30K? that's government at work.

How "UnRandian" of Me

2014-01-31T17:48:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, January 28th Atlanta was hit by a snowstorm. Well to most of you a snowstorm involves more than 3 inches of snow but for Atlanta at noon, on a weekday 3 inches is a disaster of almost biblical proportions. Traffic was gridlocked as if a dirty bomb had been detonated and everyone was tryng to escape for their lives, and in a way that's how folks reacted, except that instead of roads to escape on, they had ice skating rinks. You get the picture? Not good. Not good at all. Well during my trek home which normally would take about 30 minutes, which on this fateful night took 7 hours, I found myself sitting in the car at an intersection about 3 miles from home. And we weren't moving. Having "not moved" for hours with only a few hundred feet at a time giving up ground, it finally caught my attention after 30 minutes that something must truly be messed up. So I got out of my car, and walked forward about 200 yards, where I saw a Coca-Cola truck in the right hand lane of a 3 lane road, with about 15 cars all piled up next to it, blocking all the lanes. On this night, there would be no tow trucks, no ambulances since nobody was critically injured, not that any could make it there anyway, and no police officers. In front of my car was about 6 cars before the melee, and behind my car was hundreds more cars just sitting there. About 200 yards behind my car was an opening that crossed the westbound lanes into a parking lot of McDonalds, an old grocery store turned gym, and a generic strip mall.

So I sprang into action.

I started walking back to my car, telling each person in cars at first in front of me, and then behind me, what was up ahead, that we were either going to get out of this jam or spend the night right there on the road. Luckily nobody behind me decided on spending the night, so I started with the cars that were nearest the crossover point, and was directing them as to which way to turn their wheels, and whether or not reverse or forward was the direction. The road was indeed a solid sheet of ice about 3 inches thick and I was only wearing some beat up running shoes that had about 5% of the traction left. Not a good combination for traction on the ice. So I started pushing cars up this little hill, and folks ahead where my car was, came to help. I was the leader of this little Ice Posse, and about 4 of us moved about 11 cars back up a little hill, and directed them across the other lanes of traffic into the Mcdonalds parking lot. Finally all the cars blocking me had been rescued, so I got in my car, out it in reverse and proceeded to back up, and pull over to the safety of McDonalds parking lot. I then went back across the "rink" to those people that were previously in front of me. Then some true idiots decided to ignore the fellow I had posted up at the turn across point, and came barrelling down on us, causing even more cars to be moved. (Slight aside: Some of these people were true assholes. I guess not seeing what me and the Ice Posse had already done to clear out so many others, they were not as appreciative of us having to push their sorry asses back up the hill.) So finally the Ice Posse got all of the cars that were not in the wreck back up the hill, across the rink of the other lanes to the parking lot and around to wherever they were heading.

One of the Ice Posse stayed up at the top of the hill waving his arms trying to get people stopped and across to where they could escape their icy fate at the bottom of the hill, but some people are oblivious to what is going on appparently and as I was finally getting in my car, aching and exhausted I could see the traffic moving back to where I had already cleared. Sorry. I've done what I could do.

Anyway, what the hell does all of that have to do with Ayn Rand?

Well, one of the motorist I was helping out took my picture and posted it to a local Fox stations webpage. She asked me what my name was and I told her, and I thought that would be the end of that, but apparently one of my friends found the post and posted it to facebook. "This Good Samaritan (name redacted) deserves some major props! He's parked his car across the street and is out here pushing numerous stranded people out of a disaster where a dozen cars slid into each other." That's when things went a little crazy. By yesterday, 6 friends had shared the pic, and the one that posted it on my page got about 112 "likes" and about 130 comments at last count. All but one of these comments were things like "Good job", "that's my friend", "heart of Gold", "A great example of an Eagle Scout". It made me feel good. I like to feel good; dont you? Then a certain friend posted another "good job", and immediately I started thinking of all the times we had argued politics and religion with her taking a statist/secular side and me being the world's only Ragnarian (a combination of Christianity and Objectivism- screw you I do what I want!), but I thought well that was probably a shock to her being that she generally thinks me a heartless bastard who wants old people and kids to starve to death because I see Social Security and Welfare as evil and a cause of the degradiation of society. But it was a positive post, but my mind quickly switched to Ayn Rand, and how many people whom, like myself often speak of selfishness as a virtue, and self reliance as the way things should be.

But of course she followed the comment up within 3 minutes with "How very 'Un-Randian' of you. What the hells going on with you?"

To which I replied that doing this was probably the MOST "Randian" thing that I had done in years.

And it was. To so many people, and perhaps some people who would consider Rand and Atlas Shrugged as influences on their lives, and the way they live, selfish means looking out ONLY for one's self. But this is not what I take away from Ayn Rand. I suppose I should say that I am NOT an Ayn Rand Scholar, and I have never read anything directly about Objectivism as a philosophy. But I dont really give a shit. I took from the books meaning for MYSELF. Anyway, I digress. To me being selfish means that take care of myself and those that are my responsibility because I have chosen that they are my responsibility. My children are my responsibility, as is my wife. All others, although I personally feel my parents fall under my responsibility, are optional whether or not I help them, out of not responsibility but out of generousity. Just because I do things that are in my self interest and make sure my RESPONSIBILITIES are taken care of doesn't stop me from helping others. I help others quite often, probably daily. Why? Because it makes me feel so damn good. I had my own self interest in mind as I started pushing cars up an icy hill, because if I didn't I couldn't get MY car out of there, but I went back after my car was out because it felt good to have an ability and to help others.

Another friend posted that "I was John Galt." Although that is flattering I think I acted more like Francisco in Atlas Shrugged. He had absolutely no reason to help with the furnace break out at Rearden Steel, but he jumped in and helped save lives and the mill. Why? If we "Randians" are really such a bunch of self-centered assholes, why did Frankie (his friends call him Frankie) risk life and limb to save others? Because he had the ability to do so and it feels great to use ability and to help others even when there is no self reward. The feeling is the reward.

So when I say that it was the most "Randian" thing I've done in years I meant it. I had the ability to lead, and to push, and although my body still aches a little 3 days later i can tell you that I felt more alive than I have in a long time. Gonna do a lot more of that in the future when the needs arise, because I am so selfish and it feels so good.

The most memorable event of my life.

2013-08-30T15:43:00.002-07:00

I am sure most people when thinking of what would be their most memorable would say the day they were married, or the day their kids were born. Well as far as the day I got married to She Who Must Be Obeyed, I remember everything up till the reception, and then it gets a little fuzzy. As for the day Dagny was born, I will never forget the first moment I saw her, the tears in my eyes, and holding her in my arms for the first time. For sure that was a day and a moment that I will never forget. I will write more about that day at another time, as that is a very happy memory, but unfortunately our brains do not work that way. No our brains always brand into our psyche the bad things. Getting fired, getting divorced, losing a loved one, or having violence done upon you all can leave their permanent scars. These are the things that stick with you the longest. Having told very few people about this event, it seems strange that I take to writing about it now, but it is an important part of my life, and I would like to get it out so that I might move on to more positive things. So without further ado, the story of Denley Casto:

West Virginia is a beautiful place. It's a natural wonder that despite what some would tell you regarding the harshness of mining is still full of pristine areas that east of the Mississippi, is hard to find. I grew up in a small town surrounded a small college, although in truth, we lived so far out of town it's hard to equate that we lived "in" the town. Nope. Not my family. Our trailer (yep, that would be "mobile home" to a lot of you), sat out in the country on about 5 acres of cleared land surrounded on 2 sides with huge forests, and the other two sides with hayfields, which make great makeshift golf holes, using the 12 inch PVS pipes with a lunch bucket on their tops, that were the covers for wells that had been drilled as holes and pins. Our "backyard" was about an acre and a half of garden that we planted each spring and about another acre that we had to mow, at first with a push mower, then later with a Ford riding mower. Suddenly a horrible chore became something to fight over with my brothers to see who was going to do it doing because a riding lawnmower was like DRIVING!!! We were remote, in the country, in the boondocks, however one likes to put it, but we did have neighbors. The best neighbors you could possibly imagine. The most friendly, outgoing, helpful folks that you have ever met, and I tell you that I was "raised" by all of them. Most of the folks around were older people, either retired, or as close as people got to retired back then and there, which meant that they only raised 3 or 4 hogs a year, 1-2 acres of fruits and vegetables, a few dozen chickens, a couple heads of cattle, and a horse or pony. Retired to them, meant they didn't go to the mines everyday to a "real job". All of these folks had grandchildren that would visit now and then, and of course I would go and play whenever that happened, but even in between visits, I would go to their houses, walk right in (didn't everyone do that where you are from?), and go hang out with the old folks, help them with whatever they were doing, eat supper with them, then head home about dark. Some hired me to do things around their farms. I've done just about everything you can think of when you think of farms. I've weeded gardens, painted countless fences, cleared ponds of cattails, gathered eggs, cleaned chicken coops, tarred roofs, bailed hay (even better once I was big enough to drive the truck, since that made driving the lawnmower trivial by comparison) and fed slop to pigs and feed and corn to chickens and cows. I never had an "hourly wage" per se but I usually got about 10 bucks for a full day of work on the weekends. Trust me when I say that I was the "richest" kid in my family, though my brothers were 6 and 7 years older than me, and probably the "richest" kid in Upshur County, at least as far as I knew. I once made 50 bucks to dig a trench 18 inches deep, 12 inches wide and 120 feet long. I tell you I was friggin RICH!!! 50 buckaroos for just 1 week and a half of work? How could I have been so lucky? I bought Pitfall for the Atari with that, and no matter what you say, that was the best game of all time.

So my neighbors, and I call them neighbors though they were all a good 5 minute Huffy ride from us, were all what people back then and perhaps still do call, "Salt of the Earth" folks. I will assume that is some sort of Biblical reference, but to me it just means folks that you can count on, that you can trust, and that would literally do whatever they could to help you. I did have 2 friends my age though in the "neighborhood". Mitch Tenney and Denley Casto although Denley was 1 year older than us and at 6 and 7 years old that year means a great deal in terms of physical being. Denley's dad was Buck, and Buck plowed our garden each year, so that is how I met Denley. I would ride my Huffy to Denley's house and we would play board games, make elaborate trails and cities for our Hot wheels cars, cowboy and Indians, or war out on their land. They had a barn which was weather-beaten, full of hay dust all the time, and filled with hay bales that we would arrange into forts, bunkers, stunt hills, you name, and we built it out of hay bales. They had a corn bin too! For you city folks, a corn bin is the country version of a ball pit. You could get in and jump around, bury yourself and have fun. I spent probably 3 days out of the week at Denley's house and barn, until dark thirty or so, and then rode my Huffy back the dirt road the couple miles back to our house, usually in complete darkness. Side note- If you've never done so, go drive the routes you rode on bikes as a kid. Some will surprise you at the "car brevity" and some will impress you with how far you really did go. I'll save the story of Mitch for another day, but there are stories there as well. Let's just say that when I was a kid, my best friend pretended to be a black dude, 90% of the time. So...

In the fall of 1979, at the age of 6 exciting news came to our little part of the country. I boxing club was started up, and we met a couple times a week at Buck Casto's barn, where they had a heavy bag, speed bag, and even a ring with ropes and everything set up. Denley and I were sparring partners of course, as all the other "boxers" were my brother's age and well that wouldn't be much fun at all, although that did not stop my brothers from using me as a punching bag for the next 6 years or so, but that too is a story for another day. Each practice or workout, or whatever you call it when a bunch of kids get together and punch things and get tired to the absolute delight of their parents, my brothers and I would run to the Casto Barn, or FIGHT CLUB! As I romanticize it now, and walk home. So we practiced, all through the fall and into the winter, until finally we were all going to go fight in a real life boxing match on January 19th, 1980, which was the day before Ronald Reagan was sworn in, to put a relative time frame in mind. We practiced hard, two and 3 times a week, which although there was an adult "coach", for us younger kids meant we punched, jumped rope, until we could barely walk, which if you've ever had a 6 year old is a lot of punching and jumping rope. Winter comes early in our part of West Virginia, meaning that by November it is fairly cold, and by December it's really cold, and snow is possible if not probably a few times a month. But we still ran to practice and walked home in the snow. We never really thought much about it. About 2 weeks before the big boxing match, we were mostly sparring, which in 6 and 7 year old parlance means that we stood in the ring and threw haymakers until one of us got knocked down, or we couldn't throw any more punches being too tired. out. But we were focused, and we just knew we were all going to beat these other boys from wherever they may come from, and no matter what training or experience they may have. We had a calendar set up on the barn wall, which just had the number till the big match, and every day or that last week, we would gather round it and pull off another page, until finally the number was 1. One day until the big boxing match that was going to bring all of us to the big leagues of Sugar ray Leonard, and Muhammad Ali. So my brothers and I went home, this time driven by our Dad, you know; to preserve our strength for the big fight tomorrow.

January 19, 1980 had finally come, and I was excited as I could possibly be. Not only was I going to go box my first match and probably knock some kid out in the first round in about 6 seconds, but a special guest was going to be there. Now you have probably never heard of Tommy Franco Thomas, but in West Virginia he was as big as Ali and Sugar ray put together so this was a big deal. Side note- Tommy Franco Thomas got a title shot in about 1982 against Michael Dokes, and unfortunately was knocked out in about 5 rounds. I cried. That's all I have to say about that. So it's Saturday in West Virginia, and the big boxing match is to start about 4:00PM. They had my "bout" scheduled shortly after that, as they went from youngest to oldest, and then finally to the Golden Gloves official matches. I was psyched, my Dad was psyched, and finally we were in the gym of Buckhannon Middle School, and I had my hands taped up, my gloves were on, and I was ready to go make mincemeat of this chump kid who dared to come face me on my own turf. I am a little lion cub; hear me roar! So our little bout was scheduled for 3 2 minute rounds, and even back then I guess the safety officials or probably more likely our Moms decided it was a good idea for us to wear headgear. So there I go into the ring. I'm bouncing up and down, floating like a bee, looking every bit the Rocky Balboa that I was and then some, then the other kid came in. Now I'm not saying that this kid was not 6 years old. Maybe he was kin to Andre the Giant or something, but he was at least a head taller than me, and probably had me by 30 pounds. Then again, I was sort of a scrawny kid, and maybe I was on the short side as well. Well no matter. I was going to decimate this Giant once and for all for the pride of Sago!

Ding! Ding! The bell rings, and this kid is on me like an animal. He is "boxing", which to me meant that he actually punched straight out in front of him. I was getting pummeled pretty badly and my head was all goo-goo quickly. Luckily the side training of my brothers kicking the shit out of me regularly must have toughened me up at least a little, because this was getting ugly quickly. DING! DING! The round is over. What a sweet sweet sound that bell was. Even to this day I remember this event whenever I hear a bell like that. So I am in my corner, all whooped and tired. If I did any punching that first round, I can’t recall any of them. It was mostly protecting my face from getting pulverized. My Dad was in my corner, and I will quote him, as it is as fresh these 33 years later as it was then. Side note- My Dad did some weird things for the navy back in the day. I'm not really sure what, but it wasn't peeling potatoes. Anyway.... My Dad says, 'well goddammit (probably my Dad's favorite word after 'the") are you going to fight or are you going to just get your ass whooped?" Me: He’s bigger than me. Dad: "You get your ass out there and you swing until you can’t swing anymore and you knock him down, because I think he wants to kill you. Screw that boxing shit and go out there and fight and kick his ass." Me: Okay.

DING! DING! Round two commenced. "Hulk" came out with his proper boxing stance and was moving in to finish me off, and I just went apeshit on him. I threw haymaker after haymaker until finally I caught him square and poof, down he went. He got back up, and again I started wailing like a little Tasmanian Devil, until finally I knocked him down and he didn't get back up. Now mind you I did NOT knock him out. I think I scared him so much he just decided to stay down there until the 10 count, rather than have to come back at this little maniac. DING DING DING! Match over, and I go to the middle and have my hand raised as the vicious little rascal that I was. I got a trophy that I still have to this day. It's about 6 inches tall, but it was at least 2 feet tall when I got it. It must be a magically shrinking thing or something.

So I watch the next bout which was Denley and another giant from Webster Springs. Must be something in the water down there or something! So Denley and this other kid fight all 3 rounds, and apparently at this age level, if there is no knockdown or obvious winner it is called a draw and they both get trophies. So Denley and I were done with the fighting part of the fight and were walking on air as we walked around the gym, and found a place to sit. We watched our brothers fight, and they all did pretty well as I recall, with nobody getting their asses kicked or anything. A little more actual boxing was going on here, so that was interesting to both of us "swingers". About 7 o'clock we decided we had watched enough boxing and decided we would go across the street to Spudnuts. For those of you that do not know what a Spudnut is; it is a doughnut that is made with potato dough instead of wheat dough. Pretty damned tasty if I recall correctly. In actuality, Spudnuts was a small diner that had a couple pool tables, about 4 video games, and probably sat 15-20 people at a low counter with small, red sparkly cushioned stools that swiveled around, at least until the owner made us "stop our damned spinning". So Denley and I were excited, and we had a couple dollars that I brought just for this occasion and we started running down the parking lot and across the street to Spudnuts. I remember us racing towards the bright lights of the building which was about 200 yards from the gym doors, and across the 2 lane road. It was already dark in the cold winter night, but we were all jacked up on victory and being 7, well at least almost 7. We were racing at full speed and being a year younger, and that year meaning a lot in a boy's speed, and me being slow even as a skinny little guy, Denley had about a 5 yard lead on me in no time. I was trying with all my might to catch up as I looked to the left and saw the cars big headlights bathe Denley with what seems still to this day a spotlight. Denley was hit and knocked almost 100 yards down Route 33 in Buckhannon, West Virginia. Though the lady driving the car hit the brakes immediately, it was not quick enough to stop a car from hitting a running boy of 7 years old. I stood there and watched, as my best buddy and friend laid on the blacktop of that road. I ran up to him, and he was already gone. People came around, and were looking and trying to help him. Police came from inside the gym, and were there within a minute. I remember the lady driving the car screaming like a crazy person, and falling to the ground, sobbing. I didn't cry. I knew he was gone, but I also knew that I only was alive because I couldn't keep up with him. My Dad came out and picked me up off the ground. I can’t remember him ever doing that before or since. AN Ambulance was there in a quick minute or two, and they loaded Denley on the stretcher and had him inside the ambulance and gone in minutes. Apparently Denley was not dead, or at least not officially dead right then. My Dad went and put me in the truck, and drove us all home. I went straight to my bedroom that I shared with my brother, and climbed up into the top bunk. The quilt that I had was homemade by one of my surrogate Grandmother neighbors, and was brown squares on a white background with little knots of red yarn in the middle of each square. About 10:30 or so, and I am just guessing on that time, but it sounds about right, I heard the phone ring at the house. My dad came in and told me that Denley had died. He said, "I'm really sorry buddy", which in my Dad's parlance meant a lot. He left me alone, and I cried for my best friend.

A few days later I went to the funeral for Denley Casto. I was afraid to go, because I was scared that Denley's Mom and Dad would not like me anymore, or blame me since I was with him. But that fear was misplaced, as they both got down on their knees and hugged me at kid level. They said that they were so glad that I didn't get hurt with him, and that he had loved me, and that I was always welcome at their house. I cried a lot that day. There are many feelings in the heart of a 6 year old that are exaggerated, but I can honestly say that pain was real, and deep. I feel it to this day, and am thankful for the life that I have. Sometimes not winning the race can save your life.

So what happens now? The political shrug

2013-02-28T05:35:00.000-08:00

I realize that some of you that follow my adventures, rants, tirades, and snippets have possibly noticed that I've been absent lately. Not only from long pieces, but even short comments. I've allowed the debt ceiling cave, the immigration amnesty push by Prince Rubio, the confirmation of a douchenozzle who apparently is an idiot Jew hater to boot, this entire Sequestration bullshit, and just about every other thing pass by with not much comment. Have I lost my passion? Have I lost my will to fight? Yes, and no. I cannot financially shrug. I cant just walk away from the business I've built and continue building, because I want to provide for my family, in the best way that I can right now. But I can politically shrug, and have done so as much as I can. One could go mad very quickly trying to figure out why the GOP sucks so badly at just about everything, but in truth it is really simple to understand. They are in on "it".

I derided those who tried to tell us that there was no difference in Romney and Obama. Well they are still wrong. There is a big difference between Obama and Romney, and there is a big difference in the GOP and the Dems. The difference is what they say and how they say it. And that's the extent of the difference. They say the opposite things, but they DO the same things. they both spend money that they don't have, and have to borrow. They both talk about cutting spending and instead increase spending. They both denounce wasteful spending, yet continue to vote for it. They both pander to those on each side of the political spectrum but remain firmly in the mushy middle. And they both suck. So once you understand that they both suck, and that neither is going to do anything good form our point of view, a political shrug is pretty easy.

I've stopped worrying about the politics that is happening in Washington DC. They are a bunch of assclowns, but they are smart enough to convince some of you, that they WOULD change things, yet those evil Republicans or those evil democrats are standing in their way of getting anything meaningful done. And if we would just send more of them, then they would be able to accomplish so much to make our country better. But they wouldn't. This was proven in 2008-2009 when the Democrats had complete control of the government. They could have passed anything that they wanted, yet they didn't. The GOP had majority control in 2000-2002, then a short time again in 2004, and did they use that time to cut government, lower regulations, and make us in any way better? No. They spent more money on brand new programs, and got thrown out on their asses in 2006 by those of us that realized they were no better than the Democrats. But it is all a ruse. They are all in on it, and we are the suckers to believe that they are anything but deceivers They go on the talk shows and they say what they think their followers would want to hear, but in their minds, if not in their hearts they are laughing at us all. They don't give a shit about you. They don't give a shit about anything but one thing; remaining in office. If they can appear that they would do something, then perhaps enough people will be dumb enough to buy their bullshit and reelect them. And it works, as more than 90% of Congress gets re-elected.

So I shrugged. I understand now that none of these people are any good. If they are any good they are sent out tot he sidelines as pariahs of unreasonableness. For every 1 good Senator, there are 30 bad ones, who will push the good one to the worst committee assignments, will help primary them so they can get a go along to get along type in there that will not rock the boat. It's a disgusting pit of vipers, but it is what we have. 535 assclowns all working together to do as little as possible, and remain in power. Once you figure out that I am right on this, things will be much happier for you. It's like the old serenity prayer. Accept the things you cannot change. This is something you cannot change. For every Ted Cruz, or Rand Paul I will name 10 douchebags that have the exact same power as they do. So what is one to do? Post 50 or 60 posts about how bad the Democrats are? Post another 50-60 posts about how this guy or that guy is "fighting" for an issue you support? Well I tell ya friends, you can wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.

So have I given up? Nope. Just preparing for the inevitable. I have accepted what I cannot change, and have found more peace preparing for the inevitable outcome of a 16 Trillion dollar national debt on it's way to 22 Trillion in the next four years, the rising taxes, and the pension and retirement account grab that will be coming down the pike. The day of account will be on us soon. It's simple math. We cannot continue to spend at this rate for much longer. Whether the collapse happens in a year or 10 years, one thing I am positive of, and that is NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! And if there are one or two that would like to fight for change, they will be destroyed either by the media or their own party members, even though in reality they cant do anything to stop it anyway. The train is coming. Will you stand in the middle of the tracks defiantly yelling at it, "This is unconstitutional !!", or will you understand that that doesn't matter to them and get the fuck off the track so that it eventually crashes, and you can come back in to build something anew?

I'd like to stay disengaged, but I will probably relapse once in a while back to caring and thinking that I could make a difference. I can make a difference to my family and my friends by preparing for what is to come, instead of bitching about people who don't give a fuck about any of us. I give a fuck about you, and I will try to help you if I can, which is more than what they will do. There comes a point in every person's life where they come to an understanding about the way things are in their personal lives, their local lives, and their national lives. I've come to that point. This country is lost. It will be rebuilt, but it will never become better than it is right now, because there is nobody in Washington DC that can lead us out of this. They are all in on it, and are simply riding out the end. As in Atlas Shrugged, the Wesley Mouchs and Jim Taggarts, and Oren Boyles all sat there trying to hold their little pieces of the pie together even when they knew it was all collapsing, so do the Harry Reids the John Boehners sit and try to hold what little modicum of power and prestige they have now.

So join me when when you figure it out. Fight if you wish. Put your hope in any politician that says the right thing on that one issue that is important to you. Meanwhile I will be enjoying my new found peace in acceptance that there is no hope left until after it all collapses.

Santorum is George W. Bush not in disguise.

2012-02-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

Okay. Just going to throw this out there that I like President Bush. Seemed like a good guy. Heart was in the right place as far as keeping us safe, and all, and was overall a good leader in one of the most trying times of our history as a nation. However, I was not one who overlooked his spending habits, his new agencies created like Homeland Security and with it the TSA. I was never in favor of No Child Left Behind or Medicare Prescription drug benefits entitlement. I was never in favor of spending a shit tone of money that we had to borrow. Never. Notice how I said I liked President Bush? Honorable guy. But Rick Santorum HAS exactly the same governing phillosophy as George W. Bush. He supported, wrote, voted, and campaigned for all of those new agencies, programs, and all the spending. He NEVER once stood up and said, HEY GUYS THIS ISNT making government smaller, it's making it bigger which isn't what conservatives do.

Now Maneesh Bhatnagar has said that I have an irrational hatred against Rick Santorum, but that is only half correct. My hatred of him is not irrational. I used rational logic that what brought about the changes in 2006, when Nancy Pelosi took control of the House of Representative, (when Rick Santorum lost his Senate race by 18% as a two term incumbent), and in 2008 brought about the election of a far extreme leftist, and bigger Democratic majorities were made in the House and the Senate, were not the cause of the American People who were tired of wars in the Middle East, nor the economy which although it was portrayed as horrible by the press was actually pretty robust until it was apparent that Obama would win the election, when it tanked. It was the spending, the deficits, and the bigger government brought on by the GOP from 2000-2006. They did not have a big majority in the Senate but were eager to pass some laws now that Clinton was gone, so they reached across the isle to reform education, and they reached across the isle again to sure of Medicare. It's like they could not help themselves. YES Education needed reform, but doubling the size of the Department of Education with No Child Left Behind, wasn't the "conservative" solution. It was the big government solution, that they should have known NEVER WORKS! The same is true with Medicare Part D. There was an issue, but was the free market solution which would have been the conservative approach used? No. More big government, top down bureaucratic nonsense.

So why my rational hatred towards Rick Santorum? Because Rick Santorum is the Poster Boy for this era. He was right in the middle of all these debates, and did he fight for conservatism? EVER? No. Now if all Conservatism is is being anti-Abortion, then Rick Santorum lead the way. He has been a standard bearer of that issue forever. But he has never been ANYTHING but a big government, we can solve things from up here in Washington type of politician. NEVER. Look at his voting record. Time and time again, he voted to spend more money, create more government programs, and create a huge Top down federal behemoth that we have today. I am sorry, but no matter how much he loves babies, he is not a conservative. He is a Pro-Life Big Government politician, and is very similar to George W. Bush. Like I said. I like President Bush, I think he did a pretty good job, but there is absolutely NO WAY I would want another President that has his same ideology again. If by chance that Santorum could win the general, and my personal belief is that he cannot, then THIS will become what the general public think of as "What Republicans do, and what conservatives do." If that is the case then we lose forever.

Say no to Santorum.

A football analogy.

2012-01-31T07:26:00.001-08:00

Sometimes we lose sight of the war as we focus on battles. This one is Mitt vs. Newt, or Newt vs. The Establishment, or Obama Vs. The Free market, but those are simply battles in the larger war. There are two sides to this battle. One that would like us to be a big government top down society and one that wants us to be as the founders intended with a smaller federal government, more state centric Republic. This battle has been raging since Jefferson and Hamilton, and heated up with Wilson, caught fire with FDR, raged with Johnson, and went nuclear over the past 20 years. We are losing the war at this point. There are but a handful of elected officials in DC that are fighting for our side. The opponents have the propaganda arm in the media that helps sell their message of dependency. The other side is waging a ground war for the hearts and minds of the people, moving forward to a European Socialist style society. THEY ARE WINNING!!!!

How do I know they are winning? Because when one thinks of this as a physical battle ground they have been inching towards victory for the past 100 years, taking huge chunks of ground.

Being Super Bowl week, let’s tell of a story of the past 100 years in the form of a football game. One end zone being a country that our founders set up and the other end zone a country that Marx would set up.

The Liberty Team kicks off through the end zone and the Socialist start with the ball on their own 20 yard line.

They won a huge battle in 1913 with the passing of the 16th Amendment. This gave them POWER over the people's money. We were to work, and produce for ourselves, but THEY were to be paid first. Our production was OWNED by them, and the LET us keep some of it. The Federal Reserve is set up, to control monetary policy. The Defense is pushed back 20 yards.

Then the 17th Amendment was passed the same year. Probably was not seen by the people as a big battle lost but it was necessary to consolidate power at the Federal level. The Senate was set up to represent the states AGAINST the federal government, but with the popular election of Senators, the Senate morphed into a Federal Arm, instead of an arm to protect the states. The Defense loses another 10 yards. 1st and 10 for the Socialist on the 50 yard line.

Then the Great Depression happened, and those that were starving, out of work, and desperate were easy prey to those that wanted a huge government. Social Security was passed, Payroll taxes were collected directly from people's paychecks, new programs and agencies sprung up overnight, FDR stacked the Supreme Court with Justices that expanded the Interstate Commerce Clause to virtually mean the Federal Government was THE ruling authority in the US. Huge advancement on the field, never to be regained. And with each big play, smaller ones were lost in between, and the side for freedom, gave a few yards at a time. Big pass play for the Socialist, the defense gave up 20 yards. 1st and 10 for the Socialists at the Liberty 30 yard line.

Had the Liberty team scored any victories during this time? Sure. Very small ones. They stopped the Socialist Offense on a couple of downs, but in general were giving up 1st downs left and right, and the Socialists never had to punt. Then LBJ came along. Great social upheaval with the Vietnam War, The Civil Rights movement, easy time to go for a big play. SO the Great Society with Welfare, and Medicare, and Medicaid was passed. The straw that broke the camel’s back really. The Social Security Act of 1965 is absolutely the number one program that has doomed us. It has changed not only our country economically, but socially. We officially had given in to the thought that government was going to take care of us. If we didn't have money for medicine, the government would provide medicine, if we didn’t have money for food, the government would provide food, and if we didn't have any money to live the government would provide that too. 25 yard end around for the Socialists, 1st and goal on the 5. They tried and tried to punch it into the end zone, but there were just enough people backing the Liberty team that their efforts of Universal Healthcare was thwarted, and they could not overcome the power of the individuals that would stop them. Turnover on downs.

So in 1980 Ronald Reagan found himself working out of his own end zone, 1st and goal on his own 5 yard line. He passed tax reform, and the ball was moved out to the 10. This gave them (and capitalist) a little room to play with, so he went huge on offense. Suddenly the fans began to believe that indeed Liberty was the best team, and more gains were made, but then Reagan was taken out (knee injury) and the backup quarterback was put in. He had watched for many years how things worked and how well things were going, but he (GHWB) decided to give up some of the ground that Reagan had gained. He then punted but it was a squib kick out of bounds at the 15 yard line. The people booed and demanded a replacement.

So they brought in a baddass linebacker (newt). He was a little erratic, was a little brash, but had a bunch of sacks. So the Socialist (Clinton) tried to score on the first few plays from the 15 yard line. A pass into the end zone (Hillarycare) batted down by the linebacker. The next play the linebacker sacked the quarterback (cut spending), for a loss of 5 yards. The next play was another sack by the linebacker (welfare reform) for another 5 yard loss. But the cheerleaders on the sideline started screaming that the linebacker was a bad person, and shouldn't be allowed to play. The crowd booed him although he was the only one on the Liberty team that was actually not only stopping the Socialist Offense, but costing them yards. But his own teammates didn't like that the crowd was booing the Linebacker and the whole team because the cheerleaders had convinced the crowd that what the linebacker was doing was evil. So the Liberty Team decided to bench the Linebacker so that the crowd would like them again. But it didn't work, so they gave up 5 yards on purpose to win back the fans, but that didn't work either.

The Cheerleaders still were convincing the fans that the Liberty team was the cause of all their problems, and the Socialist team brought in a new Quarterback to punch it into the end zone. He completed his first pass (Obamacare) because the Liberty defense had already given up except a few players that still believed they could keep the Socialist team out of the end zone. But the Liberty team was on the 3 yard line, and they were tired. But something amazing happened. The crowd started ignoring the cheerleaders, and started rooting for the Liberty team. They screamed that they didn't want the Socialist team to score and win the country for the Socialist. But the crowd was split. Part of them said bring back the linebacker to stop the touchdown, but many of them said no bring in this other guy, who use to play for the Socialists, but now says he wants to play for the Liberty team. So the New Guy was saying that the mean nasty linebacker was even meaner and nastier than he ever really was. He says that he didn’t break up that pass, or sack the quarterback, but that he only did all of that because the rest of the team made it possible. He points out that the mean old nasty linebacker drank from the Socialists water bottle and this proves that he really is with the Socialist team now. The Mean Linebacker tells the people, I’ve stopped them before and I will stop them again. I’m sorry that I drank from the Socialists’ water bottle, but I was ostracized by the Liberty team. The Liberty teammates said NO Bring in the New Guy, because the people hated the Mean nasty linebacker, but really they were thinking that the mean nasty linebacker made them work harder, and expected them to do well, but the New Guy wouldn’t push them, and if the Socialists scored they could always point and blame at the New Guy.

And here we are. The Socialist team is on the 3 yard line. Do you pick the mean nasty linebacker who thwarted the Socialists’ offense before, and gained ground for the Liberty Team? Or do you choose the New Guy, who was playing for the Socialists until 5 minutes ago?

Top 5 Lies and other obfuscations of Obama’s Last State of the Union Address.

2012-01-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

1) "We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda's top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home."
Victory in Iraq? Well yes we may have had victory in Iraq, as a matter of fact thousands of US troops paid the ultimate sacrifice there, and the American Taxpayers spent Billions if not a Trillion dollars for victory there. You were handed a victory in which the insurgency was over, and all that was left was to put together a coalition government, and secure the peace, but of course you failed miserably at this. You sent Biden to negotiate for the peace, which would have included leaving about 2-3,000 US troops as a security force for the new government, but Biden pissed everyone over there from the Kurds, to the Sunnis and the Shia, and we did not “pull” our troops out of there after securing the peace, you failed to negotiate for a workable peace, and we were basically told to get out.

2) We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules."

This “shrinking middle class thing is a hoax. It doesn’t exist. You did tell the truth when you said a growing number of Americans are barely getting by. You are the cause of it, not the rich people in this country. The poor do not get poorer because the rich get richer, the poor get poorer because you try to punish the job creators, and saddle the businesses that may have hired those poor people, with gigantic new expenses like Obamacare, and ridiculous regulations that have those that WOULD create jobs, to wait until you are out of office. The one thing more than any others that you President Obama have done to increase the number of unemployed people, the number of welfare recipients, the number of food stamps recipients, is through your first 2 years with the implementation of Obamacare, and with your wishy washy rhetoric of making the “rich pay their fair share” and with the demagoguery against those that create jobs and opportunity, you have created an environment that it uncertain. Uncertainty about what is next for an employer. What will a small businessman’s tax rate be? What will a large businesses corporate tax rate be? What will Obamacare mean to the bottom line? Will only your supporters obtain waivers, or will others get them as well? A business is unlike a Democratic Party Planning Session. They do not make decisions that will only affect them until the following year’s election. They have projections 1 year, 2 years, and 5 years out. Decisions about hiring a new worker, or investing in another factory, or whether they should outsource jobs are all made years in advance. Not one single policy that you have passed since you came into office has given ANY business reason to believe that their opportunity is greater in the future here in the US. None. You are a hindrance to business growth. You create the atmosphere that THEY are bad, and the WORKERS are good, and that it is their responsibility to give the workers a job, despite all the obstacles that you have thrown up. But that’s not how it works, and it never has, and it never will. It seems that what you want is a fascists, or socialist country, where the WORKERS are the reason that businesses exist, and not the other way around. People get upset when I say that you are a Marxist, or a Socialist, but sorry, Marxist is as Marxist thinks.

3) In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005. American manufacturers are hiring again, creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s. Together, we've agreed to cut the deficit by more than $2 trillion. And we've put in place new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like that never happens again.

You know you sound just like a damned gambling addict that only tells you about the 10K they won at poker, but neglects to tell you that they lost 11K the night before. American manufacturing is dying and has been dying for the past 30 years. Your buddies in the Unions have killed them off, so they reopen with a smaller workforce in a right to work state. With every regulation you put in place, with every cost you saddle employers with, the labor costs rise and manufacturers will find cheaper labor in 2nd and 3rd world countries that do not have such burdens.

4) "We should start with our tax code. Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and everyone knows it Second, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here. Third, if you're an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you're a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here. And if you want to relocate in a community that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help financing a new plant, equipment, or training for new workers My message is simple. It's time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I'll sign them right away."

Actually you liar, you said this last year too, yet you have done nothing to lower the tax rates on ANY US corporation, and instead vilify them for making profits. Again with this fair share nonsense? Here’s an idea chump; lower the taxes for all US businesses, do away with all the tax breaks for this company or that industry, do away with all the corporate welfare for all industries, and POOF! What do you have? Almost the free market. Winners will win, and losers will be out of business replaced by winners. You simply do not have the ability to understand economics nor the free market.

5) "Tonight, I'm announcing the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trade practices in countries like China. There will be more inspections to prevent counterfeit or unsafe goods from crossing our borders. And this Congress should make sure that no foreign company has an advantage over American manufacturing when it comes to accessing finance or new markets like Russia. Our workers are the most productive on Earth, and if the playing field is level, I promise you - America will always win."

Great another federal bureaucracy that wouldn’t be needed if you would simply kept us competitive in the world with lower tax burden, less regulations, and not hamstringing the US business with your mandated overhead. You see Chump, we Americans like to think that we are special, and that we are better people than the rest of the world. Well let me tell you a little secret. We are not genetically superior in any way. We do not work harder or smarter by nature. What made us the best people in the world was our belief and moral system. We were told that we were special, and we were because of the Freedom we had in this country. No place on Earth had ever existed like the US, where anybody, from any background, from anywhere could rise to the very top of society. It was called the American Dream, but in fact it wasn’t a dream at all, and should have been called The American Reality. We had the freest economy in the world. We applauded success, and those that strived to better themselves. But much of that attitude is gone now. Now success is vilified by you and your ilk, now personal achievement is met with envy and derision. People that succeed are called greedy, and claims are made that they are not paying their fair share. They are called fortunate as if they are lucky to be successful and the hard work they put in to achieve was some coincidence of fate they had nothing to do with. So no sir, the playing field is not level around the world, but frankly it never has been, and it never will be. We as a country overcame all the inequities and have ruled this planet economically for the past 100 years, because of our freedom, and with each new tax, with each new regulation, with each new government program, with each dollar that we borrow, with each story where the rich are vilified, with every accusation of greed to a corporation we are LOSING WHAT MADE US THE BEST!!! And as President Reagan said, you are not the solution to this problem, you ARE the problem. And as for improving the economy, for allowing those that want to work find it readily available and for making this country great again, take the advice of my literary brother John Galt, and GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR WAY!

Sorry folks. This was going to be the top 10 lies, but I couldn’t stomach any more of this guy’s crap.

One week to beat McMittens in Florida

2012-01-24T11:19:00.001-08:00

One week to beat McMittens in Florida- So the debacle that was billed as a debate has come and gone. I like many of you sat through the tedious and torture of it. After having some time to digest it I think that it furthers the cause of the defeated McMittens in a few ways. First, McMitten's attacks on Newt were not very effective. Mittens showed his mean side, and that was a very good thing for the electorate to see. Usually this wimp just sends out surrogates to do his nasty little dirty work, but he understands that his time is short and sees what he believes is his birthright slipping away. I mean if you had just blown 7 million dollars to build up an 11 point lead only to see it vanish in one day and be replaced with a 5 point deficit, wouldn't you be angry? So anyway, the well oiled weathervane came after Newt on Freddie and Fannie, using the historian line over and over again as if it were effective, when he knows well what a consulting firm in DC does. The same thing that Bain did with clients. They tell them, this is what is working, and this is what is not working, and we advise you to do x,y, and z. Whether or not the firm that is getting consulting listens or not is up to the firm. Of course Bain usually just did it's due diligence, bought the company, and cut, leveraged, and then filed bankruptcy. Dont you wish that you made money whether or not a business was profitable? Guess when you have the power of government on your side, and allow the government to subsidize your losses when you lose that's how the Romney version of capitalism works. Oh? You didn't know that Mittens company Bain got 43 Million in government money in 1994 (while Mittens was at the helm) to bail out a company's pension plan? Guess that is free market capitalism to Mittens. Go in, buy a company, break it apart, sell the pieces, and let the taxpayers pay for any damage. Well he made money for his stockholders!!! Well good for him. I am glad he made money for his investors as he pocketed money from the government. I'm not attacking capitalism, I'm attacking corporate cronyism, and corporate welfare, of which Mittens is certainly guilty of. So anyway....

So McMittens has known that he was going to release his tax returns and that they were going to show that he paid less than 14% in Federal Taxes on his income, and he couldn't come up with a better answer than, well Newt under your plan I wouldn't have paid any taxes. You see folks? People will try to say that Newt is trying to use class warfare against McMittens but the truth is McMittens uses it on himself. Need proof? His tax plan is to cut capital gains taxes to 15% for people that make under 150K a year. When asked why a lower cutoff than even Obama, he replied that successful people like himself do not need the tax break as much as the middle class. DID YOU HEAR THAT? DO I NEED TO REPEAT MYSELF? Mittens has not only bought into the narrative that the rich (he says successful but we all know what the hell he is talking about), but NOW THAT IDIOT HAS SOME SORT OF "RICH GUILT" and is selling it too. Need another example? Sure no problem. Last night’s debate he tells Newt that under Newt's plan he wouldn't have paid any taxes (stupid move by the way. Look McMittens we know you are rich, and we LOVE that you are successful, but why even put into people's minds that you would ever pay no taxes?), and NEWT OWNED HIM!! How? He simply said that instead of making McMittens pay more, how about we make EVERYONE pay Mitten's rate. BOOM! Now I know in the malaise that was that debate last night, that may have been overlooked, but see I have a sensitive ear to taxes and tax rates and such, and my radar is sharper than the Nautilus (yes I know the Nautilus would use sonar not radar, but that's how the quote goes, so bite me), but I digress. Do you see what will become of McMittens in the general? He will be bashed over the head with real wealth envy/class warfare incessantly, and his response will be what? To agree with them, act ashamed, and what promote higher taxes on the evil rich? Sorry McMittens fans. If this clown hasn't rehearsed this line 300 times in the past month he has no business being our nominee. He will be cowed into submission by a BILLION DOLLARS of negative ads. Every single person that he even had a remote dealing with that was laid off fired, or what have you from a company related to Bain will be trotted out. Now normally I would say, "BRING IT ON CHUMPS! CAPITALISM ROCKS, AND WE HAVE THE TRUTH OF AN HONEST BUSINESSMAN ON OUR SIDE!!!" But alas, I cannot say that because McMittens is such a wimp. He will melt under the fire, and we will be left with a squishy melted nominee that nobody wants, and will not support. We cannot afford another 4 years of Obama. We cannot afford to allow Obama to put 2 more Elena Kagans on the bench to replace Kennedy and Scalia. WE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN AS A COUNTRY!!! YOU MIGHT AS WELL GO TO CANADA BECAUSE EVEN THEY WILL BE BETTER THAN THIS PLACE AFTER AN OBAMA TERM WITHOUT RECOURSE.

Anyway, the choice is clear. Nominate someone that will take it to Obama, the libs, the lib media, and even the squish GOP (that's why they dont like him. They know their days of spending and wheeling and dealing like democrats is over), or you nominate McMittens who is so much of a wimp, that he cowers in shame at his own success, and buys into the 99% rhetoric. Newt hasn't attacked McMittens on class warfare, McMittens attacks himself.

Festivus- Airing of Grievances- Part one

2011-12-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

I would normally set this up with a long introduction, but honestly I can’t wait any longer to air some grievances, so without further ado, My official Airing of Grievances for 2011.

Grievance #1 Herman Cain

You have got to be fucking kidding me Herman. You were supposed to be the new Reagan. You were different, and you proposed the bold solutions that could have actually saved the Republic from the douchebaggery that has engulfed Washington DC for the last 50 + years. You had the support of the grassroots in this country, and you were EXACTLY what we have been yearning for since Ronald Reagan. A non-politician that was from outside the system that could actually change that shithole called Washington DC. And although it was doubtful that you could actually change those motherfuckers, I at least had the feeling that you would stand up there as President and call the motherfuckers out. And this was probably what leads to your downfall. You were the biggest threat to not only a liberal ideal of what a black man should act like, think like, and be like, but you were also a huge threat to the politicians that have used their position in DC to make themselves rich, and like being the elite that have the power in this country. So why am I pissed at you? Because you are loyal to a fault. Your campaign manager Mark Fucking Block is an incompetent idiot at best, and a downright scumbag at worst. He should have been fired exactly one day after the dumb ass smoking man ad. Let Mark be Mark? Let Mark be a fired motherfucker for being so goddamned stupid. Then the sexual harassment shit started. And again Mark Block was a complete incompetent in responding to it. You had 10 days head start, and he should have seen the tsunami coming, but he didn't and he was caught there with his dick in his hand when he needed a gun. Your loyalty also had you keep the absolute worst fucking PR manager JD Gordon, who probably should have been fired, but in light of that should NEVER be given a job more important that stuffing envelopes for a mail order company located in Kazakhstan. His interview with Geraldo on the eve of the Politico story is EXACTLY what FUCKED YOU UP MAN!!! I knew you were in trouble with that cock-sucking motherfucker had a job the next day, let alone for a week after. You kept using the line that you were going to focus on the problem, put the right people around you in order to solve the problem, BUT WHEN YOUR POLITICAL LIFE WAS AT STAKE YOU KEPT THESE TWO ASSCLOWNS AROUND?!?! You have got to be kidding me! This was your political test, and you failed miserably. A real leader? A Real leader would have took a step back after the first story came out, saw the effectiveness of your staff, and fired every motherfucking last one of these douchebags. Had you done this, and hired a real campaign leader, and press person, you'd still be in the race today and running away with it. Oh? You think that Sharon Bialik and Ginger White would have tanked you anyway? Well you fucked this shit up from the beginning. IF THERE WAS A THERE THERE, then you should have put that shit in your book. If there was no there there, then you should have sicked Lin Wood on these bitches immediately. If you are an innocent man, then you should act like an innocent man. Fight these fucking cunts, sue their asses, and clear your name. With Ginger White, release the actual texts, the amounts of money you gave her as a friend, and the dates. Otherwise YOU ARE GUILTY IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION BECAUSE YOU CHOOSE NOT TO FIGHT!!! Fucker! Anyway, fuck you Herman Cain. You could have been something that was great for this country. 20 years from now people could have been talking about being a Cain Republican, but you failed. You failed not because of your ideas, you failed not because of your intelligence, and you failed not because the left and their dirty tricks, you failed not because of the establishment GOP and talking heads, and you failed not because the American People didn't want you. YOU FAILED BECAUSE YOU WERE A PUSSY THAT DIDN'T FIGHT!!! I fought a lot harder for you than you ever did. Thanks a lot asshat!

Grievance #2 Rick Perry

Rick Perry you clueless dolt. Unlike Herman Cain, you have the total opposite situation. Your staff is stellar at making you look good, but you are so inept that you can’t put two sentences together on the fly. Before you even entered the race you were assured the top non-Romney spot, but people worried that another Texas Governor would be scary as another George W. Bush. Well our fears that we would get another George W. Bush was alleviated by the second debate. Rick Perry, you make W look like a fucking rocket scientist. I read your book Fed Up in preparation that you would be the nominee, and figured I should get a good handle on what you were about. Man, was I pumped up by that book, and couldn’t wait till we had a genuine 10th amendment advocate in these debates, and up against a bloated, disgustingly corrupts federal government that was out of control. Then your announcement speech came, and you said you were going to make government as inconsequential in our lives as possible. WOOT! YOU GO RICK!!!! Then you were off script in a debate, and it was a little disconcerting, as in "This is Rick Perry?" Then another debate and another "This is the guy that is leading with 31points?" Then the 3rd debate came and you just went crazy. The "You have no heart" line will go down in history along with the Howard Dean screech, and Dukakis saying he would be against the death penalty if someone raped and murdered his family. You may be able to pull off some sort of good old boy network wins down in Texas, with your Solyndra like crony capitalism, but it was totally visible to anyone that was willing to see, that you are a clueless empty suit. Your supporters will say that debates don’t matter, and you've never been a good debater yada yada, but that’s some water I'm not willing to tote. They will say that you are an awesome "retail" politician, and I think, Really? A good retail politician? So in other words we should hand over the country to a guy whose best attribute is that he has the ability to go out, give planned speeches, excite the fans in attendance, hire people to make snazzy ads, and shake hands? Are you fucking kidding me? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?! WE ALREADY HAVE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND HIS NAME IS BARACK HUSSEIN FUCKING OBAMA!!!!!! Prior to that empty suit assclown motherfucking son of a whore, we had another great "retail Politician" in the form of Bill Clinton. And Rick Perry is supposed to impress me by having the same goddamned ability to make people like him in person as tow fucking socialists? Give me a fucking break. So Rick Perry, you may be the greatest conservative leader the world has ever had since Reagan, and Thatcher, but we will never know that because you are without a doubt, the worst politician I have ever seen at thinking on their feet. You would think with being a lifelong politician that it would come naturally to you, but I guess Texans are more forgiving in their leaders as shown by the total lack of eloquence and speaking ability of you and George W Bush. Oh and by the way, I am not fooled by you at all. There is absolutely NO FUCKING CHANCE that you wrote Fed Up. You must be like Obama who had Bill Ayres write his first book, and have gotten a real conservative to write yours. Stay in Texas and continue to be the best fucking governor that has ever existed in this country, or do exactly what made you a viable candidate in the first place; stay out of the people that actually know what they fuck they are doing.

Grievance #3 Ron Paul and his worshipers.

At first glance one can like Ron Paul. I mean the guy is nothing if not consistent. He wants lower taxes a hell of a lot less spending, brought the world the message that the Federal Reserve is a problem, has been a problem and needs audited or done away with entirely, and believes in sound money and Austrian economics. Fucking A!!! But then he opens his fucking piehole on foreign policy. Now there is much that I like about his foreign policy. Shutting down a bunch of bases in Europe and Japan is a great idea. He should stick to the foreign policy and defense economics, but no. No, he has to go into his wackjob idiocy of how the United States and its interventionist foreign policy is the cause of 99.9% of the problems in the world, that we brought 9/11 on ourselves, and that the Jihadists have a legitimate beef. You sir are a fucking moron, and even if there is some validity in your ludicrous claims you sound like a code pink, cocksmoker when you say shit like, American soldiers have killed half a million innocent civilians in Iraq. Well you are wrong you fucking turd munching, American hating douche. Why don’t you go away, and buttfuck your buddy Lew Rockwell, and you guys can just enjoy all your time together in each other 's loving arms as you talk about how much you hate this country, and how evil we are. Fuck off and die you piece of shit. If you really cared about your cause you would have done the right thing and stepped aside, so your son who is not quite as batshit crazy as you, and hasn't been indoctrinated by as much Rothbard and Rockwell as you, could actually have a good effect. But no. Your ego, is Napoleonic and you feel that because you have convinced a bunch of stoners that you are 'the one" that you are somehow destined. Of all the crazy people in this country, I put you right in front of Charles Manson in your delusion of grandeur. You are without a doubt the absolute worst politician I have ever seen. Obama is skilled compared to you and he is so pathetic he can’t get out of the way of his ideology long enough to win against a now weak GOP field. You are also stuck in your ideology, and it isn’t some noble constitutional one, it is the Ron Paul ideology, which includes a bunch of leftover hippy 60’s make love not war, anti American sentiment, and you have been able to convince your followers that this is all according to the plans of the founding fathers. You have as much in common with Osama Bin Ladin, as you do to Thomas Jefferson, and cult leaders prey on the weak minded, so congratulations, you are now on par with Jim Jones. So fuck off, and take all your free love, no war douchebags with you.

Crazy Christmas Relatives?

2011-12-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

Okay. So we had already moved away from West (By god) Virginia a few years, and decided to go back to spend Christmas with my grandparents who were normal people. The day before Christmas we went to visit my Uncle Raymond. Well Uncle Raymond was not so normal, and his kids were definitely not normal. These were folks that lived on welfare their whole lives, and made money under the table making moonshine, searching for wild ginseng, and trapping mink, otters and other woodland creatures for their fur. So we get to Uncle Raymond's "house" get to the front door, where there is a screen door, that is just a frame. So they open the door, and we all just walk through the screen door frame, and go into the house. The occupants of the house always opened the screendoor instead of simply stepping through it.

I was about 15 at the time, and we had my little cousin with us who was about 8. We all say our hellos and such, and my little cousin needed to use the bathroom. Uncle Raymond tells me the lightbulb for the bathroom is on a string and I would probably need to help her turn on the light. So we go to the bathroom, I am reaching around in the dark for the string until finally I grab it and pull to turn on the light, and My little cousin screams a horror movie type of blood curdling scream. I turn around and Uncle Raymond has a Big ass buck hanging from the ceiling, gutted and the blood draining into the bathtub. Blood dripping out of the nose, and Bambi there looked just like Rudolph. Finally after about 15 minutes little Michelle stopped screaming and crying, as we assured her that santa would still make it even missing one Reindeer.

Later that day, as we were all sitting in the living room, "visiting" with our hillbilly kin, we hear a loud twaaaamp!! One of the crazy cousins was demonstrating his ability and skill with the bow and arrow, and decided the best way to do this was to shoot an arrow from the kitchen into the living room, and into a deer head that was mounted on the wall above the couch were my mother and I were sitting.

But wait... There's more from these crazy cousins. This is December in West Virginia, so not exactly warm. But later that evening, the cousins brought home "dinner" for us. It was 2 ducks, and having never had duck before, I was intrigued. An hour later, the Sheriff of the county comes and knocks on the door. My Uncle Raymond answers the door with, "What the fuck do you want now Chester?" ( i guess they were on first name basis and all). Chester informed Uncle Raymond that the neighbors "down the Holler" said that they saw Scotty and Bruce (2 of the crazy cousins), running away from their pond butt ass naked, and carrying their pet ducks by the feet. So the mystery of where the ducks came from was solved. Scotty and Bruce were given a game warden citation, (guess this falls under the "poaching" category) and we had to listen to them explain, in great detail, how they had gotten into the freezing water, swam underneath the ducks and grabbed them by the feet. (Who knew this is how one catches ducks?) Then held them underwater until they drowned. Lovely folks.

Anyway. We left without dinner, and went back to the grandparents house. I've never been back there again.

Advice to my niece about how to be happy and fulfilled.

2011-12-19T06:06:00.000-08:00

My niece who is just about worthless (at the current time), and absolutely clueless about the "real world" asked me a question yesterday. This is a girl who has very little self esteem and it is so very sad. I've tried to instill in her some self worth, advise her as to some books she should read, tapes she should should listen to (CD's I guess at this point), and in general I've advised her that only She can make the decision to either be happy or sad. She is always sad, and seems that there is always some physical ailment that she is suffering. So she asked me, "What 1 or 2 things do you do that make you happy, and fulfilled?" I guess she thought I was going to give a dissertation or something, but I replied back what I think is the secret to my life. Pretty short.

1) I have the absolute belief that my own happiness is up to me. My attitude is almost unwavering positive. Bad things may happen to me, but any feelings of sadness, bitterness, resentment, usually lasts at most a day, and usually only an hour, until I can refocus on myself and understand that I WILL MAKE IT THROUGH, AND I WILL WIN! That thought carries me through some real horrible shit. I WILL WIN! I just keep repeating it in my mind until it is as solid a belief, as saying, I am a man.

2) I have clearly defined, written out goals. I know where I want to be in 10 years from now, in 5 years from now, in 2 years from now, next year, and next month. Very specific things I would like to achieve. How can you every get what you want if you dont know what you want? A goal of "be happy" is not a goal, it's just a vague and ambiguous feeling you wish to achieve. I break my goals down into 3 categories. Financial Goals, Personal Goals, and Life Goals. The Life Goals usually are a mix of what I want to be as a business owner, a father, and a husband. The Personal Goals are usually health, spiritual learning, and intellectual learning. Financial Goals are definitely the easiest goals to come up with, and achieve. They must push you, but be just outside of what you believe is possible. I use to hit my financial goals for the year in about month 10, and I've learned to set them higher than I thought possible. Now I barely reach them, and a few times, have missed my mark by a little. That drives me harder. One thing about these goals, and it is something that is a new goal for this next year. I HAVE to balance my family life with my professional life. Although I have plenty of Dagny time, I want even more. This is important.

On #2. The best way I know of making sure I reach my goals is that I break them down to monthly goals, and monthly benchmarks to know if I will meet the yearly goal. Some folks may break it down by week, but I've found I get to geeky when I break them down that far. Monthly is fine with me, however, the #1 method of success that I know is to make a daily "STD" (stuff to do for some, shit to do for me) list the night before. I know exactly what needs to be done every day when I wake up. I tried to do this list in the morning, but it took up too much of my morning, and I just wouldn't even do it, so I would wander about aimlessly through my day. But then I started doing them at night before I went to bed. Stuff that didn't get done that day, stayed on the list for the next, and more stuff was added, ALL adding up to achieving the monthly goals. If I miss a monthly goal this month, the rest of the monthly goals to the end of the year get adjusted up so that I dont miss the yearly goal.

All of this takes very little time, although I will admit that my long term goal setting of 10 years, 5 years, and 2 years will sometimes take a few days to put together. Why? Because I do what I call dream building. Now dream building is different than Goal Setting, in that my Dream Building is more of an exercise of getting excited. One may put on a 10 year Goal- I will have a house on 25 acres, with a pond and a stream, that is cross fenced for horses, has a large red barn, and a basement bar, that leads out to a swimming pool that overlooks the pastures. So what I do in my Dream Building is that I go an visit a house that is similar to what I want. I can envision the swimming pool in the back yard if there isn't one, I can see the horses in the pasture, and where I would put a garden etc. Nothing is more motivating to me, than to actually see, smell and feel what it is that I am aiming for.

So anyway, back to my Niece:
I told her:
1) have specific written short and long term goals
2) Have a "to do" list written the night before, so that when you wake up you already know what will happen during the day, and you wont waste time wandering about aimlessly looking for things to do, or wasting time.

My nutshell version of a better heathcare system in the US

2011-12-14T16:55:00.000-08:00

Nutshell version- There is government healthcare (I'd get rid of all of it, but since we are looking at realistic solutions rather than my, "pay or die scenario) and there is private healthcare. And the two shouldn't mix.

Government healthcare- Includes Medicare, Medicaid, and VA. There are hospitals set up to care for this. VA hospitals suck, but really that is what the government does. It sucks at whatever it does. So. You have these government hospitals set up, people that would like to remain on Medicare can do so, and the money that they have paid into it goes into the government healthcare fund. As does the VA medical fund, and the Medicaid money allotted by the assclowns in DC. Staffing these places should be Docs fresh out of med school, who will work for 4 years at a salary of 40K, and when they are done with their tour, their medical school bills are paid for. Same with nurses, and other medical staff. Get people off welfare, by training them how to be LPN (I think this is the first step in nursing. takes about 18 months to get certified, these are the nurses that check your blood pressure, can help you to the bathroom), janitors, maintenance, cafeteria, laundry and all the stuff that is required to run a hospital. They get hand me down equipment from private hospitals that get to write off the donations on their taxes. So basically these hospitals are self contained, and the costs are kept to a minimum by trading federal money (money from welfare to now employment) and although the care will not be the best in the country, it would still be some of the best in the world, and nobody is 'left to die". You want the government to take care of you? Here is how the government can take care of you. Create smaller govt clinics that are more numerous to handle all the little BS that costs a fortune when taken to a hospital. Things like colds, flu, eye infections and the like. I hate socialism, but if this is what people want (socialized medicine) than we go ahead and give it to them. As it stands now, they are paying (or not paying) for socialized medicine, but are receiving A+ best in the world, state of the art medical breakthrough miracles. Sorry. You get what you pay for, and this is it.

For the rest of the people who do not wish to partake in the Government Healthcare System, they are not affected at all by the government system. In fact they are in the Private System which is run by private corporations. Insurance companies, hospital systems, doctors, clinics and all are in the free market system. Without government intervention the free market healthcare system will readjust to the government free market, and will raise lower premiums, and the price of services according to the free market. Medical device and pharmaceutical companies will do likewise. Healthcare costs in this country have skyrocketed over the last 40 years largely due to the influence of Medicare and Medicaid. Government only pays about 25-30% of the actual cost of procedures, and visits, so that means the healthcare providers had to make up that money somewhere, so that gouged the regular paying customers (insurance companies) and made the prices go up. Without the government mooching from the Healthcare providers, they can focus on a REAL business model, where profits and loss actually matter, and the competition from others forces the real costs to where they should be.

So basically give those people that want to live on the government teat exactly what they deserve (I'm actually torn on the VA medical system. I would probably keep them separate, double the funding of them {take the money from the other program} since they are really the best of Americans and deserve a hell of lot better care than they are getting right now) and get the government out of the private healthcare business altogether, so that THAT system can thrive and continue to be the best healthcare in the world.

AN Old piece that got me fired by a client

2011-12-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

by Ragnar Danneskjöld on Thursday, 25 March 2010 at 23:26

Social justice- What is social justice? I don’t know what it means to you, or Glen Beck, or your preacher, and frankly I don’t care. What it means to me, is that the poor, needy, less fortunate, underprivileged or whatever you want to call these people deserve our help. I believe that too! See I am one of you. I want everyone to succeed, live a great life, have all they want to eat, a great house to live in, a healthy life, a great family, love and happiness. I want that for everyone. Where we differ is that I believe that they should want it enough to get all of those things on their own, and frankly if they do not that is their failure, and their responsibility. I will help them if I can, and if I feel that they are worthy of my help. Liberals on the other hand, also want to help them, and have all those things, BUT instead of wanting them to do it themselves or do without, they feel that nobody should do without, and if they can’t achieve these things that they should be given it. Now perhaps some liberals are truly generous and they will try to help these people by giving their own support to these people, but there are more that feel that they have a right to take from one person to give to these folks. This is not right and it is not moral in my mind. How would they feel if I was hungry, and came to their house, with my gun, and robbed them so I could eat? Is that right? Is that moral? Yet they feel totally okay with having the federal government do that to me.

Health care-"This person can’t afford healthcare, so we should give it to them." Health care is not a right in this country. If you feel strongly that everyone deserves it, then by all means, sell everything you own, and take all the money that you make and give it to these people so that they can afford it. How can you support taking from me to give to them? Is that "fair"? You may believe in your heart that they deserve health care, but I tell you that I do not believe they do. I hear the arguments that they burden the whole system by not having insurance and getting the care anyway, thereby making everyone's cost higher. I have a solution. Do not treat them. Let them die. Oh, now I am really a heartless bastard. Yes, let them die, and maybe the next person who has to choose between getting health insurance and paying the cell phone bill, will choose the health insurance. Do you liberals understand reward and penalty? You reward good behavior, and you penalize bad behavior. Do you have any concept of consequences of one's own actions? If a doctor feels that he can give treatment to people without money or insurance, then let them. But if they choose not to work for free, why are they forced to? Are you forced to do work for free? Surely your time and effort is worth money. Why is a doctor, who has trained more than you any different. This is not saying that I do not feel that doctors that choose to do so are wrong. On the contrary, I find them to be noble. Using the liberal logic, where does this stop? I need some new business cards, but can’t afford to get them right now. Should a printer be forced to give them to me because I have a "need"?

The waste- You know I would not change my opinions on "entitlement programs" (even the name of this pisses me off. As if they are entitled to anything, which I do not believe they are), but perhaps if the billions of dollars were not spent (I say wasted) on pet projects, earmarks, pork spending, and worthless programs, I may have less anger about them. Building a road here, or a bridge there, or a hospital here, or a grant for studying this there. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! WE HAVE NO MONEY! We spend more than we bring in, yet you (both parties) spend money on all of these vote buying projects and gifts. How can 1 single representative or Senator justify 1 dollar of this BS? Pay for what we have to pay for first (things that are already in law, and in the constitution), then if money is left over.... SEND IT BACK TO THE PEOPLE WHO EARNED IT! These damn politicians see it as their money to dish out, and this is insane. All we are to them are machines that send them money. What is wrong with you people!?! Simple math you pandering crooks. You have a need for 1 dollar, you collect 1 dollar. You can’t collect 1 dollar then spend 5 dollars. Any 4 year old understands this principle, and family that has to do a budget understands it, yet time and time again you spend money that a) you do not have, and b) you didn't earn. What would you tell a person that makes 20K a year, and drives a new Mercedes, lives in a 500K house, has an iphone, 60 inch TV, cable with every channel ordered, and eats lobster and caviar every night then you find out that they have 80K in credit card debt? Would you not consider that person irresponsible? Yet we keep putting up with our politicians doing the same thing year after year. At what point will you say ENOUGH!? I am saying ENOUGH! Fire their asses. Why are we sending 1 single dollar to any other country? So they will like us? I feel bad for Haiti, but let’s let George Clooney have his telethon, and let people that want to give to Haiti, give to Haiti. Nobody from DC called me to ask if I wanted to give to Haiti. Maybe they called you, but I didn't get the call. Are we supposed to believe that the people running our government are intellectually and morally superior to us, and that they know how to spend our money better than we do. I think that the politicians should have had to make a phone call or at least mention on the floor the names of the 5 people that paid that 219K in income taxes. 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Ms. Jones, Dr and Mr. Brown, Mr. Thompson, Ms. Wong, we believe that this university needs this money to study the sexual habits of college girls, more than you need to send your kids to college, or buy a retirement home, or give to your church, or buy your first home, or buy that boat to take your granddaughter fishing. Maybe that would shame them into doing what is right.

The "stimulus" -what a bunch of BS. What exactly did it stimulate? Not the economy. Not the jobs in the US. Just 800 Billion of wasted money. Then they try to sell it from the jobs "created and saved" BS. Are any of you buying this crap? If you do, then frankly please "defriend" me, because you are not bright enough to be my friend. Want to stimulate the economy idiot? Lower taxes across the board. It worked for Kennedy, it worked for Reagan, and it worked for W after 9/11. It works! Every time it works, yet they won’t do it. Why? I can only think of one reason, and that is that Obama is set upon destroying the economy enough to implement more control. Control over the banks, the insurance companies, the car companies, and transfer power to Washington DC. Maybe I sound like some conspiracy nut, but if you can figure out a reason that Obama and his lot haven't done the one thing that has been proven to stimulate the economy, and gives private business the confidence and ability to hire people I am listening.
Bailouts- Let them fail! Whining that it would have destroyed the whole economy. Awesome! That’s what free markets do. They go up and they go down. When the government gets to choose the winners and losers, there are no free markets. Bailing out the auto companies? Hmm. Why GM and Chrysler, but not Goody’s, Sterling tucks, max factor, and Circuit City? Unions bought and paid for Obama, and he has their backs. In fact, when the Supreme Court decided not to take up the court case on the behalf of Chrysler bondholders, thereby allowing Obama to usurp contract law, I knew something had changed in the US. If you are not familiar let me enlighten you. Bonds have a higher debt precedent that any other in a bankruptcy. What does that mean? It means that when a company goes bankrupt that their assets are liquefied, and the bonds are paid first, then the class a stocks, then the common stock and so on, until there is no more money. Obama decided that instead of following contract law, that he would sign an order stating that the bondholders would receive 15% of their bands, and the union pension plan(which Chrysler borrowed form also) would be paid in full. Therefore, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg decided not to take the case to the court, she was thereby allowing Obama’s edict to be above the law. Travesty and it was widely ignored. I don’t even know that the usual suspects (right wing talking heads) brought it up. I am so sick and tired of the short term memory of the media. Look at the record. Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush!!!!! It’s all Bush’s fault! Yeah really? Funny how although the media had been crying about the horrible economy since 2001, yet do the facts support this? No. Unemployment hovered between 4-5.8% from 2001-2006, and then with the democrats taking back control of the congress in 2006 all the poop hit the fan culminating in 2008. Coincidence? Hardly. Then you have Chris Dodd and Barney frank pointing all the fingers at no regulation in the mortgage industry. That’s like those two standing at the top of a building, pushing a guy off, then blaming the pavement for killing him. The lack of regulation and the corruption of these two is amazing. How they are still in office and not hanging out in Levinworth is beyond me. Look I am not absolving W, but it seems a little incredulous that these assholes are talking about Bush’s deficits and his unfunded policies. UNFUNDED POLICIES?!?! Like the damn Medicare drug benefit program that you democrats said didn’t go far enough, or the “no child left behind” that you now berate, though it was Bush’s attempt at being bipartisan, with the manslaughterer Ted Kennedy? I hear the democrats say, you never said anything when Bush was spending like a madman but you would be wrong. I was screaming at the top of my lungs friends. Stupid spending is stupid spend no matter who is doing the spending. Not a big fan of W, but I am grateful that he kicked some ass and we never was hit again. The demonization of this guy is sickening. “Bush lied and people died.” You people are morons. Every time I challenge someone to back that bullcrap up, they whimper away to come back with some conspiracy BS. Screw you! You can all sit in your rooms smelling each other’s farts and telling each other how great yours smells, but frankly you are morons. Was bush perfect? Hell no! He should have had a better plan for Iraq. On Katrina, he should have done 1 of 2 things. My preference would have been to say, “I’m sorry for the devastation, but it is not the federal government’s responsibility to save the day, and unless we are asked by the Governor, we can’t intervene.” And after the rescue efforts are done say, “Hope ya’ll had insurance!, as it is not the responsibility of the federal governments to take care of you” What he probably should have done, was sweep in there like Patton into Bastogne, and saved them since he should have known that Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco were incompetent. Anyway, not a big fan of W, but the more liberals hate him, the more I figure he must be great.
All the corruption in DC is really disheartening. The democrats passed this health care reform bill using every underhanded trick they could think of. Through the bribery (why is nobody going to jail for this) special deals (oh the Unions do not have to pay the tax on "Cadillac plans" but everyone else does?) then this "reconciliation" deal? This common excuse that "the republicans did it" is so stupid it is hardly worth mentioning. This didn't work on my parents, but apparently it works on liberals. Look, you had a filibuster proof Senate and a huge majority in the house. You could have passed universal single payer and really I would have had less of a problem. Sure it would suck, but at least the rule of law would have been followed. It's disgusting how the democrats manipulated the system, but the smug looks on their faces will be smacked off soon. I hope that the Republicans do not follow their example on how to pass legislation that affects all Americans. They can do it. Trust me. They could do some really nasty things. My favorite though is that they could pass a bill that states, "Taxes will only be collected from VT, NY, MA, CT, NJ, DE, RI, MD, WV, MI, IL, MT, OR, WA, CA, HI, NM, CO, AR, and the current revenue levels shall be maintained." Huh? Well I am sure that the Senators and representatives from the exempt states would support that, and apparently special deals for certain states are no longer illegal. You hear the Dems whining about corporations that can now run political ads in support of a position or party, yet where has their outrage been when the unions collect their members money then donate directly to democratic politicians 60.7 million dollars to Obama alone from the SEIU. Where was the outrage then?

In Conclusion: Responsibility. People have to be responsible enough to take care of themselves, and to take care of the people that they care about. It’s not my responsibility to take care of your sick relative. It’s yours. It’s also our responsibility to put people in office that are responsible with our money, and do not spend it on buying themselves votes. I have a soft spot in my heart for children. To me children should be taken care of, and if their parents can’t take care of that for them, they should be taken care of, since they can’t control what sort of people that their parents are. I can hear people now telling me how people work hard and they can’t afford to take care of themselves. Well perhaps they are the most unlucky people in the world, but frankly they are not my problem, and they are exactly where they are in life due to the choices they have made. I understand that people have tragedies in their life, and I feel for them, but it still is not my fault, so I shouldn’t be blamed or penalized for someone else’s luck or choices. If you disagree, then by all means, sell everything you own, and give all your money, time and energy to them, and I will forever refer to you as a Saint.

Anyway. There’s my “hate speech”.

Amendment- And one last thing. Nothing pisses me off more than some whiney ass liberal who thinks that I sit in a room glued to talk radio and the Fox news channel, implying that I get all of my damn opinions from someone else. I am not them and I am certainly not you. When was the last time you wrote an original piece without just posting something from the Huffington Post, CNN or John Stewart? Do you just run around the liberal websites looking for some piece that will stir up the fart sniffers and enrage a few ideological opposites? I have been accused of being a myrmidon of Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and now Glen Beck. I don’t listen to these people, or watch their television shows. (If I do it is Boortz, maybe an hour or 2 a week) I do my own damn research trying to use primary sources whenever I can, although wading through the government bureaucracy and their websites are tedious at best. I comment on someone else’s link on what Glen Beck said about ‘Social Justice” So I take the time to go look up what the hell, ‘Social Justice” means, look into the background, and post an opinion. Then I get accused of following the Glen Beck Schtick. If anything that asshole is following mine. Just like yesterday. I come up with this brilliant plan to run the US as a corporation and give people 1 vote per dollar that they pay in taxes, then last night I hear Michael Savage say something almost verbatim. Maybe we are all a bunch of weirdos that think the same. Maybe that’s why all the liberals I hear sound the same, as they bypass issues, and go straight for the healthcare is a right, and pre-existing conditions are not a bad thing. Do you people even understand why the hell pre-existing conditions may be a concern from a company that is insuring your health? I tell you what, lets throw out “pre-existing conditions” on all insurance. Why stop with health? I think I would like to take out some life insurance on some dead relatives. Makes as much sense.

I’m done!

What will not be done to save the Republic

2011-11-29T17:59:00.000-08:00

So earlier today, in discussion with my friend Maneesh, I indicated that I was planning on checking out, and watching the collapse of America from afar. Maneesh indicated that he would stay and fight for the Republic, and indicated that all was not lost. This has weighed on me since this morning, and I wondered if I was being a puss, or a realist. So after many hours of focused thought, which for me is quite an accomplishment, as I usually have 6 to 12 things going on in their at one time, I decided to determine exactly what could be done to fight for and restore the Republic. So here it goes. This is what I see as the most important issues facing the US right now, what could be done, and why I believe it can not be accomplished. Overall, my doubts as to what can be accomplished has more to do with what I have witnessed over the past 15 years of following politics, and over the past 7 years, where I have been following it with great interest. So without further ado...

To save the Republic.
1) Spending in the United States. Spending must be reduced. Since 2006 spending by the Federal Government has increase 40%. For those that are governmnet educated that's 5 years. What has occurred in the past 5 years, that has necessitated 40% increase in spending? Housing crisis? Banking crisis? Whatever the case may be, there is a very good possibility that we could save the Republic if we could simply undo the spending increases of the last 5 years. All this talk of "spending cuts" is all smoke and mirrors. Cutting 1.2 Trillion dolllars from the next 10 years projected spending excesses of 10 Trillion is like saying, I was planning on gaining 100 pounds over the next 10 years, but instead I will only gain 90 pounds. YAY! We lost 10 pounds!!! Can you see the lunacy in that? if not you are definitely a liberal or an idiot. You pick which one. So when the "debt ceiling" debate was going on, I said, "Call their bluff". There was no default going to happen, but the R's decided it was in their best PR interest to "compromise" and pass the Boehner Plan. A few reps and Senators, tried to hold out, but they were vilified by many on the right, just as they were vilified on the left. From the right, we were told that these people were extremist, hardliners, hobbits, etc. On Facebook, I was told that I supported Obama and Pelosi because I didn't support Boehner's cave. And remember what that "deal" was? It was we will increase the debt ceiling 3 trillion dollars, for 1.2 Trillion in cuts, to be determined by the Super Committee. So what exactly did Boehner gain? Meanwhile the left media decided to act as if just those cuts of 1.2 Trillion were disastrous and it was the Tea Party members of congress, that "held hostage" the deal, and they were to "blame" for the 1.2 Trillion in cuts. Does anyone else see the irony of all of that? The Tea Party members of congress, tried to stop this disastrous bill because it didn't cut enough, and unlike Cut Cap and Balance, which passed through the house with bi-partisan support, had no way of controlling the spending in the future, yet were blamed for the draconian cuts, which were minuscule.

So in conclusion: Reducing spending is the number one thing that could be done to save the Republic, but it will not be cut. Simply cutting 12% of the projected increases over the next 10 years couldn't get done. Republican leaders caved instead of fighting. They had overwhelming support from their constituents to stand firm, yet even with all that support behind them, they negotiated themselves into being blamed for no gains at all. So what makes one believe that they would EVER stand for real cuts? they wont, and eventually the spending will be so high that it is unsustainable, and the economy will collapse under it's own weight.

2) Tax Code- The tax code of the US is currently over 88,000 pages long. Why is it 88K pages long? Because this is where political favors are granted. Laws are written, and in those bills, an exemption for this company (now of course it doesn't say "GE is exempt" it will be a long description of a many different attributes that a certain company would have, or a certain municipality would have), a subsidy for that company, a special exemption for this type of person living in a certain area, or that buy a certain type of product. the list goes on and on. Just as the above spending is out of control, the tax code is another place where power is brokered. This is why in order to save the Republic the current tax code MUST be abolished. It can be replaced with a flat tax (a no exemptions across the board from making 1 dollar a year to making 10 billion dollars per year.), or a consumption tax. (again with no exemptions). I am a proponent of the FairTax, which repeals the 16th Amendment, and replaces ALL taxes with a national retail sales tax. I wont get into it here, but read the FairTax Book by Neal Boortz. Over 30 Million dollars of research has been put into this plan. All nooks and crannies of the pros and cons have been analyzed at length. It is indisputable, although many try to overcome that 30 Million dollars worth of research and 8 years of putting together it together, with a blog post with such esteemed opinions of Hugh Hewitt, who could't grasp that losing a mortgage deduction, when there are NO deductions, would not effect people's individual finances. Anyway. Fair or Flat, 88K pages must go.

So in conclusion: the current tax code is the number 2 issue facing the Republic, yet it stays convoluted because it allows Congress to retain power over the people. Any serious attempt to change it is met with opposition from both sides. It will not be changed. Even Newt 's plan, and Perry's plan for a flat tax is coupled with allowing the current tax plan in place. Why do you think that is? It's to lessen the opposition from the Congress, who can still pick winners and losers based on their backer's needs and wants. Therefore, since the current tax code will remain, the Republic will not be saved.

3) Entitlements- Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the real bankrupters of the Republic. None of them are sustainable, and any attempt to reform them is met with fierce opposition, and even the Republicans that would like to reform them, cowl in fear from doing anything. Notice the opposition to Obamacare. Almost to a person, Republicans will say how Obamacare is the slippery slope to socialism, and is a socialist program. Yet if Obamacare is socialist, why is Medicare not socialist? Oh yeah, because it is so entrenched in American society now, that it is not seen as it really is. It is socialized medicine for old people. What people pay in does not equal what they take out. This is socialism, in that the extra that comes out, comes from the general funds (which we then borrow from China), which is also coming from a progressive income tax. I am not for letting old people die, but people should get what they pay for. If there is going to be a program to provide medical care for old people it needs to pay for itself. What one puts in should equal what they take out. A VA type of hospital system could be set up with the funds that have been put in. It would suck as much as the VA system sucks, but it should be available for old folks. You want a socialized type of medical care? That is it. Paying for that, but receiving an A+ best in the world, all measures taken to save and prolong life is not sustainable. Sorry. One's health is their responsibility. Taking the government OUT of the system, would force healthcare providers to compete for business, and the free market would prevail.
Social Security is broke. It has been broke for about 30 years now. It is a Ponzi scheme, and should be ended completely, but it will not be ended. the folks that have paid all of their life into the system, should get their money back, and it should be ended immediately. I like Herman Cain's plan of the Chilean Model, and also the Galveston Plan. Both of these plans allow private accounts that are owned by the individual. that's better than what we have now, but frankly NONE should be mandatory. Now if the govt, wanted to offer up some sort of long term retirement plan that PAYS FOR ITSELF!!!, then people who are idiots can choose to allow the government to manage it for them. Otherwise, people should be responsible for themselves and their own retirements. There are hundreds of companies that will set up a variety of retirement plans for anyone doing any job, making any amount of money, and if people decide that they will do nothing to take care of their future selves, then frankly they would get exactly what they deserve. Do I want old people to be poor and dead? Well yes, if that was their choice. Medicaid? Also Socialism, and welfare. Should be done away with completely. Does that mean that I want people who are poor to die, because they cant afford medical care? Nope. But they should get their care from a charity, not the government.

In conclusion: The 3rd biggest problem that could be fixed to save the republic, is the reform/elimination of entitlements. Even the word "entitlements" is ridiculous. What makes anyone "entitled" to anything? At most all they should be "entitled" to is their money back from Social Security, whatever their contributions would buy them at a government VA style hospital, and in the case of Medicaid NOTHING. BUT, as you have seen in this presidential election season, all of them oppose doing away with Medicare, and Medicaid, and hold them up as "great programs" (Okay Ron Paul probably wants to get rid of them, but even he said that Medicare part D wouldn't be high on his list to cut.) that shouldn't be hurt. Social Security reform (lead by Herman Cain, and later picked up by first Perry and then Newt) is at best still a government managed program, and nobody says get rid of all of it and let the people actually be responsible for themselves. So if these are the biggest costs for the next 30 years, why are we not going to do anything to fix/eliminate them? Because it is politically unpopular, because even Tea Party darling Michelle Bachman, uses lines like, "obamacare stole 500Billion from Medicare" as if medicare was any different than Obamacare. Nothing will be done to reform the entitlements, they will continue to grow, will continue in it's aiding of healthcare skyrocketing in the US, and will eventually bankrupt the entire country.

4) Immigration- Any country should be able to control who comes in, and who resides in it. We have now come to the point where even Republicans say that we need to forgive their previous illegal actions, and let bygones be bygones, and POOF* 14 million democratic voters. Oh I know, you think that they will support the kindler gentler more diversity loving GOP. Well you are ridiculously stupid itf you think this. These are not political refugees escaping a Communist country like Cuba, but people leaving a poor country looking for opportunity. That's great but most of these folks (at least the ones I have met and have talked to) are not the people trying to escape a communist country, they are those that would LIKE to live in a communist country. Just because they are socially conservative, does not mean they are fiscally conservative. What has caused California to go dark blue? Too much weed by the surfers? Look at the demographics of California, and the change from the 60's and early 70's Moderately Red state to the bluest of blues. Hmm. I'm not saying I dont want them to immigrate to the US. I want ANYONE, and EVERYONE who wants to come to the US to be able to. Make the system efficient and effective. Make the applicant pay for a full background check and health test. After passing them, they are allowed into the country. After being in the country for 3 years, with no issues, they can become citizens after showing a thorough knowledge of the constitution, a proficiency in the English language, and show gainful employment.

So in conclusion- A huge problem with this country is that in order to pander to certain groups, simple things like "what is legal, and what is illegal" is mushed to conform to political correctness. When such simple issues as this is bent, and caressed into meaning other things, what are we to do?

These are just 4 things that seem to be common sense, and not all that difficult to figure out, yet none of them will be done. If the first 2 were done, than the Republic could survive, but can you HONESTLY say that any one of the 4 will be done? Any of them that the Republicans could fight for? Any sign that the Republicans would ever take a stand on ANYTHING? Could you point to any example where they did? I mean stand for something significant. I can not. And therefore, I do not have any hope that they will. If we keep sending to Washington what we have ALWAYS sent to Washington, we will keep getting what we have always gotten from Washington.

So now that my guy is out, whom to support?

2011-11-29T12:24:00.000-08:00

So Cain is out and done for, so who to pull for now?

Perry? I like Perry, and I really was looking forward to him being the nominee. When he got in, my guy was at 6% and not getting any traction. Perry had a great record, looked great, and after having read his book, I was pretty stoked. If my guy couldn't win, I was glad that Rick Perry was going to win. He was strong on state's rights, got out of the way of private businesses, and was all around great conservative candidate. Problem was that Perry actually had to talk, and couldn't just give speeches, put out position papers, and ads. After the first debate, I was worried about him. After the second debate, I wondered, "Where is the guy that wrote, "Fed Up"? After the 3rd "You have no heart" debate, I realized that he was going down in flames before our very eyes. Hmm? Then Bachman, jumped the shark with the ritarded Gardisil kids Mom. oops. In swoops Herman, who unlike all the rest of the folks, has a plan. A simple plan. it is attacked by the left, it is attacked by the right. WHY? Because it represented a fundamental change in the way Washington works. So count out most people in the establishment liking or supporting Herman. That is THEIR POWER, and they weren't gonna let some outsider with a simple tax code that is transparent and hard to tinker with win. But anyway, back to whom to support.
Perry is not going to win, and should probably do the respectable thing and endorse someone and get back to the business of being the best governor in the history of the United States.

Bachman? See Perry. Same goes with Santorum, although frankly his endorsement would only gain the endoresee what? 10 people?
Paul. He definitely is the only one left in the race that has any balls to change anything in DC. Too bad his foreign policy is so ritarded. Actually come to think of it it's not his foreign policy that is ritarded, but actually his blame America first mentality. A lot like Obama in that. So no, not him either.

Mittens? Probably more conservative that Ronald Reagan and Margret Thatcher combined, but choosing to run in places like Massachusetts, one has to be a pantywaist scumsucking lib to even get the nomination there, let alone win. So who knows what the real Romney is like. He did pretty good at not screwing up the businesses he ran, and used the money he was born into to jump in at the top. So I like that part of him. I could give a shit about his positions on abortion. Romneycare. That's his achilles heel. So easy to shift a la Perry and say, Hey it's what the people of Massachusetts wanted, the legislature supported it, and I signed it. It sucks and was a horrible idea, but that's what you get from crazy libs in the Peoples State of Massachusetts. But instead it's the hill he wants to die on. Politically ritarded. How about a nice blanket statement from Mittens? "To all those people out there that would not vote for me, due to my ever shifting beliefs and positions: I am a fiscal, social, and defense conservative. I had to say those things before to fool the people of Massachussetts because they are idiots, easily fooled, and wont be voting for the Republican Nominee even if it's me, so fuck them. I'm with you, I've always been with you." The regular Mittens supporters would continue to support him, and the other 75% maybe he picks up 10% of them, and poof* he has enough to win. But he wont do that. No Bullworth moment from him.

Which leaves us with Newt. I like Newt, and thought he would make a good VP for Herman Cain. He is an asshole, and knows his way around the smoke filled back rooms of DC. That's what is needed there, in the position of VP. Now I am supposed to ignore the fact that of all the candidates, HE is THE most inside the beltway candidate, and even when he was out of office, he basically was there with his hand out smoozing and peddling influence for the likes of Fannie and Freddie, and now Medicare Part D. A million here, and a million there, for "consulting". Really? I guess some will buy that load of shit. Whatever. That's the way things work up there. Influence and power are the most valuable commodity in DC, and Newt had the connections, with the right, so companies on the left used him to get their support. Sure, it would be fun to see Newt battle in a debate. But the lingering question remains. Ask 100 people from around this country about the years from 1995-2000. Ask them about the budget "surplus". Ask them about the Clinton Lewisnky thing. Ask them about the economy prior to the dot.com bubble bursting. Ask them about the government shutdown. Then ask them who was to blame, and ask them why the economy was good. I bet at least 70% of people would tell you that Clinton was good, and responsible for the good economy and the budget surplus, and Newt was bad and to blame for Lewinskygate witchhunt, and the government shutdown. newt always got the blame, and Clinton always got the credit. Why? Because the media framed it that way. You dont think they can do the same thing? They already did a pretty good job at blaming the recession on Bush, and letting Pelosi's takeover in 2006 and the rapid decline of the economy, and the increase in spending by 40% since, slide.

So... whom will I support for the nomination for the GOP for President of the United States of America? Who knows, and frankly you should not give a fuck as to whom I would support. Do your own research, come to your own conclusions and vote for the candidate that best represents YOUR beliefs, not the opinions of talking heads on TV, radio talk show hosts, or a loud mouth like myself, but take a bit of advice for me; Chose FOR someone, not against someone, nor for "the person most likely to beat Obama". It is so much more exhilarating to be FOR someone, than it will ever be to be against someone.

Sincerely,

Ragnar Danneskjöld

Supporter of Herman Cain for President, until such time that he officially withdraws from the race.

Herman Cain- You cant beat a winner

2011-10-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

Now that Herman Cain is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, the attacks have begun in earnest. From the left, and from the right, every move that Herman has done in the last 65 years will be scrutinized, not for the truth, but for ways of making it look bad for him. The latest is a sexual harassment allegation from 12 years ago. Apparently a few women accused Herman of sexually harassing them, and investigation was done, no wrongdoing was ever found, and these women left the company. They received some sort of settlement, which if you've ever worked for a large business, in fact if you even know anyone who has worked for a large business, "go away" money is sometimes given to these disgruntled ex-employees. Why? Because it is easier to give these people a little cash with the understanding (legally binding) that they will slink off and shut the hell up, rather than go through a court case, exposing the company to bad publicity. Even when a company wins one of these cases, the publicity associated with it will hurt the company more than just paying the people to go away. I myself have been accused of both sexual harassment, and Racial harassment. Neither of the cases had any merits at all, and as far as the racial harassment, it was totally bogus. Not one shred of evidence, and the incident was 100% made up. never happened. In both cases, a "settlement" was reached and they slimed away to their holes. Now what if Herman Cain had sexually harassed these two women? I've seen a few cases like that in my life. You know what those "settlements" cost the company? one was 1.1 million, and the other was 455 thousand dollars. When plaintiffs really have a case, they get paid, and they get paid big. Not 5 figures.

But this is only the first of what will be many stories that will be dredged up by the left to discredit Cain. Nobody scares the left like Herman Cain. He shakes the very core foundation of what a black person in this country should act like, and should think like. Black people think like Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, Cornell West, Harry Belefonte, and they act like Jessie Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Kanye West, and John Lewis. Black conservatives scare the shit out of the mainstream blacks and the liberal whites who use the mainstream blacks to keep their power base. And here is Herman Cain, a likable, charismatic, intelligent, conservative black person who rose above his station in life without the need of affirmative action, welfare, or political favoritism as a minority. His very being is an athema to what they say is and is not possible in the US.

So it's gonna be bad. It's gonna be ugly. It's gonna make what Sarah Palin, who was also targeted for very much the same reason, went through look like child's play. It will be vicous, and vile, and at times it will seem that Herman will have finally gotten so much abuse that he could no longer continue.

But he hill continue, and he will win. Why? Because that's all he's ever done. He was told he couldn't go to the University of Georgia (not sure why anyone would want to go to UGA but anyway, might be my Carolina bias coming through), nor GA Tech, because he was the wrong color. So he went to Morehouse, and succeeded. He was told that he couldn't make 20K a year, but accomplished this goal coming out of Purdue University working for the Department of the Navy on missile guidance computers. Yeah that "stupid person" as some would have us believe is a real life rocket scientist, and his salary was 20,001 dollars per year. He was told that the inner city of Philadelphia Burger King chain was beyond hope, and that there was any salvaging it. They could just close those units and move into the more profitable suburbs, but he turned them around and made them profitable. He was told that the delivery pizza market was dominated by competitors, and that Godfather's Pizza was going to have to file for Bankruptcy protection, but he turned that company around to profitability. Then he bought the company. Then he sold that company for a profit.
In 2007 he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and had a 70% chance of dying. It spread to his liver, and the chances decreased even more, but he beat it. And that is my point. Herman Cain has been attacked his entire life. By those that would hold him back because of his color. He ignored them and succeeded anyway. By those limiting self beliefs of his family fo making the lofty sum of 20K per year, but he didn't see that as an obstacle, just another hurdle to overcome. He didn't listen to the naysayers that said a business was hopeless and should be scrapped, but instead made it profitable despite the economy, despite the odds, despite the prevailing wisdom, because failing is what losers do. And when the doctors were telling him to get his affairs in order, that his chances for survival were slim, he didn't listen to them. He found the best doctors in the country, sought a solution to his problem and won the biggest battle of his life.

So as these attacks continue, and escalate, and they will, remember that this is a man, who does bend to the wills of others,he makes them bend to his. He does not shy away from a fight, he fights them and wins them. Cause that's what winners do.

Why I support Herman Cain for President of the United States- Part I

2011-10-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

Why I support Herman Cain for President of the United States-

First let me tell you that I am biased. Anyone that tells you that they support a candidate, but will remain unbiased is either lying or they are delusional. I love Herman. I will defend him personally and politically. I will TRY to be as objective as possible, but like I said, that may be impossible. I will attempt to be as even keeled as I can be under the circumstances. Those that have read my other posts about Herman know that I do call out the stupid things that he does, but I WILL defend the good things that he does. So without more ado.Reasons why I support Herman Cain-

1)999 Plan- I am a FairTax guy. I had written an “argument” for a National Sales Tax in 1994 for a logic and critical thinking class, and was arrogant ( I know! Me? ) enough to think that I invented the idea. My thought was, it sure does take a lot of time to do this tax return,(1040 EZ man how I wish I could just do one of those now) and what about all the illegal people, I was thinking specifically of drug dealers at the time, that don’t pay any taxes on all the money they make. I have been a supporter of a National Retail Sales tax since I “invented” it almost 20 years ago. When I wrote my argument long ago, I had no idea about “imbedded taxes”, payroll taxes, estate taxes, or corporate taxes. My argument was strictly to replace the individual income tax with a NRST. That’s it. My goal was to eliminate the loophole of drug dealers, and other organized crime people of not paying any taxes. I had not come to the conclusion yet that a tax on one’s production is parallel to stealing.
So when I first heard of the FairTax, I was beyond excited. I suddenly learned that in every single item one purchases, are the taxes that the manufacturer, salespeople, transportation, and everyone else involved in making that item, till when I purchased the item, paid. I also learned that corporations and other businesses do not “pay” taxes at all, but simply “collect” taxes by putting that as a cost in the good or service, and passing it on to the consumer. Ultimately, only people pay taxes. I also learned that because of the corporate taxes that a corporation had to put into the price of their goods or service, that eventually it became more cost efficient to make said items or services in a country that had lower corporate taxes. Hence, businesses moved their manufacturing to a different country. (Also federal regulations and more importantly government payroll taxes makes labor even more expensive, so by moving out of country suddenly a 13.5% reduction in cost is felt). The other benefits of the FairTax, is that since capital gains are not taxed, people from other countries as well as the US, can “invest” in companies through the stock market tax free. Can you imagine the influx of capital into the US stock market, if all “profits” were felt tax free? It could (and the 45Million in research that has gone into the FairTax has shown) that the stock market “market cap” (total amount invested) would triple in 7 years. That my friends is a lot of expanding business, meaning more jobs here, meaning more consumers here, meaning more revenues here. Easy enough to understand?
So that is the elimination of the corporate income taxes, now the elimination of personal income taxes. Every April 15^th we have to report to the federal government not only how much money we’ve earned, but also where we earned it, how we earned it, which charities we’ve given donations to, how many children we have, how much we spent, and what we spent it on in the conduction of earning the money, how far we’ve driven, and even if we’ve lost or won money gambling. ARE YOU EFFING SERIOUS!!! Can there be anything more invasive of one’s privacy short of a gynecological or prostrate exam? But the Federal Government apparently has the need to know exactly all of this information to make sure that you pay exactly your “fair share”. The FairTax eliminates all of this intrusion. The only personal information one has to provide is how many people under a certain age live in a household. This is for something called a “prebate” which I’m not a big fan of, but it does make sense that one should be able to provide the basic needs to their family BEFORE paying the government. Like I said, I would make it straight, no chaser, but understand that this was put in to ward off the “it’ll hurt the poor” charges. The “prebate” does that, but it still doesn’t stop the “it’ll hurt the poor” charges. By eliminating the corporate tax and the payroll taxes, businesses’ costs go down by that much. The costs of goods to the consumer would naturally go down because of competition. (Sure the corporations would love to keep all that extra profit, but company b will accept a little less, lower their prices, and the war is on. I could get into the 23% tax on the goods, but it’s been covered plenty of times. I can do that in another piece, and for now I just wanted to express that I AM A FAIRTAX GUY! If I were to choose one single thing that I would change about the US, it would be to eliminate all taxes, and put in the FairTax. I believe it to be an economic producer the likes that have never been seen in the US.
SO… What’s this have to do with Herman Cain, and the 999 Plan? Herman has answered a lot of the main criticism of the FairTax with his plan.

PART I- THE 9-9-9 Plan

1) 9% corporate income taxes

a) Eliminates corporate tax subsidies

b) Lowers Corporate tax rates from the low of 15% to the high of 35% to 9%

c) Calculations are done on gross income minus expenses- Dividends paid (net income) This last part “minus the Dividends paid” is very important. Currently Dividends (profit issued per share to the shareholder) are taxed on the corporate level, AND THEN taxed again as income to the individual taxpayer. This eliminates double taxation of the same money

d) Makes tax prep for corporations and businesses 1% of what they are now. I use to recruit for corporate tax people. There are people that get Masters Degrees in Taxation. The tax code is so complicated; Home Depot (one of my former clients) had a staff of over 140 people whose sole purpose was corporate taxes. I could run down the list of different taxes, but let’s just say it’s a highly specialized field. Want to know the biggest geeks in the world? Corporate tax accountant, who can rattle on about a FAS109 as if it were the most fascinating movie you’ve ever seen. My point? The average salary of one of these people at Home Depot (not the best payer in terms of actual salary of my old clients) was 70K. The Tax Director? 350K (plus bonus) All of these little nerds counting this transaction, that sale, this asset, that asset’s depreciation, etc. and for what? To come up with the final tax bill owed by Home Depot. And this is not all. On top of Home Depot’s regular “tax department” they also have Delloite and Touche to come in and independently audit all that work. Millions of dollars, every year, just to count the amount of money to give to the government. With the 9-9-9 plan, the standard accounting department that already is in place sends out the “we made this much in gross income, we paid this much in dividends, and we invested this much in the company. It’s called a 10-K and a 10-Q and every corporation has to do them. Already in place. Poof! Millions of dollars saved by the company, more profit to shareholders, more money to invest in expansion. And don’t worry about all the tax people out of a job. They can use their talents on financial analysis to grow the business even more.

e) Corporations that currently are skating (GE) will not skate anymore. They will pay the same as the Waffle House. 9%

2) 9% Personal income taxes

a) Pretty simple. I make 100K per year. I give 10% to my church, making my tax liability 90K. My tax to the government is 8100 dollars. Stroke the check. If I have to explain why this is better than the current tax code then there really isn’t any hope for you. Personally I disagree with the deduction for charitable giving, not because I want to hurt charities, but because I like the simplicity of, I make 100K, my tax bill is 9K. My income is 40K, my tax bill is 3600. My income is 20K, my tax bill is 1800. My name is Alex Rodriguez, my salary is 32M, and my tax bill is 2,880,000. Simple, easy, no cheating, no whining. Just pay your “fair share” (Doesn’t that phrase make your teeth itch?)

b) Not only will this save people in actual taxes paid, but like Home Depot, people can all do this “return” themselves. I personally would save over a grand in expenses paid to an accountant. If I were to try to do my taxes now, it not only would take me weeks, but I’m sure I would screw it up. I can understand my own business and most of the taxes, I’m expected to pay, what I can and cannot deduct, etc, but my wife’s family has a “partnership” in which we are shareholders. I have NO CLUE, how to account for all of that stuff. It’s a whole other section of the 86,000+ page tax code. Am I supposed to become a tax attorney /accountant, just so I don’t screw this stuff up, and end up in jail?

c) Yes I wish there were no income taxes at all, and it was replaced totally by the FairTax. This 9-9-9 is a bridge, to that final goal, and it is SO FAR removed from the current tax code, it’s worth the wait to get to the final goal.

3) 9% National Retail Sales Tax

a) This is the one that folks seem to be focused on as the biggest problem to the plan.

1. By instilling a “new tax” such as the National Sales Tax the Democrats (and republicans) can just crank this percentage up whenever they feel the need. Why yes they can do this but would they? They already do this. All this “corporate jets tax breaks” stuff that Obama wants to get rid of, and that the Republicans want to keep. Did any of you know about that being in the stimulus plan? All the little breaks that are given out to this company, but not that company are bullshit. And they throw these little nuggets in other non-related bills. The best thing I can say to those that say are afraid of keeping the income tax, WHILE installing a new tax is this:

IF the 9-9-9 plan is written, (and I’ve heard Herman say this on radio, but can’t find it in print) to require a 2/3 majority in the Senate to raise the 9% National Sales Tax Rate, or the 9% personal or 9%corporate rate, OR change any provisions in the 9-9-9 plan i.e. “People that buy Low emission vehicles get to write off that purchase from their gross income”, would that quell some of your reservations? The beauty of the 9-9-9 Plan is the simplicity, not only as it is simple to the people to understand it. Come on, a government educated 6^th grader could understand it; Democrats will find it a little tougher. Currently as explained above, congress throws little taxes (gas tax anyone) into lots of things, gives incentives (EV vehicles, Energy efficient windows tax credits anyone?) to modify personal behaviors, and they go by virtually unnoticed by people. WHY? Because the tax code is so huge, and complex, that it is easily done. So the argument that, “Congress can just increase the 9-9-9 plan to the 13-13-13- plan, or the 40-40-40- plan” is really moot. Yes, they CAN do that (preferably with a 2/3rds majority vote in the Senate and House), but unlike now, where they can slip little provisions, favors, pick winners and losers in businesses, exempt this sort of income, tax that sort of product more, etc, when the Congress says, We want to change the 9% sales tax rate to 10%, It will be noticed. Like a turd in the punchbowl, it will stand out there, as obvious, and the people can let their representatives and Senators know that they do not want to pay 10% in income or sales tax or corporate taxes. Can you see the brilliance of this? It is transparent. Take a crap in a forest with fall leaves all over the place, and the turd is easily missed, but take a crap in the middle of a white sheet lying on the ground, and it’s easily seen and combated.

So in conclusion, although I understand your distrust of the government in putting in a new tax, with the proper restraint of a 2/3rds majority needed to raise it, or complicate it, coupled with the transparency that the simplicity of it allows us to monitor any messing around of the rates and terms, I believe it to be a MONUMENTAL improvement over our current taxation system.

2. It puts in place the system for a full transfer to the FairTax, which eliminates the corporate taxes, and the individual income tax, thereby ending the involuntary taxation upon the production of an individual, and moves it to a voluntary system based on one’s consumption, eliminating the personal invasion of privacy of the personal income tax. As I mentioned earlier, most states, counties and cities already have a sales tax, and merchants already collect the tax, and pass them on to the county and the state. This system is largely in place already, and it is simply a matter of collecting the 9% (later 23% for the FairTax) and passing it to the states, to pass to the Feds.

3. One objection that I want to address specifically is The federal government has no authority over state and local taxes, which is the fatal flaw in the FairTax, and that without a Constitutional amendment the states can successfully sue to stop Cain's second "9."

I believe you are confused as to what the FairTax Plan and the 9-9-9 plan does. Neither affects what states collect, or how they collect revenue. Both only affect Federal taxes, not state taxes. As far as the Federal Government not able to tax consumption, actually they tax consumption already. Booze, Cigs, and gas are already taxed at the consumer level, and collected by the retailer. Now in regards to the actual FairTax plan, it would only be implemented AFTER the repeal of the 16^thAmendment. Hope this cleared this up for you Michael. Sorry your friend would lose business as a Tax accountant, and tax liability negotiator, but pretty obvious why he would be against a plan that put him out of business. Perhaps he could use his Master of Taxation, and do M&A work, and make money off of businesses working, instead of manipulating a broken system.

So there you go. Part I in the Reasons I support Herman Cain, the 9-9-9 Plan. I hope I’ve answered some of the concerns about the plan. No matter what plan we have, if entitlements are not reformed, or eliminated, and spending isn’t cut, then we are doomed anyway, and that’s why tomorrow’s segment will be on Social Security Reform

GOP debate grades and recap 9/22/2011

2011-09-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

Debate recap and analysis 9/22/2011

So Fox news and Google had a debate. Decided to let Gary Johnson back in. ANd without further ado. Let the snarkiness begin.

Think I will go in reverse alphabetical order this time for a change.

Santorum- Forgot to include him in the last debate recap, and wasn't intintional. Last night he was horrible. I cant remember a single good line from him. At least the previous debates his mission was to make Ron Paul's foreign policy look as ridiculous as it is. This time, had non of that. Seems like this Rick is just angry. Is there anything about him that doesn't scream, "I'm a better looking John McCain!"? He's a hawk on foreign policy, crazy bible thumper on social issues. (I for one was appalled by the audience booing the gay soldier.) and still further appalled by Santurum's lame ass answers on it. Go away Rick. There is no chance in hell you get this nomination, and ALSO no chance in hell you get the VP nod. Drop out and endorse somebody in return for Labor Secretary or something, but just get the hell off this stage. GRADE-D

Mittens- This man looks like the President of the United States should look. He answers questions in a manner the President of the United States should answer. However, he is so fucking wrong on Social Security, I'd still rather have Ron Paul as President (not nominee) than this fuckstick. If one cant be honest about Social Security (no way Mittens really believes the bullshit that he is spouting about how it's a good thing for seniors, etc. Man is too smart to actually believe that. So what's he do? Does he back Perry who has the balls to say that the shit is a fraud (as does Paul and Cain)? No! He pusses out. The GOP could do a world of good by exposing SS for what it is, yet this douchebag sees it as his ticket to score against Perry. Fuck you Mittens, you're a damned Eddie Haskell if I've ever seen one. Having said all that. He kicked everyone but One's ass in the debate, will probably retake the lead in the polls. GRADE-A

Perry- Okay governor, I realize you have a state to run, but you need to take a step back and decide if you want to be President of the United States or not. You made a fool out of yourself last night. After watching it (I listed first), you were horrible. You seemed disinterested at times, and confused at others. You had prepared lines against Mittens but flubbed them like a 8 year old who is made to be a tree in the school play. Immigration is a disaster for you. You better come up with a NATIONAL plan, and forget what the hell you've done in Texas. Obviously if there are a lot of illegals in Texas, then what you've done sucks. I realize the position you are in, but you need to make a pivot. Watch Romney, how he dismisses what Romneycare is and what Obamacare is. He is good at deflecting Romneycare as a state program. Do the same with immigration. What's good for Texas is not good for the US on the whole. You have to win the GOP nom before you start courting those Latino voters Gov! You are the anti-Romney. Most of the right answers, and no way to verbalize them without sounding like a Rube. GRADE-D (This may have been your high point in the campaign, which is sad. I like you, but the first debate we were like, "Meh, he's new to debates. Second debate we were like, "Meh he was off fighting fires, and although he didn't WIN, he held his own, and now I'm like, DUDE!!! YOU ARE BLOWING IT!!! GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE BEGGING PRESIDENT ROMNEY FOR SOME FUNDS TO SEND THOSE ILLEGALS TO U of TEXAS!

Paul- Guess he has better meds this week. The good Ron Paul showed up to this debate, and he knocked it out of the park a lot in substance. Still is a horrible presenter, and I noticed that he always seems like he's whining. Sounds like Dante in "Clerks", I'm not supposed to be here today. Problem for RP, is that he was overshadowed in the debate by others. No answers have stuck with me 6 hours later. But maybe that's a good thing for him, since there is no, "Iran should be able to have nukes answer" stuck in there. RP=treading water. GRADE-C

Gary Johnson- I like him. He's like the younger, better looking, more sane version of Ron Paul. His best line was the I started a home improvement company, grew it to over a thousand employees, and have only run for one office 2 times. That's actually pretty awesome. He should be playing up that aspect of his career more. Basically, he is Herman Cain that won an election. He is a much more welcome addition to the stage than other 1%ers Huntsman, Santorum, and soon to be Bachman. GRADE:C

Huntsman- There you go again. Best tweet I saw last night was, "Huntsman looks and sounds like he is made up of Romney's spare parts". I could go on about how this man has the worst jokes, the worst choice in ties, and such, but I'll just say he was pretty good on Foreign policy, horrible on the rest, and his best contribution was choosing Herman as his hypothetical running mate. Maybe to show he wasn't racist!!!

Newt- Another winning debate performance by Newt. He has no equal in these things. If only he could run a campaign, and the PR side of his image, and quit leaving sick wife's for new bimbos this man would be unbeatable. I cant think of one time, he has been stymied by a question. He answers all of them the best, with the correct ideology. Unbelievable! Unemployment 99 week answer was great. Foreign policy was great. Newt wins the debate if the only criteria is answers given. I said a few weeks back, that if there was going to be a McCainesque comeback by anyone, it will be Newt. His slow and steady rise in the polls are making my prediction a reality. Many people think he cant win the general because he is vilified by the press. That's the exact same thing the press tried to do to Reagan, but exactly like Reagan, Newt talks over the media's head straight to the people. Put him on stage debating Obama (Hillary in my opinion will run and beat Obama in the Dem primary, but I digress) and he mops the floor with him, and those negatives go down. IDEAS!!!! RECORD OF SUCCESS!! These are the cornerstones of Newt winning the general. Unemployment above 9%, debt gone crazy, and two ideological opposites on a debate stage? You're gonna have a lot of people that say, "I may hate Newt, but he is right, and that other fucker has no clue. GRADE-A

Herman Cain- (I am a fervent Herman Cain supporter just FYI, but try to be fair) Herman won the debate!!!!! And no this isn't a PaulBot (Cainiac) opinion, it is the opinion of most people that watched the debate and a majority that were in the audience. Cain was applauded in the room before he even opened his mouth. It was HIS crowd, and he performed. His answers were top notch, and were the best amongst those not named Newt. His only weak answer was foreign policy and Israel, and it wasn't bad, just not shiny and pretty like all the rest. Herman has "it". And if you've ever been around rockstars you understand what I'm talking about. Some people have a natural ability to make people like them when they meet them. Bill Clinton had this quality. Sarah Palin has this quality. Paul Stanley of KISS has this quality. (saw this in action once, and I was floored) Within seconds people like them, want to be around them, and what to listen to them. Herman finally (last one was okay too) hit some home runs. Took a jab at Mittens, and frankly his 999 plan is awesome. He explained his economic vision in less than 90 seconds. Ron Paul cant spit out "cant afford these wars, THE FED!!!, and unconstitutional" in less than 90 seconds. I love the FairTax, and this 999 plan is the perfect segue to the FairTax. Anyway. Back to the debate. Herman won. No contest. Not even Mittens looked as poised, confident, or ready for last night's debate. If Herman ever gets above 10% in the polls, watch out. He will then start looking like a legitimate contender, and will get the money that goes with that, and the more people know Herman, the more people will be Herman supporters. Who were the VP choices by those that decided to play the hypothetical game last night? Herman and Newt. Only Johnson chose someone different, and it was fellow Libertarian Ron Paul. GRADE A

Michelle Bachman- Yawn- Okay Bachman was good on the border fence thing. Otherwise she was as relevant as Thad McCotter. Just judging the debate, she seems desperate, trying to cut in a few times to make points that weren't points. Cuba?!?! Really? I listened once, and watched again, and nothing else stands out except her lying about the "mystery 'mentally retarded gardisil' Lady" again. Try to salvage campaign with a mea culpe or double down on batshit crazy? I'll double down on batchit crazy Alex!! GRADE:F as in Fuck off, and dont come to the next debate. All you do is push Romney closer to the nomination.

SO in order from Awesome to Awful-

1. Cain- http://michellemalkin.com/2011/09/22/fox-newsgoogle-gop-2012-debate-the-obama-lite-label/ and http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/09/22/herman-cain-won-the-debate/

Just so you know I'm not just a rah rah Cainiac. Others agree with my Cain won bit.

2. Newt- He and Herman will largely get ignored by the media as they continue on their Perry v.Romney storyline, but those that watched the debate will know who the real winners were and they were the GA Boys.

3.Romney- Dislike the guy, but he is the anti-Perry in polish, and poise.

4. Paul- Only have the crazy as usual, so a good job for him. Still whiny though.

5. Johnson- Dont know why he's in this position except the others sucked more than he did.

6,7,8,9 Huntsman, Perry, Bachman, and Santorum. All sucked. All will go down in the polls (if it is possible to get lower than Santorum and Huntsman, I have no idea, but they may have lost the last bit of their families that supported them until today) Perry is biggest loser. Get some sleep, take some uppers, do something. But you've seemed tired, disinterested and a bumbling idiot for 2 debates now. 3 strikes and you're out pal. Bachman. Go home and make your husband a sammich. The only good thing you did tonight is not remind us how you were a tax attorney for the bad guys.

The most hilariously offensive piece ever written- PJ O'Roarke

2011-09-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

Foreigners Around the World
A Brief Survey of the Various Foreigners,
Their Chief Characteristics,
Customs, and Manners
by P.J. O'Rourke

AFRICANS
Racial Characteristics:
Probably not people at all. Probably some kind of monkey. They eat each other and worship bundles of sticks and mud. You can never remember the names of their countries, which have a new Main ****** every half hour and too many snakes and bugs anyway. They eat those, too. They put bones in their noses and wear plants for clothes.

Good Points:
Don't feel pain the way we do.

Proper Forms of Address:
Jig, coon, fishmouth, soot-back, ****skin, boy.

Two Anecdotes Illustrating Something of the Negro Character:
A traveling cattle barterer asks to stay the night at a root gatherer's hut. The root gatherer agrees but says the cattle barterer will have to sleep with the root gatherer's daughter. The cattle barterer goes to get onto the mat with the root gatherer's daughter and sees that she's very dead, so he spends all night eating her. In the morning, the root gatherer asks the traveling cattle barterer how he liked sleeping with his daughter. "She was wonderful," says the cattle barterer, especially those delicious maggots in her mouth."
"Those weren't maggots," says the root gatherer, "those were just some grains of rice. She's only been dead since yesterday."

Then there was an African pervert who ate women before they were cooked.

ARABS
Racial Characteristics:
Wear bed sheets and put bags over their women's heads. They burp and fart during meals and wash themselves in sand. They bugger little boys and practice some stupid religion that they're trying to get all our Negroes to believe in. Disorderly cowards when they have to fight anyone else, they nonetheless quite courageously murder each other and chop off people's hands for littering. They plant bombs everywhere they go and own all the earth's oil, which is why you can't buy high-test if you're wearing a yarmulke. They hate Jews because Jews are the only people in the world with noses uglier than their own, and they're cornering the Cadillac market so that the Hebes will have to drive Buicks.

Good Points:
If they had any country clubs, they wouldn't let Jews in.

Proper Forms of Address:
Camel jockey, tent-head, soggy Arabian, desert Irish, gas-***.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Arab Character:
During the Yom Kippur War, Syrian armored units were preparing to charge several fortified positions in the Golan Heights when the Israelis canceled their credit rating.

AUSTRALIANS
Racial Characteristics:
Violently loud alcoholic roughnecks whose idea of fun is to throw up on your car. The national sport is breaking furniture and the average daily consumption of beer in Sydney is ten and three quarters Imperial gallons for children under the age of nine. "Making a Shambles" is required study in the primary schools and all Australians are bilingual, speaking both English and Sheep. Possibly as a result of their country's being upside down, the local dialect has over 400 terms for vomit. These include "technicolor yawn" "talking to the toilet," "round-trip meal ticket," and "singing lunch." It is illegal to employ the aboriginal inhabitants as anything but toilets, and some of the peculiar forms of native wildlife have up to nine assholes. The recent destruction of Darwin by a hurricane was actually a cover story for the regrettable coincidence of paydays on three separate sheep stations.

Good Points:
Amusing zoos.

Proper Forms of Address:
Steady there, Cool off, For Christ's sake-not in the sink, Stay back, I've got a gun!

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Australian Character:
An Australian fellow asks his girl friend to fight, but she says she doesn't want to because she isn't feeling well.
"Whatta ya mean, not feeling well?" he says.
"You know," she says, "I've got my time of the month."
"Whatta ya mean, time of the month?" he says.
"You know," she says, "I've got my period."
"Whatta ya mean, period?" he says.
"You know," she says, "I'm bleeding down here." And she opens up her pants to show him.
"Jesus," he says, "no wonder you're bleeding! They've gone and cut your **** off!"

CANADIANS
Racial Characteristics:
Hard to tell a Canadian from an extremely boring regular white person unless he's dressed to go outdoors. Very little is known of the Canadian country since it is rarely visited by anyone but the Queen and illiterate sport fishermen. It is thought to resemble a sort of arctic Nebraska. It's reported that Canadians keep pet French people. If true, this is their only interesting trait. At any rate, they are apparently able to train Frenchmen to play hockey, which is more than any European has ever been able to do.

Good Points:
Still have plenty of Indians to abuse.

Proper Forms of Address:
Bud, mac, mister, hey you.

Some Examples of Canadian Repartee:
Two Canadians are talking in a bar. One Canadian says, "Who was that lady I saw you with last night?"
"That was my wife." replies the other.

A lady is shopping in a Toronto drugstore and accidentally leaves the bottle of aspirins that she bought on the counter. She gets on a bus and the minute the bus has pulled away from the curb remembers leaving her purchase behind. "My aspirins! My aspirins!" she yells.
And the bus driver says, "Maybe you left them in the drugstore."

A little Canadian boy named Johnny ****erfaster is screwing a little girl under the porch of his house. His mother comes out the door and yells for him, "Johnny! Johnny ****erfaster!"
"I'll be there in a minute," he says.

CHINESE
Racial Characteristics:
Hordes of incomprehensible rat-eaters with a peculiar political philosophy and a dangerous penchant for narcotic drugs. No one can possibly know what dark and grotesque things pass through the minds of this hydraheaded racial anomaly which is, after all, more like a monstrous colony of flesh-crazed carpenter ants than a nation of rational men. Only a fool would deal with two-legged insects ..such as these. Our only hope is that the farsighted leaders of our own land Will join with those of at least nominally Caucasian Soviet Russia and that together they will treat us to the welcome spectacle of a thermonuclear obliteration of this yellow menace.

Good Points:
They're almost as far away as it's possible to be.

Proper Forms of Address:
Zipper head, Chink, slant, ching-chong Chinaman, yellow peril.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Chinese Character:
Nine hundred million Chinese walk into a bar. They order a beer, pay up, and then just sit there, sipping their drinks, not saying a word. Finally, the bartender can't stand it anymore. "We don't see many Chinese in here," he says.
"And with this atmosphere of hedonistic individualism capitalistically exploiting the labor of the masses and wasting the people's agricultural resources," say the Chinese, "you won't see many more."

ENGLISH
Racial Characteristics:
Cold-blooded queers with nasty complexions and terrible teeth who once conquered half the world but still haven't figured out central heating. They warm their beers and chill their baths and boil all their food, including bread. An intensely snobbish group, but who exactly they're snubbing is an international mystery. Lately they've been getting their comeuppance world power-wise, as their shabby, antiquated, and bankrupt little back alley of a country slowly winds down like the ill-crafted clockwork playthings of which their undersized children are so fond. In fact, last year their entire government had to kiss the *** of the fat aboriginal nig-nog who runs Uganda to retrieve a single flit hack writer from the clutches of that august nation. They all have large collections of something useless like lamp finials or toad eggs, and they would have lost both world wars if it were not for us. They like to be spanked with canes and that's just what they deserve.

Good Points:
It's relatively easy to make yourself understood with them.

Proper Forms of Address:
Limey, lime-eater, pom, poof, sister-boy.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the English Character:
In his unpublished memoirs, Benjamin Disraeli tells the story of a political conference with then-Prime Minister William Gladstone, who habitually conducted such private discussions while being fellated by an able-bodied seaman of the Royal Navy. At one point during their talk, the sailor suddenly looked up from Gladstone's ***** and said, "Excuse me, Sir, but you've come."
"By Jove, so I have," said Gladstone, and he gave the tar a sovereign.

FRENCH
Racial Characteristics:
Sawed-off sissies who eat snails and slugs and cheese that smells like people's feet. They take filthy pictures of each other with cheap cameras, wash nothing but their ****s, fight with their feet, and perform sex acts with their faces. Utter cowards who force their own children to drink wine, they gibber like baboons even when you try to speak to them in their own wimpy language.

Good Points:
Invented the blowjob.

Proper Forms of Address:
Froggy, froggy-wog, frog-eater, French-lips, Franco ****-face, clit-lick.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the French Character:
A Frenchman goes home with his best friend and they find the friend's wife laying naked on the dining room table with her legs spread apart. The Frenchman takes a close look at her **** and says, "Zees looks like zee menstrual blood!" Then he bends down, takes a deep whiff, and says, "Zees smells like zee menstrual blood!" Finally he gets down on his knees, eats her out for about twenty minutes, and says, "Zees tastes like zee menstrual blood! Without a doubt, it eez zee menstrual blood! Mon dieu, I am glad zat we did not **** her!!"

GERMANS
Racial Characteristics:
Piggish-looking, sadomasochistic automatons whose only known forms of relaxation are swilling watery beer from vast tubs and singing the idiotically repetitive verses of their porcine folk tune-both of which amusements probably hark back to a prehuman state. Germans have never been successfully Christianized. Their language lacks any semblance of civilized speech. Their usual diet consists almost wholly of old cabbage and sections of animal intestines filled with blood and gore. Once every two or three decades, they set forth, lemming-like, on pointless military adventures during which great numbers of them are slaughtered-much to the improvement Of the world in general. Their lardy women have long, tangled masses of sticky hair under their arms, and the men shave the sides of their heads.

Good Points:
Kill a lot of French.

Proper Form of Address:
Kraut, Hun, Heiny, spike-head, sausage-breath.

A German Joke of the War Years Illustrating Something of the German Character:
If your sister married a Jew-that will make you sauerkraut.
If your son married a Jew-that will make you bratwurst.
If your mother married a Jew-that will make you soap.

GREEKS
Racial Characteristics:
Degenerate, dirty, and impoverished descendants of a bunch of la-de-da fruit salads who invented democracy and then forgot how to use it while walking around dressed up like girls. Today they bugger sheep and are engaged in an international campaign to take over all the world's small, filthy grocery stores. They eat the insides out of goats with their fingers. Their toilets are mere holes in the floor And they cringe at the least threat from the imbecilic, taffy-yanking Turks next door.

Good Points:
Cute alphabet.

Proper Forms of Address:
Feda-face, sheep dip, dog fashion, GeekoEuropean, eek-a-Greek!

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Greek Character:
An ignorant peasant girl marries a man who's been in the Greek navy for twenty years. After their third anniversary, her mother starts to worry because the girl still isn't pregnant. "Why are you not with child, daughter?" she asks. "Does not your husband make the love to you?"
"Of course:' says the girl, blushing deeply, "but ... but ... to tell the truth, Mother, I just can't keep from ****ting afterwards."

INDIANS
Racial Characteristics:
Dismal, obsequious demi******s whose gods have too many arms and legs and about whom entirely too many articles have appeared in the Sunday New York Times Magazine. They wrap their heads in towels and wipe their asses with their hands. They are unable to feed themselves and what food they do have tastes as if it was mixed with the offal from muskrat dens. Their culture is moribund, their politics dictatory, their economy stagnant, their skins sebaceous, and their social order loathsome to the minds of decent men everywhere. 'Sub-' is no idle prefix in its application to this continent.

Good Points:
Dirty statues.

Proper Forms of Address:
Wog, towel head, curry-dipper, human refuse.

Three Important Questions Concerning the Future of India:
What do you feed 563,490,000 Indians when you only have 300 pounds of wheat?
Leftovers.
What's the difference between an Indian toddler and a regulation NFL football?
A football has to weigh at least fourteen ounces.
What's the literal translation of the Hindi phrase for "take a ****"?
"Nothing to do."

IRISH
Racial Characteristics:
Pie-faced, neckless, bandy-legged sots who almost never ****. Ignorant and superstitious, they are in utter thrall to the vile, conniving priests of their dark and barbarous religion. Their women have their legs on upside down and no man in the country eats anything but potatoes, and only eats them when has out of strong drink. The principal delights of the Irish are in quarreling and fighting and killing each other with bombs. They can be trained to do nothing useful that a dray horse can't accomplish in half the time, and they spew out a continuous stream of mumbles and grunts which they fancy to be "poems." They sell their children for whiskey.

Good Points:
Many Irish are dead.

Proper Forms of Address:
Bogmouth, peat-face, Mr. Potato Head, nun-buns, dumb Mick.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Irish Character:
There once was an Irishman who got so drunk while he was in Rome that he kissed his wife and beat the Pope's foot to a pulp with a coal shovel.

ISRAELIS
Racial Characteristics:
Living proof that money can't buy love, these greedy, usurious, scheming Christ-killers, who won't eat pork because it reminds them of their parents, go around moving into other people's countries and buying up all the pawnshops and delicatessens. They were personally responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire, the 1929 stock market crash, and the loss of World War II by a prominent European country. Now they're ruining show business. Their fiendish heathen religious rituals include mutilating the *****es of their own sons and drinking the blood of Christian babies during Lent. The world's nations have historically competed with each other to see who could get rid of them fastest. They control the legal, medical, psychiatric, and accountancy professions, and are the force behind international communism, freemasonry, sex education, the media, and the catholic church.

Good Points:
Clean women.

Proper Forms of Address:
Yid, kike, sheeny, Hebe, nickel-nose, knife-nose, gabardine stroking mockey, clip-tip.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Israeli Character:
A pious rabbi in Tel Aviv had to give up adultery for business reasons. He kept losing interest on his wife.

ITALIANS
Racial Characteristics:
This least appealing of the European peoples combines natural criminal propensities with an attitude of slavish idolatry toward that Whore of Rome, the Pope. When speaking, the Italians gesture frantically with their hands in an attempt to distract your gaze from their ugly faces-upon which are clearly etched the marks of their moral and intellectual degeneracy.

They cannot stop stealing, and will sometimes go so far as to steal money that is rightfully theirs from the pockets of their own trousers even as they wear them. Worse yet, they rarely catch themselves doing so. (Not that it matters, since their currency is worth nothing.) Otherwise, they amuse themselves by kidnapping the neighbor's children, voting for Communists, and staying out on strike, where they've been since the 1940s. On the field of battle they are abject cowards, and in the kitchen they're enthralled with bruised tomatoes and the noodle only.

Good Points:
Big tits.

Proper Forms of Address:
Ginzo, guinea, dago, spaghetti-bender, wop.

A German Joke of the War Years Illustrating Some Points Concerning the Italian Character:
During the campaign in North Africa, an Italian tank and a German tank accidentally collided and the two surprised drivers jumped out. The Italian yelled, "I surrender! I surrender!" The German shot him.

JAPANESE
Racial Characteristics:
Resembling the Chinese in many respects but mercifully less numerous. Their idea of a good time is to torture people, preferably by inserting a glass rod in the *****, then doing the predictable thing. And this is only for captured business competitors. During time Of war, they resort to more drastic measures entirely. They have no new ideas of their own or any native creativity, but they are able to copy everything we do quite nicely, considering the color of their skin. Their diet consists principally of fish, which they do not cook or even, in many cases, kill. It's rumored that they know of sex acts peculiar unto themselves, and with any luck, so it will stay. The most frightening thing about the Japanese is that we've tried the atomic bomb on them twice and it doesn't seem to have much effect.

Good Points:
Frequently commit suicide.

Proper Forms of Address:
Nip, Jap, dink, gook, yellow rat.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Japanese Character:
There was once a half-Japanese, half-Polish businessman in Tokyo who attempted to export miniaturized dildos.

MEXICANS
Racial Characteristics:
Resembling the Spanish in all their more loathsome characteristics except lazier, dirtier, and more thieving. A large percentage of American Indian blood in the average Mexican deprives him of any natural human sympathies or moral sense and makes him a wholly unmanageable drunk. The principal industry of Mexico is the production of pornographic playing cards that depict their women corrupting the morals of donkeys. Completely untrustworthy, the Mexican will make food out of anything that will hold still, feed it to you, and charge you for it besides. An attempt to conquer and hence eliminate this pesky breed of miscegenators was launched by our government during the last century, but wholesale nausea on the part of our troops, when they'd witnessed Mexican home life prevented our doing as thorough a job as we should have.

Good Points:
You can buy their twelve-year-old daughters.

Proper Forms of Address:
Wetback, beaner, chili-dipper, taco turd, flap hat.

Three Important Questions Concerning the Mexican Economy:
What do you call all thirty-eight members of a Mexican family packed into one Cadillac?
Grand theft auto.
How did they get all thirty-eight members of a Mexican family packed into one Cadillac?
They picked the lock.
What's hot on the outside, brown on the inside, and stinks like hell all over?
All thirty-eight members of a Mexican family packed into one Cadillac.

POLES
Racial Characteristics:
A nation known as the Rudimental Reading Class of Europe. Its citizens are turkey-loaf look-alikes descended from a barbarian horde that took a wrong turn on its way to sack Rome. They spent the Middle Ages trying to fight Vikings on horseback and invented breech-loading artillery by pointing their cannons the wrong way around. They didn't know about sexual intercourse until the tenth century, having previously reproduced by raiding warthog litters. In 1947, the Poles became a Communist country under the impression that it was a rite of the Catholic church, and today thew principal exports are snow tires manufactured from their own native deposits of snow.

Good Points:
Easy to beat at contract bridge.

Proper Forms of Address:
Polack, dumbo, lug wrench, kielbasa brain.

An Anecdote Illustrating Some. thing of the Polish Character:
A Polish queer, was recently arrested in Warsaw for trying to blow his wife.

RUSSIANS
Racial Characteristics:
Brutish, dumpy, boorish lard-bags in cardboard double-breasted suits. Lickspittle slaveys to the maniacal schemes of their blood-lusting Red overlords. They make bicycles out of cement and can be sent to Siberia for listening to the wrong radio station. Their Communist party cuts the ***** off of high school boys to get women athletes, and shoots losing chess champions in the kneecaps. They shine their shoes with **** and spread Shinola on their wheat fields.

Good Points:
They aren't allowed to leave their country.

Proper Forms of Address:
Redski, Russki, Commie scum, stinking Red slime, puke-gutted Bolshevik assholesucker.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Russian Character:
Three Russian kids were looking at a couple of pairs of blue jeans on a clothesline and discussing what they wanted most in the world. "I want a big box of turnips," said the first kid, so I could have enough black market rubles to buy a pair of blue jeans like those."
"I want a big box of Shock-Worker's Medals," said the second kid, "so I could have enough People's Hero privileges to buy a pair of blue jeans like those."
""I want a big box of parents," said the third kid.
"A big box of parents?! Why do you want a big box of parents?!" said the other two.
"Because" said the third kid, "I only have two parents and my sister turned them both in to the Secret Police and now she owns both those pairs of blue jeans!"

SCOTS
Racial Characteristics:
Sour, stingy, depressing beggars who parade around in schoolgirl skirts with nothing on underneath. Their fumbled attempt at speaking the English language has been a source of amusement for five centuries, and their idiot music has been dreaded by those not blessed with deafness for at least as long. The latter is produced on a device resembling five flutes that have grown a piss bladder. Formerly, the Scots painted themselves blue and ranged far and wide over the British Isles, but good fortune prevailed and they were conquered by their betters. What passes for an alcoholic beverage in the dreary province to which the Scots have been driven has enjoyed a short vogue among fairies and advertising types, but this appears to be giving way to cocaine.

Good Points:
Attractive plaids.

Proper Forms of Address:
Scotty, Jock, legs, plaid ***.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Scots Character:
In recent years, the small Scottish Nationalist movement has become so desperate that it's been kidnapping money and ransoming it for people.

SPANISH
Racial Characteristics:
As hot of blood as they are dim of mind, a national situation dating back to the fifteenth century when they expelled the last of the Moors, and with them the only people south of the Pyrennees who could count above twenty. The deep-seated strain of masochistic homosexuality manifested in their love for watching ritualized forms of stooptag played with large male cows needs hardly be commented on, except to say that Ernest Hemingway's fondness for this country and its neolithic pastimes was enough to keep most educated people away through the better part of the present century. Spiritually, the Spanish are disfigured beyond help by a particularly greasy sort of religious fanaticism that manifests itself in morbid visions of the type in which our Savior is seen swallowing the menses of his Virgin Mother and so on and so forth to an extent that turns sensible people ill. The Spanish are largely notable for having set out some 500 years ago and found the only people on the face of the earth primitive enough for them to conquer. (See Mexicans.)

Good Points:
Only one book that has to be read for Comparative Lit. courses.

Proper Forms of Address:
Spic, greaser, tight pants, hankie-crotch.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Spanish Character:
In 1536, the explorer Cabeza de Vaca brought an Antarctic penguin back to Spain and displayed it to the mother superior of the Carmelite Order in Madrid, who thereupon had 1,300 nuns burned by the Inquisition trying to obtain a confession.

SWEDISH
Racial Characteristics:
Tedious, clean-living boy scout types, strangers to graffiti and littering, but who are possessed of an odd suicidal mania. Speculation is that they're slowly boring themselves to death. This is certainly the case if their cars and movies are any indication. They eat a lot of fish, and perhaps this is more brain food than their modest cranial endowments can cope with. In other points they resemble Canadians, though better looking. Not that that's saying much. Maybe they're depressed because they have the silliest sounding language west of the Urals. Or maybe it's that they have the ugliest famous actress of any civilized nation. No use asking them; what with their silly sounding language and ugly actresses, it's almost impossible for them to get anything across to anyone. Swedes **** a lot, but only in the missionary position.

Good Points:
They're white.

Proper Forms of Address:
Herring-choker, herring-knocker, squarehead, Swede.

An Anecdote Illustrating Something of the Swedish Character:
At a wedding party in Stockholm, the inebriated groom stumbles into a bedroom and finds his bride getting ****ed by the best man. He laughs uproariously and calls all his friends over to the room. They tell him he's drunk. "You think I'm drunk?" he yells. "Take a look at Sven! He's so drunk, he thinks has me!"

SWISS
Racial Characteristics:
Mountain Jews in whose icy clutches lay the fruits of grave misdeeds committed in every clime. Under cover of their sanctimonious Red Cross organization, they have penetrated all the governments on the planet and, concealed by a flutter of blood drives and nurses' caps, lie sucking like leeches at the marrow of the gold, chocolate, clock, and army knife industries of nations beyond number. Pathologically clean, they sterilize their children at birth, which accounts for their low rate of population growth and leaves them more room to hide heaps and piles of money in their tiny, Alp-ringed repository of snow-covered sin.

Good Points:
They rarely yodel in the home.

Proper Forms of Address:
Butter balls, cheese knees, big fat Swiss.

An Important Question Concerning Switzerland's Economy:
What do you call a Swiss banker who likes Italian lire better than Deutsche marks?
Queer.

I believe in you!

2011-06-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Ragnar Danneskjöld, and I believe in you. That's right; even if you do not believe in yourself, I believe in you. You may think that you can not, and if you believe this way you are correct. If you believe that you can, then you are also correct. One is only beaten, when they stop trying to win. But hear me now and believe me, for what I say is true;you are a winner, and I can prove it to you.
Many people in this country do not believe in you. They will say that you are unfortunate, unlucky, that you haven't won life's lottery, that you are disadvantaged, that you do not have an equal opportunity. They do not believe in you, and they think you can not win, but they are wrong. They would say that you need special treatment because of the way you look, or the place that you are from, or the economic conditions that you are raised in, but once again they are wrong. How can I be so cocky and sure of myself in my belief in you? Because history and precedence says that I am right, and they are wrong.
One of the greatest winners ever was Abraham Lincoln, yet his life was wrought with strife and hardships. A quick list scoured off the internet goes like this:1831 – Failed in business,1832 – Defeated for legislature,1833 – Again failed in business,1834 – Elected to legislature,1835 – Sweetheart died,1836 – Had a nervous breakdown,1838 – Defeated for speaker,1840 – Defeated for elector,1843 – Defeated for Congress,1846 – Elected for Congress,1848 – Defeated for Congress,1855 – Defeated for Senate,1856 – Defeated for Vice-President,1858 – Defeated for Senate,1860 – ELECTED PRESIDENT
Am I saying that you are as good of a person as Abraham Lincoln? No but I believe you have the potential to be better than Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe wasn't born into wealth, and he could have bean beaten along the way, but he was not beaten, because he never quit. How in the heck could a man born into relative poverty, who failed much more than he succeeded wind up being one of the greatest Presidents according to some, ever? Did he get some special treatment because he was poor, and get into college free?, Was there some sort of underprivileged loans for people to start a business? Did he receive food stamps to feed himself? Did he have housing provided for him? Was his medical bills paid for him? Nope. Abe just decided not to die, but to live, and he made it happen. And so can you. You may say, "oh but this was a long time ago, and times were not as hard then.", but you would be wrong. If you believe that you can do something , then you can. Your own self-limiting beliefs are the only thing that is stopping you.
Beware those who say that you need "help" to achieve your goals. Their form of help will defeat you and your purpose. For everything that is handed to you, a piece of your "self" is lost. Soon you need more "help" then after that you may stop trying to do anything at all for yourself, and are entirely dependent on their "help." Their "help" is what is keeping you down, making you dependent, which is what they strive for. They satisfy their own selfish needs by giving you "help".Some people have good intentions. They actually believe that they are helping you, and that you need the help. They do not want to oppress you , but they do not believe in you. They prejudge you. They would call you unequal, and underprivileged, but I don't because I see your true potential. Still not convinced? Well take the story of a young African-American man, who had grown up in poorness, into a family in which the father, "his only answer to everything was to beat it out of you.", whilst being sexually molested and abused. He dropped out of high-school, and was failing at life, but he kept on doing what he loved, which was writing. He had learned from watching another "self-made" person's show, that writing could be very therapeutic. He wrote plays that bombed, and was homeless here in Atlanta, but he didn't give up. He kept writing, and believing in himself. Now whenever he has a new movie out, they put his name above the title. He's not homeless anymore,his name is Tyler Perry, and nobody gave him "help". I believe you can be bigger than Tyler Perry or Oprah( the person whom Perry had watched).
So why do these other people believe that you cannot win, when there are countless examples of those with less than you, with more "disadvantages" than you, who through their own self determination have won? I believe they fall into 2 categories. Category 1 are those that have given up on themselves. They listened and believed the people that told them that they did not have the same opportunities, or that they could not win without "help". Category 2 would be those that think they are better than you. They have won, some by themselves, but more likely they look at themselves as lucky. Maybe they were lucky, but either way they look at you and they feel pity, and condescension. Some may feel guilty about what they have achieved because they know that they have received this "help" themselves. And hey, If I couldn't do it myself, then surely you can not, which comes back to their view that they are superior to you. They will trot out examples of those they feel have had "bad luck" and ignore the decisions that these "unlucky" people made that lead them to where they are. Think of it as a child. These are people that would let a child win a game of chess, to make the child feel better, but what does the child learn? They have a sense of accomplishment for nothing. Achievement was unearned, but the lesson was learned, even if it was learned unwittingly. These folks are not on your side. They do not believe in you. On the contrary, they feel that you are weak, and that you can not win without their help, which they use to make themselves feel more important. They use what they see as your weakness, to make themselves stronger. They will keep telling you these lies, over and over, until the lies are not lies to you or them, but instead are now true. Their belief that you can not succeed, invades your belief , until that belief becomes reality. There is a sub-section of Category 2 folks which is truly evil, and this would be people that know the truth; that you can succeed without their help, but they want to control you. They feel that they are superior to you, but if they just make you dependent upon them, they can always control you. This is truly evil, and is no different than an abusive spouse that can't leave because they are so dependent and the abuse is the only thing they know. How sad that so many of you have been trapped by this, but you can escape. It is harder for you, and although we have all been created equal, this does not mean that all of our struggles to be successful will be equal.
So am I telling you to shun all help? No, but I want you to understand that the less you do for yourself, and the more you depend on others, the less you will gain for your "self". Do I believe that you can not form a team of people to help you? Absolutely not. I believe in teams and co-operation. Understand when you delegate authority, and when you are working for someone else that you are still working for yourself. Always know that you are "self" employed. You work, and you are paid for your work, and if you deliver results you will be paid more, if you do not deliver results you will be paid less, and if you do not deliver for enough time you will be without a job. You contribute to the whole company, but you are still an individual. You work hard to contribute so that the company will succeed, and therefor succeed yourself. But it is your responsibility to make the correct decisions as to your employment. If you work for a company that is not run well, you need to look out for yourself, and find a company that is. If your industry is changing or being eliminated by overseas competition, then you must educate yourself to be prepared for change. YOU are responsible for YOU! Those that sit around waiting for people to hand them new opportunities are destined for failure, because the winners go get the opportunities wherever they are. You are that winner! I believe in you. There is nothing special about you that is not inside you right now. Its all there waiting for you to understand it and develop it. You are special because you are you, and for no other reason. Nobody else can make you special or make you less than special. Your own power is infinite, and your own ability to win is limited by only you. You only lose when you let others decide for you about what your limits are. I want to say, "You can do it", but that will be putting my own beliefs on you, so I will instead close by saying that if you think you can do it, I believe you are correct.

Osama Bin Laden- Death and/or the Idiocy of Obama

2011-05-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

First I want to say that I am not a conspiracy guy. I hate them actually as I believe they distract people from real issues. So why then would I put forth a theory, that some may seem as kooky? Because some things do not make sense about the OBL death.

Theory one- OBL is not dead, but has been captured. I guess the bigger picture and the reason for my theory is that although the Obama administration is the most incompetent band of dumbasses ever assembled in the history of the world, even they would understand the value of Osama Bin Laden. Imagine for one instance the idiocy of killing OBL, who is THE central figure of our greatest threat in the War on Terror, Al Qaeda. Any student of history understands that the value of intelligence gathered in the field is grows exponential when the enemy does not know that an asset has been compromised. Take for example the Enigma Machine of World War II. When we captured the code breaker, we didn't splash it all over the newspapers that we had in our possessing this device; we stayed quiet, allowed the Axis powers to continue using the code, and we essentially listened in. Had the Axis powers known that we had the device, they would have changed the method of sending messages, and our advantage would have been nullified.
SO! Why would we a) Kill Bin Laden on sight, when apparently there was no immediate threats, when just 1 hour of interrogation with him, could fill in blanks in our intelligence that have been there for 15 years? This makes no sense at all, and if the CIA, and Seal Team 6 were "in charge" of this operation, there would be no question in their mind as to the value of this asset. These guys live and die, and kill based on intelligence gained in the field. Think of what could have been accomplished, if the US Intel system, poured through the computers and papers found in the palace, AND had OBL and his Merry Men to interrogate? We could have masqueraded as OBL in communications with other fucksticks like Al Zawahiri and Al -Awlaki in Yemen. "OBL- Need to meet- Al Queada Fucksticks- Okay how's Tehran sound? OBL- Great see you then" B)Why do this dog an pony show where Obama makes his victory rounds, for making this "hard decision"? Something stinks.

So, I have come to the following conclusion:
Either a) Osama Bin Laden is alive, and is currently getting "interrogated" so that we can catch more leaders of Al Qaeda. B) Osama Bin Laden is dead at the hands of Navy Seal Team Six, at the orders of Obama.
Unlike the left in this country, I know that our CIA, and Armed Forces are not idiots, so I must put the blame on he who shows himself as an idiot daily, President Barack Hussein Obama

If A- then Obama shows his complete idiocy by shouting to the world that we have the guy, allowing our enemies in the leadership of Al Qaeda, to go black, and find new holes to hind in.
If B- Obama shows his complete idiocy by ordering this guy’s execution, therefore basically throwing away the one piece of intelligence that could truly put the hurt on Al Qaeda, perhaps disabling them for good.

Either way Obama is an idiot. But if B) and OBL is dead, I have to wonder why BHO would give that order. Great! 1 terrorist dead, but 100 escape?

So would Obama be a good Boy Scout? Let the Scout Law Decide!

2010-07-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

A Scout is:

Trustworthy. A Scout's honor is to be trusted. If he were to violate his honor by telling a lie or by cheating or by not doing exactly a given task, when trusted on his honor, he may be directed to hand over his Scout badge.

OBAMA? NOPE he lies a lot.

Loyal. He is loyal to all to whom loyalty is due, his Scout leader, his home and parents and country.

OBAMA? NOPE- he actually hates this country and wants to remake it into a Euro-centric Socialist paradise.

Helpful. He must be prepared at any time to save life, help injured persons, and share the home duties. He must do at least one Good Turn to somebody every day.

OBAMA?- NOPE Help? What help? He does the oppistie of help everytime he can.

Friendly. He is a friend to all and a brother to every other Scout.

OBAMA- MAYBE- If you replace Scout with Democrat, this may be true.

Courteous. He is polite to all, especially to women, children, old people, and the weak and helpless. He must not take pay for being helpful or courteous.

OBAMA- NOPE He is rude to anyone that demands anything of substance in a leader. He panders to women, and old people and preys on the weak and helpless by keeping them weak and helpless and Dependant on government.

Kind. He is a friend to animals. He will not kill nor hurt any living creature needlessly, but will strive to save and protect all harmless life.

OBAMA- NOPE- He allowed the oil spill in the guilf to not only kill wildlife but also people's ways of life and living. Now to add more insult the moratorium could cripple the gulf states for decades.

Obedient. He obeys his parents, Scoutmaster, patrol leader, and all other duly constituted authorities.

OBAMA- NOPE- His Duly Constituted Authorities is the Constitution of the United States, and the people of the United States; both whom he ignores.

Cheerful. He smiles whenever he can. His obedience to orders is prompt and cheery. He never shirks nor grumbles at hardships.

OBAMA- NOPE!- He whines at every opportunity about how it's all Bush's fault, never taking any responsibility for himself. He snarled and made snide remarks to Senator McCain, when Senator McCain was trying to point out inadequacies in the Healthcare Bill.

Thrifty. He does not wantonly destroy property. He works faithfully, wastes nothing, and makes the best use of his opportunities. He saves his money so that he may pay his own way, be generous to those in need, and helpful to worthy objects. He may work for pay, but must not receive tips for courtesies or Good Turns.

OBAMA- HELL NO! He is the anti thrifty person who wastes not only money and property of the United States, but our good will that is harbored by our allies such as Israel, Great Britain, and Australia.

Brave. He has the courage to face danger in spite of fear and to stand up for the right against the coaxings of friends or the jeers or threats of enemies, and defeat does not down him.

OBAMA- Hell NO- Given the chance to fight to win in Afghanistan, he chose to hem-haw for 4 months, then give 70% of what was asked so that he could look moderately good to both the left and right. He has made a mockery of the United States, and the leaders of our enemy states openly laughs and mocks his impotence. See Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan, Russia.

Clean. He keeps clean in body and thought; stands for clean speech, clean sport, clean habits; and travels with a clean crowd.
OBAMA- NOPE- Smoking,and hangs with the dirtiest people on the planet; House and Senate Democrats, plus his own Cabal of Incompetents.

Reverent. He is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties and respects the convictions of others in matters of custom and religion.

OBAMA- NOPE- He may be faithful to HIS god, but he does not respect Jewish or Christian religions, nor the followers of the religions.

Pretentiousness, or just perturbing?

2010-07-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

People that refer to their auto/bike by brand name usually annoy me in other ways also. "Well I was up in the mountains with my Porsche this weekend, and life was beautiful (in spite of my smallish penis)."

I love Porsches. It is my favorite car, but unless I am specifically talking about the function of the automobile, with someone who would also be interested in such things, casually mentioning it in conversation is pretentious.

An exception of this would be when talking to someone who would "understand". A friend of mine, whom I know owns a Porsche Boxster, asked me what I did this weekend, and I told him I went to Deals Gap on a Triumph Rocket. The Rocket was not my normal ride, and a trip to Deals Gap (where he had already taken his Porsche, thereby with some understanding of the significance of the place). I also wanted him to ask me about the Triumph, and therefore baited him to do so, at which he of course asked me if we should put the vehicles through its paces, which we did. He couldn't hang with me on anything remotely straight, and his four tires versus my two on curves were better, plus, I wasn't going to push the envelope on a loaner bike.

Just my small opinion. Please return to your regularly scheduled program.

What if Islam were not a religion?

2010-06-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

So I started thinking the other day about the so-called peaceful religion of Islam. Take a look at the internet on any given day on any given news website, and you will see pictures and stories that do not paint Islamic people in a very good light. As a matter of convenience go to google and type in 'terrorism", and see if you can find a story that does not involve Muslim, Islamist, or some variety of an Islamic person. You cant. My apologies the Christian Terrorist, Hindu terrorist, and the Wiccan terrorist groups but you must fall really low on the terrorist interest on Google, because on the first 10 pages I find nothing but Muslims.
   But the Muslims claim that they are peaceful, and that these are just extremist who distort their peace loving religion, into this violent and venom spewing front. Here is the problem with their assertion. As a majority Judea-Christian Society we do not put up with a few bad examples tarnishing our religions. Sure there are fringe elements like Eric Robert Rudolf, and the Westboro Baptist Church, and you have the old nutbags, like Pat Robertson always putting their feet in their mouth. But overall, we (the Judea-Christian majority) are quick to denounce these groups, and in the case of Eric Robert Rudolf we hunted him down, and helped the authorities. I remember on 9-11, watching the images of the Islamic world. Of these people celebrating in the streets, as our fellow citizens were dead, or dying. Burning the US flag, as they celebrated doing their little chant. I swear if I were the President of the United States, I would have sent cruise missiles into the streets of these Islamic Cities and killed every "muthafuckin last one of em". That's the day I decided that they (Muslims) were not friends, not allies, not misunderstood, not oppressed by Israel and the west, not a peaceful religion. They were killers. Cold blooded murderers that celebrated the murders in their streets, and to me that meant that they were all guilty.
   So what if Islam was not a religion? What if it were the Boy Scout instead? The Boy Scouts have a book (the Scout Handbook), the have a Law which they are required to follow, they have a Motto, and even swear an Oath to the Boy Scouts. So, what if the Boy Scouts were all around the world (they are) and each week they went out camping in the woods, and they talked about how life would be best in the world if everyone followed the Scout Law? As a matter of fact they decided that anyone who would not follow the Scout Law, and swear allegiance by reciting the Scout Oath, would be killed. What if the Boy Scouts made it know in videos, newspapers, websites, magazines, and other media outlets that this was their desire, to convert eveyone to become Boy Scouts (or Girl Scouts I suppose), and that they would kill anyone that didn't go along ith their wishes. they would probably be widely ignored, but what if then they actually started sending in the younger Cub Scouts into crowded marketplaces with bombs strapped on them., set to blow up innocent not Boy Scouts. they kidnap other non Boy Scouts, and take videos of them slicing off the heads of people that would not become Boy Scouts. How would we react to the Boy Scouts? Would we allow the Boy Scouts to enter our country, because some other Boy Scouts proclaim that Boy Scouts are a peaceful organization. I mean there is nothing in, A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent that would cause any alarm, so they must be just mis-understood. But would they get the benefit of the doubt? The violence has been perpetrated by the Boy Scouts, there is evidence to this, as a matter of fact violence and terrorist hits happen almost every single day with thousands of people dieing every year, and in 99.9% of the time there are Boy Scouts involved. How friendly would we all be to the Boy Scouts if this were the case?
   Yet this is exactly what we do with Islamists. Every day around the world people are killed by them, and the people of Europe allow them to enter their countries and not integrate, but force them to allow their culture to remain, even though their culture requires the submission of the in place culture. If Islam wasn't a religion but were like the Boy Scouts we would not be falling all over ourselves like our weak and pathetic Attorney General who cant bring himself to recognize the enemy. He cant say the words Islamic and terrorist in the same sentence, so how are we to believe that this administration can fight against it. If it were the Boy Scouts they would have no problem attacking them. They have already been attacked by the left. Maybe if the Boy Scouts were a religious organization they wouldn't be attacked, but then again they had better be a non-Christian religion or else they would still be fair game.
   So I claim now and forever, that Islam is not a religion. If anything they are a cult, and as such, they have no special rights here in this country, nor around the world. If they are not a cult, or a secular organization, then they have blown it. The "peaceful" part of their "religion should have culled out the bad apples, because now the whole bunch is spoiled. And what should one do with spoiled apples but to throw them away.

Damn NeoCons!!

2010-06-22T11:09:00.001-07:00

I love how so many people label others"neo-cons" without a full understanding of the term. I decided that there are so many on this "Libertarian-Anarchy-Ron Paulian" tack that if one says, "The Iraq war was justified" how quickly these folks scream NEOCON!!!. As if someone with a different opinions on the foreign policy than Ron Paul, suddenly qualifies them as a NEOCON!!!!. God forbid they also may love Jesus or something. That's a sure way to spot NEOCONS!!!. I've determined that most of the Libertarian-Anarchy-Ron Paulians (see how easy it is to throw labels on people) are just liberal-progressives that realized they couldn't believe that bullshit anymore, They opened their eyes a little and saw a way they could still hate Bush, and not be a dumbass. Anyway. I think I heard something from a Neocon the other day that made sense. The American People do not have the willpower to win a war anymore. I agree with him. We should get the hell out of all foreign countries immediately. There is just no need for us to be anywhere but here. With technology today, we can absolutely, positively destroy anything, and kill anyone that we would like, without having to leave the comforts of our air conditioning.