The Terrorists are Winning

The terrorists are winning the battle and cowering this society. We have a President that projects weakness. Weakness is provocative to the Jihadists. With every policy action by this President, the signal of weakness shouts out loud and clear to everybody including our enemies.

It is we the American people who must now sit in airplane seats like criminals with hands visible on knees, and no bathroom trips during airport approaches, etc. We have a government that will not take a stand against the Muslim Jihadists who want to kill us. We have a President who is naïve enough to think that by being obsequious to those who want to kill us will somehow make good guys out of them. This President is a loser and has surrounded himself with a bunch of radicals with a disdain for this country. Obama does not have a grasp of the greatness of this country or the reasons for its greatness.

The radical left is too stupid to understand that the only reason we do not have to carry prayer rugs and bow to Mecca 5 times a day is the strength and fortitude of our government and military. Even in the light of such a truth, we have to suffer the fools who attack our recruitment centers, drive the ROTC away from our colleges and jeer our servicemen and women. The Jihadists prey upon our folly and gain strength from it.

I want a President who stands for something. We don’t need a President who will not be proud of his country. We do not need a President who runs around apologizing for America and bowing to other world leaders. Obama is a liar, vacillates on important issues, and is constantly blaming others for his problems. Hopefully, help is just 3 short years away, but in the meantime, we can help nullify his stupidity in November of 2010.

I want a President who understands that Roosevelt’s policies did not get us out of the depression. What you hear about WWII getting us out of the depression is only partly true. The war in the economical sense was a giant government spending spree. It did put people to work but also ran up a huge national debt. What saved our bacon was after the war and the fact that we were the only industrialized country that was not damaged by the war. It was kind of like having the only store in town. England was devastated, Japan was devastated, Europe and Russia were practically destroyed, so if the world needed manufactured goods, we were it. It was Roosevelt’s policies after the war that enabled us to make a financial comeback. Roosevelt ended wage and price controls and unleashed our private sector.

From the private sector flows prosperity. Prosperity is not generated by government. Every dollar that the government spends has to come from the private sector. When the government spends ten dollars, it has to take ten dollars out of the economy. The more that government spends, the more that has to come out of the economy. At best, the only thing that the government can do is redistribute money from one group to another.

Redistribution may sound pretty good, but it has one major flaw. The source for the money that gets redistributed goes away. The efforts of the entrepreneurs that make the money, get taxed out of existence or they relocate somewhere that allows them to operate without the high taxes to fund redistribution. And, with a declining income, if the government wants to continue spending, it has to monetize the debt – meaning just print the money. When that happens, the value of the money goes down. It is a lose – lose proposition for everybody.

The problem is very visible today in New York and California. These two states are broke and can’t find enough money to pay their bills. They have managed to tax the money makers and wealth creators out of their states. California, New York, New Jersey, and Michigan exemplify this problem. They have lost a large percentage of their wealth creators to states and countries with a better business climate. Compounding their problems is that these states don’t lose those people with their hands out, those hands get multiplied because when the wealth creators are driven out, jobs leave with them. The lose of wealth creators result in increases of the unemployed as jobs become scarcer.

That is why you need elected officials who understand how business operates. Obama has wasted the good will and hopes of the people who elected him with political patronage and payoffs to his buddies. He is dirty (politically) and the press continues to cover for him. For Shame!

I feel betrayed by this President. America is being led off the cliff by a left wing radical with the press rooting him on. I disagreed with Bush on a lot of issues, but I never thought that he was out to destroy us. He certainly would not have bowed to an Arabian King or criticized America.

Come on November. Hopefully we will survive this idiot President until we can change the makeup of the congress.

Cheers,

-Robert-

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Master of Double Speak

I have never been a fan of President Obama, but never virulently against him either. I may be getting to that point however if he continues to mislead the people about his policies.

First, let us have a definition of taxes. Taxes are the revenues lost by the private sector because of actions (or Laws) mandated by the Government. All tax collections will find their roots in the private sector. Yes, even those import taxes applied to the foreign goods we import. The taxpaying public pays those taxes through the higher prices that the taxes impose upon those goods. They are unavoidable since we don’t manufacture most products that we use.

So now we have a President who tells the American public that his new healthcare plan will not add to the deficit, but will actually help bring down and save money for the deficit. He says it so smoothly that you can almost believe and hope that what he is saying is the way it will be.

Medical costs have been going up and certainly we need to do a better job containing those costs. How we do it is the big elephant in the room. Under the Obama plan, the costs are paid for from a variety of sources other than the Government. This legislation mandates coverage for almost everybody with a heavy fine imposed upon those without coverage.

Case #1 – Help for Small Business?

If you are a small business owner, the extra money for mandated insurance substantially affects your bottom line. Healthcare’s average cost is around $5,000 - $6,000/year. If you have four employees, that is the added cost of $20,000 – $24,000/year that you will have to pay – if you have four employees. At minimum wage, an employee costs the employer with no benefits from the following formula –

- 6.2% of that for FICA/Social Security

- 1.45% for Medicare

- .3% (minimum for clerical) for Worker's Compensation

- 6.2% on $7,000 salary for Unemployment Compensation/FUTA


In Texas, the current minimum wage is $7.25/hour – that calculates to roughly $13,000/year. Add to that $806.00 for the FICA/Social Security, $188.50 for Medicare, $39.00 for Workman’s Compensation, and finally $434.00 for Unemployment Compensation/FUTA. It totals to $14,467/year for the cost of a minimum wage employee. (In Texas)

With good management, your small business eeks out a gross of $500,000/year with a net of $75,000 that you keep as your reward. (That’s a 15% profit) Adding an additional 20 – 24 thousand dollar healthcare to your cost side comes straight out of your pocket.

As a small business owner, you might tighten up your expenses in other ways, but the main focus will have to be on the number of employees that you have. One of these workers will get the axe to help make up the difference.

Case #2 – Help the Economy

Obama bragged that his plan would decrease our insurance premium costs. That is, provided you make less than $200,000/year and do not have one of those so-called Cadillac plans. Oh, really! Think about it! I know several people making $200,000 and more. Most of those do not have a lot of left over money for the additional taxes that Obama wants to impose. This is the group of people who buy the better homes, pay the lion’s share of collected taxes, buy the better cars, and tip the waitress better. In short, it is their money that drives the majority of our economy. Their demands for goods and services is what keeps a large segment of our population working, and now Obama wants to tap into that money to pay for his healthcare program.

It is like he doesn’t understand the basic way that the economy works. When you mandate that a segment of the population do without a portion of their disposable income, then the ripple effects are felt by everybody. Under Obamacare, there will be more job losses as the upper middleclass of our society have to adjust their spending habits downward to accommodate for having less disposable income.

This income redistribution plan will impoverish more people than it helps.

Case #3 – Evil Insurance Companies

Medical insurance plans pay for part or all of an insured’s medical bills. But these groups of businesses are cast as the evil-doers by Obama. The man has no shame! Insurance companies have a small margin of profit. They are in business for profit. But insurance is not their only function as Obama would have you believe.

Insurance companies invest the premiums paid to them by their customers. They fund a lot of projects ranging from new startup companies, Federal treasury certificates, and industry needs. Their investment activities hold down insurance premium costs. Insurance companies have to augment what they collect in premiums with their investments to hold premiums low enough for their customers to afford. The loss of the investments by our insurance industry would cripple our economy – leading to additional job loss.

Obama’s shallowness is out front for all to see! His populist policies can only hurt this country. He is aware that his class-envy message is aimed at a population with a large number of ignorant people. This large group of ignorance is the product of the Liberal establishment. But that is a topic for another article.

Case #4 – A Prostituted Congress

Obama has literally prostituted our Congress in order to pass his healthcare plan. Hundreds of millions of dollars were paid to the recalcitrant Senate members who objected to this abomination of a healthcare plan. Then, like a thief of the night, passed the plan in the wee small hours of the night. Believe me; our Government was not set up to operate this way. Abuse of power, obfuscation and trickery, lies and non-caring, partisan news organizations have succeeded in stealing a large chunk of your freedoms.

Mr. Obama, I hope you are happy with destroying this representative republic. Your presidency will be remembered for the destruction of Liberty. In the future, people will have only fond memories of a society that once had the freedom of choice. We are in a headlong race to mediocrity with Obama leading the way.

Cheers, I think,

-Robert-

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Trickle Down Jobs

The discussions about jobs rage in the public square. The President has held meetings with the industrial leaders, bankers, his advisors, and members of Congress searching for a solution to the jobs dilemma. But the answers still elude this President.

The President and those around him hold on to the hope that the redistribution of wealth holds the key to putting America back to work, but is it? Why doesn’t it work? It has a populous attraction to those caught up on the bottom income levels. If we can just take money from the rich and distribute it to the poor, then the spending of that money by the poor will rekindle the economy. It is a bottom up theory that has been sold to this President. But will it create those jobs that are so precious to the whole country?

I will discuss disincentive a little later. But first I want you to look at what happens when the wealthy are stripped of their disposable income. Then, think about which method creates jobs and which method perpetuates social mediocrity.

It is those people with the drive and determination to be wealthy that contribute to all of our well being. How you ask? Well when the Government is not confiscating their disposable income, they spend their money on goods and services. Let’s look at a few samples.

Large Screen Flat Panel HD Televisions: The reason the rest of us can go out and buy one of these marvels of engineering without killing our budgets come from the “bleeding edge” effect. Most of you probably forget that when these marvels first hit the market, they cost $10,000 and more. It was the wealthy that bought this new technology at those ridiculous prices. It was the demand by the wealthy that funded the manufacturers and enabled them to improve their production techniques. Slowly, we saw those prices come down as it became cheaper to produce those flat screen televisions. All of us benefitted because of the wealthy. Real jobs were created for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of this new technology. The ones really responsible for the evolution were those who could pony up that money for those early flat panel TV’s. They made it possible for the rest of us.

Apartments: A lot of us live in apartments. Take a good look at them. They cost in the millions to build. They are the products of somebody wanting to make money. Yep, it is the greedy wealthy who build the places where we live. Apartment construction and upkeep provide real jobs. Adding to the benefits we receive from having somebody wanting to make money from building apartments – we get roads, sewer systems, sales of all the building materials, and last but not least, we get commercial activity from the many businesses that spring up where ever there is a bulging population. All of this activity comes from that person who sees a plot of ground and decides to develop it.

Cities: Do you like your city skyline? It too is the product of the monumental egos that want to make a statement. But egos aside for a moment, is it so hard to look at these monumental edifices and not see and comprehend the number of jobs that were created just to build those large imposing buildings. Businesses supporting the workforces that use those buildings create still more jobs. Does your job depend upon the efforts of the rich investors who say, “We want to build a large building as a monument to celebrate our success?” Most of the large buildings you see include rental spaces for other businesses. Remember, commerce begets commerce.

Fancy Boats: Ever drive around by a harbor and look at all the yachts and large pleasure craft? Building those floating pleasure palaces is a major source of employment. The wealthy among us want and buy these expensive trinkets and by doing so create good jobs for the rest of us. There are literally thousands of craftsmen involved in the building of those large pleasure craft. Then of course are the follow on businesses like building harbors for those boats which have the effect of concentrating people of wealth. That concentration of wealthy individuals in turn leads to hotels, service businesses for the boats, boat charters, and restaurants. All of which would not be there without the wealthy wanting to spend their money for pleasure boats.

In the interest of keeping this article short, I will close with the following. The people who earn the most money pay the most taxes. The top 25% income earners pay 86% of all taxes. The top 1% income bracket pays 39% of all taxes.

So the next time you enter your house or apartment, think about the entrepreneur who decided that he was going to invest money into housing. Or maybe you are a trucker who hauls goods from and to the businesses that need those deliveries for the purpose of making money. Or maybe you are the electrician wiring up one of those tall buildings or new housing additions. You might be that fast food employee serving the builders, office workers, or employees of the other businesses that have sprung up around the economical activity in your area.

Remember, it is the wealthy and those seeking wealth that make it possible for our livelihoods. When the government seeks to take from the rich and distribute their wealth to the poor, there is less money for them to operate with. They buy fewer products from that bleeding edge, build fewer buildings, buy fewer boats, and pay fewer taxes. If this is where your heart is then by all means support Barack Obama and his redistribution of wealth. But, if you value your freedom and the good things that result from those who want to make a profit, then say no to Obama’s dim vision of what makes this country great.

All of us depend upon the commerce that trickles down from the visionary few among us. The profit motive is the spur to the flanks that makes the whole economy work. What is really sad is that everybody can participate in the wealth creation of this country. Making money is not restricted to just certain people. In America, anybody with the dream and desire to achieve can accomplish their goals. But somehow that message is being lost by those who seek to kill that desire by controlling the reward side of the equation. Obama’s vision is to reap the reward while you put out the effort. But when the reward is drastically reduced (through taxation), so is that incentive for an individual to expend that necessary effort for achievement.

Cheers,

-Robert-

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Good Intentions

The world is full of people with ‘good intentions’. I personally do not berate those who have the strong desire to make things better for all of us. But any solution to even the most innocuous problem needs examination for its consequences. The solution to any problem will have other effects, some good and some bad. The question that has to be answered is whether or not the original problem would be more acceptable than those created by the solution.

Usually, when a particular problem arises, somebody comes up with a solution for it. The problem solver generally has the best of intentions and means no harm, but the law of unintended consequences always lurks in the shadows for the unwary. Those unintended consequences will ultimately have to be dealt with. Now, instead of just the one original problem, unwittingly a new family of problems has been created. Ethyl gasoline is one such example.

In its early use, the burning of gasoline in an engine had a problem. Whenever the gasoline ignited, the fuel burned so fast that it created an undesirable ‘knock’ in the engine. The most common solution, and there were more than one, was to use the additive tetra-ethyl lead to smooth out and enhance the power of a gasoline engine.

As a solution, it did the job very well. Engines ran smoother and did not have the fuel knock of raw gasoline. Tetra-ethyl lead use had its controversy back when it was first used, but the moneyed interest won the day and as a consequence, became widely used as a fuel additive.

But then, we had to deal with the unintended consequences of lead poisoning in the atmosphere and toxic smog. Our history is replete with such fiascos.

New medicines are one such area of unintentional consequences. With the best of intentions, medicines like thalidomide that caused birth defects, anti-depressants that raise the possibility of suicide, and pain killers that create drug dependencies all come under the umbrella of unintended consequences.

Lithium batteries are all the rage now because they have the appearance of less pollution. But what most people do not understand is that lithium is not found just lying around for the taking. No, lithium is not an abundantly available element. Even in supposedly good deposits of the stuff, a lot of refining has to take place. One common way to get at the lithium is to drill for it, pump the slurry into vast settling ponds, and then it’s off to the refineries for purification. The process is actually an environmental nightmare.

The tradeoffs using lithium center on whether or not it solves a problem with fewer side effects than the original problem. Cars with lithium batteries do not pollute. But we have to remind ourselves that a lithium battery does not create energy. It only provides portability for the energy that charged it. We still have to produce the energy for charging those batteries. A reminder at this point, there is no free lunch. Everything we do has consequences.

Corn and palm nut based ethanol were heralded as the next great fuel – but nobody took into consideration that corn was also a food product and while ethanol may be a great fuel, the demand for corn based ethanol drove food prices so high that a lot of people could no longer afford that staple in their diet. Palm nut growing became a source of income for the tropical regions and to produce palm nuts for ethanol; they started clearing rain forest to grow palm nuts. Again, unintended consequences come out of the shadows and create more problems.

All decisions of problem solving involve tradeoffs. But tradeoffs are a part of everyday decision making. Some are personal while others affect everybody. The flap over CO2 is another example. We as citizens of the world need answers and a range of solutions if the problem exists. Cap and trade is but one solution that is being proposed to diminish CO2 levels. But the consequence of such actions affects all of us and may create more problems than it is worth. Would cap and trade solve anything? There has to be other viable solutions to this problem, if there is a problem. Whether or not CO2 is a problem is still up for debate. It has yet to be proven that the increase of CO2 is the result in human activity. We may be trying to solve a problem that is not of our making and beyond our ability to solve. The science is ambiguous at best.

It is not just the scientific resolutions that we have to think about. Personal decisions also come with tradeoffs that we have to deal with. When we go out and socialize, we decide if the hangover the next day will be worth it, or if that partner we wind up with is going to create future problems. All actions of our decisions have consequences – some good, and some bad.

Never lose common sense. Learn from the mistakes you make. Your good intentions can result in somebody else’s nightmare so think before you act. But when the good outweighs the bad, then go for it. No matter how small the decision is, it will have consequences. I am not trying to advocate not making decisions, just understand the possible results of your actions.

Remember that old saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Cheers,

-Robert-

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What Lurks Inside

The revelations about Tiger Woods only showcase the seedier side of humans. That seedier side has always been around, but we as a species, never seem to be able to get a handle on it. With the technology present in the here and now, human blemishes are hard to hide. It is not easy for anybody to escape the eyes of cameras or the instant recordings of the spoken word.

We can rail against Tiger, or others who have been caught up in the act of being less than they can be, but the awful truth is, all humans have this side of them.

Always remember, for every top, there is a bottom. The honing of our skills to perpetuate the darker side of our existence, only adds to that side. We don’t control porn because we do not want to control porn. And just like the tug of drugs to those addicted, sex is very addictive and among the highest treated causes in rehab centers.

When others get caught doing the same thing that most people do, it gives those not caught the invitation to be righteously indignant. The phoniness of this indignation is sickening. Every one of us wants to parade in public one set of values and do the things that enthrall us in private.

It may well be that we do not have the discipline to cure our prurient nature. If that is the case, we are headed towards a very disappointing life. The job of curbing that darker side of humans was entrusted to religion, but my personal belief is that the selfish, self-indulgent acts are getting worse. In that sense, religion is failing us.

As we pursue the pleasures of life, our culture is being dumbed down. We no longer have the attitude of a fiercely independent and proud people. How long will it be before the darker side of us wins the battle for supremacy? The lack of privacy in everyday events is numbing our sensibilities to those actions. Eventually, that which is considered abhorrent now, will become mainstream. The evolution of abortion clearly demonstrates this principle. This process will only get worse. There will always be a new revelation to get indignant about, and after the novelty of so many revelations about that activity, it too will become accepted into the culture.

It was easy to convince a person that killing the unborn was okay - because the unborn had no voice. Sexual deviancy will take a little longer. I invite you to read an article I penned for another website about unlimited sex. You will find it at Robfg.com.

The spiral of the pursuits of pleasure only has one direction for this culture and that is downward. There is not much to recommend about the direction our society is going in the moral sense.

As I write this, I want you to know that I am also no prima donna. I have the same warts and blemishes as my fellow humans. My concern is how to make things better. Would that I could, I would get everyone to do some inward soul searching and recognize what we are becoming. This culture desperately needs to reestablish a boundary of right and wrong. If the older spiritual model can no longer enforce that boundary, then another model is needed.

Cheers,

-Robert-

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Made in China

Christmas shopping has dispirited me to the point that I no longer want to spend money for loved ones. Why, you ask?

Our Christmas shopping once helped the American economy by supporting American industries that paid good salaries to Americans. That is no longer true. I was going to buy a tool set for my son and found a nice chrome-vanadium metal set of wrenches made by Stanley Tool. But upon closer inspection was the label ‘Made in China’. So many of our American brands have been farmed out to China, it is no wonder that so many are unemployed or have marginal jobs.

I like the American cars, especially the Chevrolet products. But they are too expensive for my wallet. It is sad that I can buy a Hyundai or Honda of equivalent quality for so much less. It is not a matter of loyalty to the U.S., the foreign brands are hands down the better deal.

It shouldn’t be this way! But as long as we have the big spending Liberals running the country, our impoverishment is what we can expect. The Liberals tax our businesses and everything that this country produces so much that they are running our job makers and creators out of the country. But being a democracy, we keep electing those same politicians telling us the same pack of lies about how they will cut taxes and restore our small businesses and manufacturing jobs.

What we get instead is a takeover of American firms and higher taxes to pay for broad and expansive government programs. Enough already!

Even my penchant for smoked oysters by the once venerable Crown Prince brand has not been able to escape the pull of favorable tax and labor practices of China. The last can of smoked oysters I purchased was labeled ‘Product of China’. It was sad to think that this once great company had farmed out their operation to China; I couldn’t eat the oysters, I gagged on them at the thought.

If we ever hope to get back on sound footing, we must send the politicians packing and get term limits established. The professional politician has been feathering his nest at our expense for too long. It seems that after a few terms in office, they get corrupted and all of their energies are focused on getting re-elected. Re-election takes a lot of money and career politicians have defined the term of fund-raising into an art form. Their favors for the donations they need for re-election cost us all dearly. Insist upon term limits from any candidate that you nominate.

Yes, I just wanted to thank the Democrats for screwing up our country. They just can’t leave anything alone. The Democrats seize every opportunity to grab more money. There was a time that I loved to go to the casinos and play the slot machines but not anymore. Once again, the Government has put their greedy paws into an industry that once thrived and is now suffering because of the tax structures placed upon them. It is next to impossible to win on the slots because of the take from the taxing authorities. Bankruptcies are now common and getting worse with the casinos. People are not stupid, and when you can’t win at least some of the time, they will no longer spend their money for a losing effort. If you drop 4-6 hundred dollars/night, the best you can hope for is maybe a free meal and a complimentary room for your efforts – but forget about winning.

Liberalism impoverishes people. Liberalism is about the acquisition of power at everyone’s expense. Wealth redistribution works until there is no more wealth to redistribute – that is about where we are now. Soon the Government will be so desperate for money that they will literally print it. They will have to because they will have taxed our businesses out of existence or drove them to the more tax friendly countries of the world.

We have witnessed the devaluation of our national currency during this past year and it promises to get even worse. Unless spending is curtailed, our dollar will become worth more as toilet paper than money.

If you have a heart and concern for this nation, you will send the Liberals packing in the next election.

Maybe it isn’t too late to undo the harm done by Obama – but it has to be a decisive victory for conservatism to reverse course.

Cheers,

-Robert-

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Obama Bungles the Economy

Let there be no doubt that Obama stepped into a financial mess. He had an opportunity to demonstrate his skills at managing the economy for the good of all but he did just the opposite. Finger pointing has never solved a problem especially when that finger points to you and your party.

No matter how the Obama administration wants to spin the cause of this financial mess, the Democrats are liable for the lion’s share of it. It is the Democrats who have been in charge of the nation’s purse strings since 2006 – not the Republicans. Since 2006 the Democrats have been in charge of the Congress, and it is the Congress who spends the money. But I want to put blame aside for this article.

Obama and his willing accomplices in the Congress have sought to use the Government to shore up the sagging economy. Their anti-business approach has only deepened the size and scope of the problem.

Using the Government for such direct involvement in business is fundamentally flawed. The national treasury’s only source for money is the taxpayer. Period, end of story. All government jobs are a drain on the national treasury and contribute nothing back to the treasury.

However, there are proper places for Government spending. Government spending can create a good environment for businesses by providing the necessary infrastructures for businesses to thrive. Highways for commerce, a military to protect and defend the nation, maintenance of national parks and monuments that provide destinations for travelers, basic education that provides a first step towards pursuing happiness, and basic services for the poor and infirm all contribute to our well being as a nation. I am sure that I missed some, but the whole idea is for Government to provide the framework for opportunity and freedom for its citizens.

It is not the responsibility of the Government to provide the happiness to any group. The personal well-being of an individual is up to the individual. Obama has taken the opposite route by providing for certain groups at the expense of others. This is known as the redistribution of wealth. Saving large corporations suffering from mismanagement is not a function of the Government. Enriching banking institutions with taxpayer money after the banking management has over-leveraged and let greed consume them is not a function of the Government.

The Government does have a duty in preserving freedom. Failure is also a freedom. There is no better teacher than failure. But having the Government making the decisions of who fails and who does not is not equal opportunity. The bankers who squandered billions of dollars of their client’s money and got bailed out were no different than Bernie Madoff. Bernie Madoff was perceived to be a winner and a lot of people put their trust and their money in the way he did business. If Madoff would have been as well connected as the Wall Street Bankers, he probably would have been bailed out. But instead, he became the poster boy for what was wrong on Wall Street. In comparison to the Wall Street gang though, Bernie Madoff was a minnow. The wealth lost due to the incompetence and greed of Wall Street was in the trillions – but you don’t see any of the bankers or politicians that enabled them going to jail.

I think Madoff got what he deserved, but he should have company. Everybody with a 401K account lost money – some, a lot of money due to the avarice and greed on Wall Street.

Obama has set a course that will impoverish this nation. His spending is an attack on all of us. The inflation that is sure to come because of monetizing his expanding debt is sinking our ship. First our 401Ks, and now the double whammy of runaway inflation is an assault upon all of us. On a personal note, I have shed my dollars for the more stable environment of commodities like oil, gold, food, and necessary industrial products. The dollar is a declining product because of Obama’s bungling. Dollars are no longer worth holding. The shame of such foolish Governmental policies that are destroying this wonderful nation.

It is the businesses of our nation that need relief from Obama. The actions that he and the Congress are taking against them will only exacerbate employment and drive us deeper into debt. For reasons unknown or unfathomable, Obama thinks he can spend his way out of this mess. God help us!

Cheers, (I think)

-Robert-

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Installing Windows 7

My last article was about the upgrade I made to my computer. This is the follow-up to that article about my experiences installing Microsoft’s new operating system – Windows 7.

By the way, before I get to the actual installation of Windows 7, I want to comment on the box or container that the system comes in. I don’t believe there was ever a box designed that is more aggravating than the one chosen by Microsoft to ship and display their products. It took some tinkering to get at the enclosed system without resorting to an axe to open it. But being a klutz, it could have just been me.

Your first looks at the disks that came in the box gives you the impression that this was indeed a fancy iteration of the venerable operating system. They are laser inscribed with a wavy pattern around the outside edge. One of the disks is for a 64 bit installation, and the other is for a 32 bit installation. You have your choice of the system you want to employ.

If not for the limitation of memory I was experiencing because of a bad memory module, I would have installed the 64 bit system, but with only 4 gigabytes of memory, it made sense to install the 32 bit system. 4 gigabytes is the limit that is addressable by the 32 bit system, but the 64 bit system can address a lot more than that. In my case, I will do with the 32 bit system until the other half of my memory gets here from Corsair. They say it has been shipped, but I still have not seen hide or hair of it. When it arrives and posts properly, I will make the decision about whether or not to reinstall Windows using the 64 bit system.

Getting started: I allowed the new DVD with the system on it to boot up the computer. It was a surprise to read that I could install the system and retain my applications or do a clean install and then reinstall my applications. But printed clearly on the box, the new Windows has to be a clean install if you are replacing Windows XP. If you are replacing Vista, then you can install and retain your applications. Since I was replacing XP, I made the necessary preparations for a clean install. (I had to save those files that I wanted to keep that were on my System drive.)

When Windows 7 does a clean install, you will lose the old system, but some files are preserved and moved to a folder named windows.old. This new folder will contain your old Documents and Settings folder with all of your personal info including your music, photographs and videos. Just about everything else disappears so if you go the new or clean install route, be sure to back up any data files you have that are not in the Documents and Settings folder.

The new system is not a quick install. Be forewarned that in the process of Windows 7building its nest on your hard drive, it is moving a lot of information around and in a out of your computer. It is also very helpful to have your internet connection available to the new system.

Once the installation starts, Windows is pretty much on its own. Eventually you will get to the part where you have to type in your key code but other than telling the system your time-zone and language preference, that’s about it. The real adventure starts after the system is successfully installed.

Reinstalling all of your applications is a pain and time consuming. If you have downloaded programs from the internet, you will have to find the codes sent to you before they can be activated. I hope all of you either wrote down those codes or preserved your emails that contained them. Those codes are among the first problems I encountered.

For the applications I had downloaded like Winzip, Paretologic’s Driver Cure, Spider Sol and a lot of others, the key codes were in emails saved into a folder I named ‘Confirmations’. I use Mozilla’s Thunderbird for a mail client program and after installing the latest and greatest version from the internet, I tried to restore my saved email folders. Thunderbird would have none of it. Compounding the problem were the emails I received and sent during the few days between my having saved the folders and the present. The only up-to-date folders that contained all of my email addresses and saved emails resided within the new folder of windows.old that Windows 7 had created. I had to figure out how to retrieve those files, but they were hidden and I had no access to them.

So my predicament was twofold. Thunderbird would not restore the saved files that I had saved and I could not locate the files that Windows 7 had saved. It was getting close to panic time. If you experience the need to see the hidden files, do this --:

• Click on the Windows Icon(You’ll find it on the left bottom most of the screen)

• Click on ‘Control Panel’

• With control panel open, Click on ‘Appearance and Personalization’

• From the list of options that appear, Click on ‘Folder Options Show hidden files and folders’

After you set your system to show you the hidden folders, then you will be able to access the ‘Application Data’ folder within the old ‘Documents and Settings’ folder. For Thunderbird users, this is where you will find your address book and mail files.

My email program is my link to the outside world. I have literally over 2000 email addresses, all of the comments from my blog and the other web sites that I write for. Not to mention all of the thousands of emails saved from friends and family. Yep, all of the factual, funny, and ridiculously outrageous emails along with their accompanying attachments are to be found in my email archives. If you sent me a joke in the last 7 years, I still have it. My library also contains the videos, photographs, Power Point files and cartoons that have come my way. So reestablishing those files to an active status and making them once again accessible was vitally important to me.

Once I had located those files and pointed Thunderbird to them – it still would not recognize them. What to do ---?

I started the laborious chore of manually transferring the data to the new Thunderbird directories. It took nearly two weeks but at the same time I separated the data into categories and files that were not only accessible to Thunderbird but also to my file management system. I should have been doing that all along, but being the slug that I am, I didn’t.

As a side note, I also tried to get MS. Outlook to read those files and it would not. For a lot of reasons, I do not use Outlook. Outlook is the only program in the MS. Office Professional suite that I do not use.

Media player also gave me some concerns. I had to reauthorize all of my protected music. The process wasn’t too bad, just an annoyance. But once Media Player found my saved music files I was in business.

Windows 7 is a winner. It operates smooth as butter and once the UAC (User Account Control) settings are quieted down so that you aren’t pestered to death with those nagging popup windows – it only gets better. You can get to the UAC settings several ways, but I use the access through MSConfig. To get to MSConfig, do the following:

• Click on the Windows Control Button at the bottom left of your screen.

• In the space provided type ‘msconfig’. (without the quotation marks.)

• From the menu that pops up click on the tab labeled ‘Tools’.

• In the tools menu, you will find a lot of useful, helpful applets, including the UAC control panel.

• Click on the tool of your choice and then click ‘Launch’ at the lower right side of the window.

Whether you want the device manager, event viewer, or registry editor, this is a great place to find those programs. Mind you, it is not the only place to find the various tools, but it is a good place to find most of the tools you will need all in one place.

The MSConfig program also has other tabs that give you control over which services and programs start automatically, and the boot sequence. I rate it high as a versatile tool to keep windows running efficiently. A word of caution though – if you are not familiar with some of the services and programs that start automatically, I suggest you research it on the internet before you disable it. But there is a saving grace, all you have to do is recheck the box if you find you have made a mistake.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Email Comment to Robert

Computer Upgrade

This article is for those of you wondering where my articles have been for the past 2 – 3 weeks. Life with our gadgets, if nothing else, is an adventure.

First I want to say up front that Windows 7 is a smooth operating system that addresses most of the irritations of XP, and now that I have it installed and all updates working, I very much like what Microsoft has done.

The glitches that I encountered during the new system installation were for the most part, self inflicted - even though I have been involved with computers since 1980.

I probably would not have installed or bought Windows 7 if not for a freak lightening strike that took out my satellite modem, hard disk drive, and messed up my motherboard so that it would not boot up without the system disk in the CD-Rom drive. When I realized that I was going to have to replace major components of my computer, saving and preserving my data was suddenly very important to me.

It was during this process that I received a notice from the folks at Newegg.com that I could pre-order Windows 7 for half-price. I had already read the good reviews about Windows 7 so I jumped at the chance to upgrade to the new system at a significant savings. A timeline would put this in August of 2009. The biggest problem I had now was to make do with what I had until the October 22nd release of the new operating system. I bought two new hard drives, one for archiving my data and the other one for a clean install of XP.

A clean install meant that all of my programs would have to be reinstalled. It took XP about two hours to install itself and another two to three hours to download all the latest updates. (My original system disk was at least 2 years old.) Altogether, it took me the better part of two days to get up and running again. In the process, I found out the hard drive that I thought was damaged was not damaged and that it was the motherboard causing the strange boot up problems. Even on a new hard drive with a clean install, I still had to have the system disk in the CD/DVD drive to boot.

The chipset on my ASUS motherboard turned out to be the problem and I could not find a software update for my AMD 590 chipset. This meant that I would have to go the hardware upgrade route.

You can buy a new motherboard in lots of flavors with numerous chipset and CPU configurations. Each combination of motherboard and chipset has its place concerning speed, economics, and features. I chose to buy one of the latest and greatest with the hope that time would not eclipse it so fast. The new motherboard meant that I also had to upgrade my memory and CPU; the other components would not be affected. (Power supply, computer case, hard drives, CD/DVD drives, video card, and monitor.)

For the record, a clean rebuild is easier than replacing just a few of the major components. Wiring harnesses and other installed components manage to get in the way and make upgrading a real pain. So after laboriously installing the new parts, I turned the computer on for the first time - it would not post. Posting is the process a computer goes through when you turn on your computer. When power is applied, the computer checks for hardware errors. Whenever a component does not respond properly an error is generated and the error checking process stops. At that point, the offending component has to be fixed or the computer will not work.

Fortunately for me, my new motherboard came equipped with an LED readout that shows a code of the post operations. When the post stopped, it gave me a code that I could look up to find out what was wrong. In this case it was one of the memory modules that I had installed. Removing the memory modules one at a time quickly located the one that was causing the errors. The memory sticks were a part of the upgrade because my previous system used the DDR2 memory and the new motherboard had to have the DDR3 memory. Long story short, I got the computer running with only one-half of the new memory.

I want to say a word about the company that made my memory. They were very nice and issued a RMA for the bad memory stick’s return, and have shipped me a new memory module. I expect it any day now. So if any of you buy memory for your computer, you might want to consider the Corsair brand of memory. For no other reason than they offer you service if you should ever need it.

When I do install my new memory module, my computer will be complete. But there was another adventure I want to relate to you and that is the Windows 7 installation. I will write about that in the next article. I was going to include it in this writing, but it made the article longer than I wanted.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Tort Reform

The buzz word heard most often from the right, but is tort reform really going to solve the high cost of treatment?

The short answer is no. Should the Congress pass such legislation, do you really think that the doctors would be willing to pass on the savings on to their patients? Do you believe that tort reform would improve the quality of your medical treatment? Let’s examine both sides of the argument.

The threat of a medical malpractice lawsuit increases the cost of a doctor’s malpractice insurance. That cost is indeed a large burden placed upon doctors. They purchase the malpractice insurance for protection against lawsuits – but why wouldn’t they? A single lawsuit could potentially bankrupt a doctor. The cost of malpractice insurance is then passed to the patient or his insurance provider. And, even with the advent of tort legislation, the end cost to the patient is unlikely to change.

Assume that tort reform is passed and the cost of malpractice insurance decreases. The savings per patient is not very much. If a doctor has just 2500 patients (a conservative number) the savings per year per patient would only be $80.00. That is, provided his malpractice insurance costs him $200,000/year.

Well, what about all of those unnecessary tests that we hear so much about? Frankly, a lot of good comes from those tests. Those so called ‘expensive unnecessary tests’ are like getting a second opinion about a patient’s condition and ultimately benefit the patient. Patients get the benefit of possibly detecting other health problems because of those tests.

A doctor’s habit of relying on those tests for his diagnosis would probably not change a lot, nor would a patient want them to. So adopting tort legislation could potentially harm the quality of the health care we receive and produce little savings, if any to the patient.

Personally, I am highly offended by the greed of lawyers. But everything has to be weighed on the balance of good vs. bad. The threat of lawsuits by harmed individuals actually keeps doctors from making so many mistakes and that is good for all patients. The tests that the doctors order also keeps large numbers of people employed as well as improving a patient’s chance of having fewer complications due to misdiagnosis.

To be honest, I don’t savor the idea of having to keep the threat of lawsuits over the doctors, but try and imagine a world without any control over the quality of your health care. That is precisely what the threat of lawsuits brings to the table.

Just my thoughts on the subject,

Cheers,

-Robert-

Email Comment to Robert

Spreading Misery

With the realization that what I write is getting to be repetitious, there are some things that need repeating. Everything that Liberalism touches systematically disembowels the apparatus for progress, wealth creation, and freedom. Liberals, usually successful Liberals, (thanks to a free market) have this tremendous heartfelt feeling of compassion for those who choose a less rewarding lifestyle. But their compassion is only evident when they can use other people’s wealth to reward non-achievement.

First, I want to point out that nobody should starve to death, no matter how lazy or unmotivated a person may be. But the idea that you can motivate these people by contributing to their low level of motivation is ludicrous.

Liberalism seeks to reward people for their lack of effort to achieve. It is really a sick notion that instead of rewarding effort, that we reward people for doing nothing. It is certain that if you keep paying for nothing, you will just get more of it. Destroying the wealth and ambition of the motivated segment of the population only serves to impoverish everybody.

This is self evident when a look at any Liberal controlled entity whether it is a State, county, or local government. There is not one Liberal controlled government that is not impoverished and in debt.

Conservative government systems are not lucky – such as Texas. It is the motivation of its people that make it a success. Motivation comes from wanting to do better and being rewarded for achievement. Motivation is inspiration received from the rewards of effort. Motivation comes from being taught about the rewards for effort, and receiving the rewards for effort. When people are continually rewarded for achieving nothing, they will continue to achieve nothing – welfare is their reward for not achieving.

Think about training a pet. Pets are trained using a reward system. When the pet does what we want them to do, they are rewarded with a hug, an at-a-boy, or a food treat. The animal soon learns what is expected of him and will behave in the manner that achieves his reward. People follow the same path. When people feel like they have achieved something, they get a feeling of pride and accomplishment. That feel-good-about-yourself feeling is never felt by the recipients of undeserved rewards. They may be grateful for the handout, but generally speaking, there is resentment because these recipients realize that they are somehow inferior. And if taken to the next logical step, when people continually depend on others for their sustenance, they are in fact, failures. They remain on the fringes, depending on the good will of others.

When you raise your children and do everything for them, they will get spoiled rotten. It takes a long time for a spoiled kid to overcome having the ‘benefit’ of not having to achieve for him/her self. Spoiled kids run the risk of never developing that pride that only achievement can bring.

In closing, I would tell President Obama to quit disenfranchising the achievers. The result can only be the impoverishment of all of us. Every society needs a top of the heap. Elevating ourselves to a comfortable level and away from the squalid bottom of the heap should not be easy, but at least possible for the ones who work at it. The top and slopes of the heap stand there as a challenge to those with the ambition to elevate themselves.

It is the Liberals who would take away our opportunities and keep us all down in the squalid bottom. Killing the rewards for a person’s effort only serves to lessen that effort. Less effort from those who would achieve translates into fewer jobs and a lower standard of living for all. Centralizing and trying to equalize what is not equal is a failed ideology. We have a whole generation of failure to atone for and the Pied Piper Obama is corrupting another. His message is sweet, but the morsel is poison.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Email Comment to Robert

Medical Tyranny

I know it sounds silly. But my friends, who are persuaded to embrace the Liberal philosophy, repeatedly ask me, “How can Government run healthcare possibly intrude upon freedoms?” It sounds really neat to not having to worry about medical costs, so why isn’t that a good thing?

Snow White thought that eating the delicious looking apple was a good idea. This time however, the apple won’t put us to sleep, but establish control over our existence. Once the Government controls the healthcare industry, our healthcare will be up for grabs, controlled by every special interest group that gets in power.

Think about it for a moment – in this country we have the vegetarians, the anti-sugar crowd, the anti-pork people, and the fat police. Just to name a few of the groups that have decided that their way is the way to health and long life. Once medical care is centralized, you would lose your ability to choose the lifestyle you prefer because that lifestyle may run afoul of your getting the necessary treatment needed. Admittedly, some lifestyles are unhealthy and require considerable medical treatment. But all things have to be weighed on a balance – take obesity or getting fat if you will.

If it is decided that the fast food industry is the root cause of obesity, could you not cure obesity by just closing down all fast food restaurants? And while we’re pushing a bit of hyperbole, there are a lot of things that cost society tons of money – cars for instance. Cars do not slowly kill us like being fat does, but cars do inflict billions in property damage and medical cost on our society. I will not even mention the forty to fifty thousand people killed outright from car collisions every year. So should we outlaw the automobile? And while we’re at it, let us not leave out – getting old. The single largest medical cost to our society is taking care of our older population.

It is evident that by closing down the fast food system, doing away with cars and allowing the elderly to expire from lack of healthcare would drastically save us a lot of money. But – would we want to live in such a society? We could not afford the job loss from losing those industries.

The fast food industry alone hires most of our unskilled and entry level people. Would losing those jobs make any sense? Everybody doesn’t get fat that uses fast food restaurants! But if the fat police ever got one of their own into the decision making bodies for healthcare, it could become a possibility.

Should we ever decide that we will not extend the help needed by the obese among us, those folks would die prematurely. Obese people need diet education and intervention, lap bands or other type of bariatric surgery to enable them to live as long and healthy a life as possible. Ancillary care to treat their diabetes, high blood pressure and clogged arteries is also expensive. Washington would literally be deciding the fate of those individuals. But, the sword cuts two ways. If we decide that we will support those who are obese with the National health plan, then the cost would be prohibitive and provide no incentive for a person to adapt a healthier lifestyle. With a nationalized health system, decisions would have to be made as to what treatments are paid for. It would not be possible to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis, but would instead be controlled by guidelines. Those guidelines, out of necessity, would have to favor lower cost. It is a little like the argument for guns or butter.

What those guidelines would look like, I can’t even guess. But it is certain that cost will have to be a large factor. Will the elderly bear the brunt of health savings? Would age be a prominent part of the treatment decisions? This article is not written to favor the elderly, but the elderly make up the largest group in need of health care.

Logically, most of the elderly are retired and pay little into the health care system so it is those of a working age who will have to shoulder the load for elderly health care.

In the grand scheme of things, the government can subsidize healthcare as long as it gets the money from somewhere to do it. That means everybody will have to contribute into the system – not just the rich. Such an added expense to the business world and individuals may be the straw that chases what is left of our manufacturing base out of the country. The cost of providing government provided health care is not for free and can only lead to a national debt far in excess of what we can afford.

It is for that reason that so much of the cost savings will have to come from limiting freedoms that we take for granted – such as eating at fast food restaurants, or at the very least mandating the type of food served at those places. Government intervention, will out of necessity, have to be pervasive to control cost and be able to provide treatment to some degree.

When the medical debate started, it was my hope that congress would fix the bad and leave the good. I define the bad as those things that are driving the cost of health care such as doctors having to protect themselves against unnecessary lawsuits by ordering unnecessary test and treatments. And they could force the insurance companies into competing for customers by allowing them to sell their policies across state lines just as they compete for customers of automobile insurance on television. The congress already knows about the corruption, but there is no movement to put the perpetrators in jail. A pertinent question could be asked about why we are not already going after the bums that corrupt the system. Do we really need more legislation to enforce the laws already on the books? This congress seems Hell bent on a complete takeover of the medical system instead of fixing what is wrong with it.

Also not mentioned in the proposed legislation is any incentive to increase the supply of doctors. Even with insurance, a patient has to wait up to three weeks (or longer) to schedule an appointment. There is already a shortage of doctors – can you imagine what it will be like with an additional 30 million people trying to get appointments. Further, the same people who have just had their waiting time increased are going to be forced to pay for the ones who do not see medical insurance as an expense that they want to spend money on. However, you will notice that somehow these same people manage to drive nice cars and own wide screen televisions and other consumer goods like fancy cell phones.

Freedom to live your life as a free person will take a step backwards if the congress has their way. It is ironic, but the congress could make things better for all of us with some simple legislation, but evidently, that is not their goal. They want to reserve the right to dictate how you will live your daily life by controlling which treatments you need. Think of the society as a herd of cattle being marched through a cattle chute with no other direction possible. Say no to this debacle before it becomes law.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Email Comment to Robert

Undocumented Workers

For me to keep this document short is a real challenge. As is repeated often, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Being able to write directly to the point and not get distracted by insignificant footnotes is not one of my talents, but I’ll try.

The problem with an undocumented labor force cuts two ways. One way is good, while the other way is bad.

The Good: The undocumented workforce makes available a source of willing workers to do jobs that either we cannot afford to have done at prevailing rates, or no one else is willing to do them.

Prevailing rates is defined as an arbitrary number that will persuade an American to do the work. An example of a prevailing rate might be the minimum wage as set by Congress and is meant to apply to fulltime work. But if your job will only last for a short duration, the prevailing rate can go substantially higher. This is the niche that undocumented workers traditionally fill. Numerous jobs fall into this category such as highway construction, farm work, yard work, and any job that is particularly disgusting. The disgusting job list is long and includes mucking crews, poultry processing, and waste management. The above list is not complete, but I wanted to give you an idea of some of the low skill, undesirable jobs available.

We as a nation are very lucky to have a willing workforce to tackle these jobs. But sadly, if not for our friends from south of the border, these necessary jobs would be hard to fill. As I said, undocumented workers fill a necessary void in our workforce.

The foods we eat, the highways we drive on and the housing we enjoy come to us at a relatively modest cost since most of the menial, manual labor used in the production of these products are accomplished by the undocumented workforce.

The Problems: First and foremost, these imported laborers are human. They do not like doing crappy jobs either and will eventually migrate to better jobs. Whenever they find a job that is less of a pain and pays better, they move on leaving a void that is usually filled by another undocumented worker. This process keeps our need for more undocumented workers high. It is the human side of the equation that is often left out of any arguments about illegal immigrants.

Everyone is guilty of creating a market for the undocumented workforce. Whether you have a business or you just need a little help around your home, there is nobody better suited to help you than the undocumented day laborers that gather in well known places around town. Some city governments have even built day labor centers where they can gather and be found for hire.

Yes, these people have ensconced themselves into the fabric of our society, whether we like it or not, but there is a downside to this boon to our convenience of having cheap labor available.

• Loss of entry level jobs for our young people.
• Loss of tax revenues.
• Higher cost of education without the accompanying tax revenues to offset the expenses.
• Higher medical cost. (Somebody has to bear the brunt of their medical bills.)
• Degrading of our institutions because such large contingents of people do not have an understanding of our system.
• Formation of subcultures within the enclaves of illegal immigrants because of the language barrier.
• Higher tensions over skilled positions that Americans compete for.

From a position of arrogance, Americans want the “Illegals” to stay in their place. But I will tell you that as a potential employer, hiring someone who will do the same or better job for less money is who I would hire provided I am unwilling to overlook all of the negative impact on our society.

That thought brings us full circle. According to the results of numerous surveys, America does not have enough skilled workers to man their workforce. This takes in the whole spectrum of both professional and non-professionals who make up our society. We even import more foreign doctors than we produce in America.

We snip and flush potential European descended young which limits our available pool of American workers. Out of necessity, we have to import the help we need to maintain our economy. As a nation, we have grown apathetic to maintaining our society and the opportunities that we can create by doing due diligence. Our self-indulgence knows no boundaries. We look to others to do the heavy lifting and refuse to do those necessary things that keep us from being swallowed into bondage.

If we made citizens out of the undocumented workers presently in America today, I will positively guarantee you that those citizens will not remain at those low end jobs. For those entry level and generally crappy jobs, we will need to import more and more – then what do we do?

The answer does not lie with those who see votes or those who just see cheap labor. There has got to be a mechanism put in place that allows foreign workers to do those jobs. Work banks can be set up along our border with Mexico that matches employers and employees. At the completion of the job requested by the employer, the immigrant worker goes back to his country of origin or the work center to be available for another job. A work center would be able to track who is in the country and the duration of the stay involved. The employer would be held responsible for returning the migrant after the completion of the job.

Potential employers would have to be screened to insure that they made good faith efforts to hire domestic help before they can turn to the legal hiring of foreign workers. Foreign workers would have to be paid the prevailing rates for the task involved and pay taxes. Paying the prevailing rate for the task involved would prevent the pollution of cheap labor from destroying the job pool for Americans.

The anchor baby system needs to be abolished. That system is a large magnet to parents who want to put a foot in the door to this country.

This article addresses some of the issues surrounding our undocumented workforce. Changes need to be made. If we do make the present crop of undocumented workers citizens, then we have to change the way we handle our labor shortages. Remember, when any of the common laborers get the opportunity for a better job, they take it. The problem is that as they get better jobs, it leaves a job to be filled – guess where the worker comes from to fill the vacated spot? Yep, another undocumented worker is recruited. This type of demand for the undocumented workers is a revolving door that has a voracious appetite for undocumented laborers. The system needs to be changed. Do not accept a system that does not allow for some type of work program. Do not be lulled into the idea of a permit based on time. The permits should be job based and the employer held accountable for the duration. Allow no full time employment of foreign workers unless they go through the process of becoming an American citizen. Each employer of migrant workers must provide a timetable and description of the job involved before hiring, and then held accountable for returning that worker at the end of the job.

We can solve the immigration problem with a little effort. It is in our interest to do this because we absolutely need the labor. All that is needed is a little political will. My suggestion may not be work, but there are enough smart people who can figure out a manageable way to satisfy our labor needs without the added burden to the American people by way of the back door. Missed taxes, free medical, free school, and the rest of the benefits received without any payment except for cheap labor is charged to the rest of the American workers through taxes and higher but hidden cost.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Email Comment to Robert

Failure Part 3

If you read my first two accounts about failure, you will know that I view failure as a gift as long as we recognize our failure and keep trying to get it right. Getting it right leads me into Part 3 of this series.

An expression about not taking the advantage of failure reads something like this – “Doomed to repeat the same mistake”.

Case in point – General Motors went broke – not because they were a bad company, but because they made bad decisions in a time when foreign competition was very low. It is very hard to unspill the milk, but that is what they needed. Retiree benefit obligations had put them in a non-competitive position. Because they had to overprice their vehicles to meet their obligations, GM was not able to sustain their customer base.

Bankruptcy and complete reorganization would have cured a lot of their problems, but not all of them. The problem that hung in the air was a humane one. GM’s chief obligation was to the thousands of retirees. Pensions and medical care for the retirees put an exceptional burden on GM. The retirees were not at fault - they believed in, and trusted GM to keep their word concerning their retirement benefits.

It was obvious that GM could not afford to keep their agreements, so they went to the American People (The Government) and asked for loans. But what they asked for was loans to continue business as usual until somehow the market would turn around and they (GM) would make a miraculous rebound and be able to repay the loans.

Well, all lenders have to decide the question of whether or not a prospective borrower has the ability to pay back their loan. Since the Government is the lender of last resort, GM must have exhausted all other avenues for loans before approaching the Government. Can you imagine having a failed business and asking for a loan to extend that failure? Sure, a loan would have given GM a little breathing room, but without a cure, the patient would still die.

What GM and the Government settled on was not a good solution either. The company lost its autonomy and is still burdened with the retiree and union problem. GM still might not survive unless they can compete on a cost basis with other manufacturers. Even fixing quality problems may not be enough to attract buyers of the cheaper but equal in quality cars from other manufacturers.

Recognizing failure would have been helpful to GM. What if, when they went to Washington to get help, instead of asking for a loan to just prolong the agony, they confessed to having a bad business model? Instead of borrowing to continue with a failed model, they came with a plan for the borrowed money to retire all obligations to their retirees and the Union. Upon the success of retiring their long term debt to the retirees, they could then go through a normal bankruptcy for reorganization. A GM with a clean slate would have emerged as a tough competitor for anybody. The company would still have maintained its autonomy. A reconstituted GM would have been able to repay the Government and start making a profit. Of course that did not happen, but my-oh-my, what an opportunity.

When something isn’t working, it is time to rethink the situation. Until the core comes out of a boil, it just keeps on festering and hurting. All the band-aids in the world do nothing until that core either comes out on its own or is lanced.

GM isn’t the only company that needs to recognize their shortcomings. We have lost many manufacturing jobs because of stubborn bad management. Those companies that seek to improve their balance sheet by moving to a different country do all Americans a disservice. Real wealth creation is taking something of little value and making something of value out of it. “Made in America” used to be the trademark of quality and dependability. But we have lost the privilege of putting that on most of our products anymore because so much of our manufacturing and brands have been farmed out to China. “Made in China” is on most of the consumer goods we purchase. I lament that outcome because it could been so much different with a little effort.

Yes, as I have stated, failure is a gift. But what we do with that gift can mean success or just more failure. Just because what you are doing or manufacturing is no longer profitable, it is time to make the necessary changes to get it right. Taking your facility to another country is a band-aid that will still find the deficiencies in your business model. There are too many businesses that have sought for and found solutions other than moving their companies to other countries. These successful businesses should be a model for those thinking about jumping ship for cheap labor.

Our institutions like Harvard and other business colleges should instill into their students the importance of finding solutions and good management instead so much focus on profit. Profit is important, but how we make profit is also important. It is more than a shame for any business to need a Governmental agency breathing down their backs because today’s businesses put profit above ethics. Have we as a people lost sight of right and wrong and are no longer trustworthy? If so, then we have lost our value system and need to restore it.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Email Comment to Robert

Failure

Failure is the one ingredient that is necessary for progress. Without failure, there can be no success. Failing to correct what goes wrong dooms us to repeat the experience. Others have said the same thing more eloquently than I, but the importance of failure and how it guides us personally, socially, and politically cannot be overstated.

Scientists call their endeavors to elicit the truth of a theory ‘experiments’. It is the experimental failures that lead scientists to make the necessary adjustments for success. The failures of their learning progress may even lead to other discoveries that create more theories. Progress is achieved by taking advantage of mistakes. Failures are a guide to success.

Whether we are talking about people, inventions, nations, or the world collectively; it is in learning the lessons from our failed attempts to get it right that leads to success.

Our cultures are littered with failures that have been proven to not serve the interest of the citizenry. Among societies’ failures we can include the feudal system, authoritarian regimes including kings and dictators, the rigid capitalistic model, the communist model, patriarchal and matriarchal models, and the socialist model. All have been tried and failed because of their inadequacies. The democratic model is survivable only because it gives the people a non-violent method to make changes to the different environments that the people find themselves in.

Humans are tribally centric. There is no ‘one size fits all’ set of rules that fits everybody’s needs. It is for that reason that total centralization of power just doesn’t work. The American founders realized this when they formed the United States. Local governance empowers individuals with the ability to make decisions affecting their ‘tribe’ or community without the involvement from people who are not affected by their decisions. And, as long as the local and state decisions do not contradict the umbrella agreement agreed to by all the States known as the Constitution, everybody feels that they are a part of the whole, yet independent.

The government formed by the founders also allowed for mistakes. They built into the Constitution a method for us to correct and make adjustments for the passage of time and human progress. The method the founders built into the Constitution is the amendment process.

Our Supreme Court, made up of generally well meaning judges, bring to the bench their different personal philosophies. Their decisions can alter the way we live. Because of the potential for a fanatical viewpoint to become prevalent on the Supreme Court, each justice has to undergo Senate approval. That process is supposed to ferret out any individual with a bias or desire to change the society according to their personal philosophy. Our system of justice selection is not perfect, but until a better method comes along, it is the system we rely on. The system does make mistakes and the Court has had its share of radical justices who made it to the Supreme Court for political reasons. Justices sometimes see the role of the court is to make changes to the society at large through their legal decisions rather than defer the issues not found within the Constitution to the Legislature for enactment on the issue. The Constitution does not embody every facet of human activity. That is why we have a legislature that is supposed to represent the will of the people. Several issues have been made into law that no legislation was ever written.

What has this all to do with failure? Starting today, it should be recognized that whenever the will of the people is circumvented, that the harmony of the whole is disrupted. Divisive decisions made without regard to the wishes of the public have broad and unsavory consequences. The decisions about abortion and prayer in school are examples of divisive issues that should have been codified by the legislature and the legality of that legislation decided upon by the Supreme Court. By working the issues through the people’s representatives, we empower the people with the responsibility for those decisions. Supreme Court Justices making decisions are not answerable to the people. They take it upon themselves to create law instead of deferring the matter for legislation where the people writing the legislation are held accountable by the voters.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with those decisions is not relevant to this discussion. The thrust of this dissertation is to point out that the will of the people was circumvented and created unnecessary divisions within in our society. The angst felt by the people who disagreed with those decisions would have been avoided if the Congress would have done their job by proposing legislation or allowed the amendment process to proceed so that the will of the people could be respected. Instead, the Congress failed in their responsibility and the matter was left in the hands of the Supreme Court. These are failures by a legislature afraid to rock the boat and satisfied kicking the can down the road without having to face their voters.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court seems perfectly willing to make changes in our society via their legal decisions. The Supreme Court does not have to face re-election and therefore have job security regardless of how they vote on an issue. The Congress uses the Supreme Court to handle tough decisions because it keeps their hands clean from having to expose their true position about an issue. In essence, the Court becomes the shield for congressional inaction. The court can make decisions about controversial issues without the voter’s involvement. This process disenfranchises large bodies of American citizens and is a failure of Democracy. Failure begets failure and will not change until Americans of all political stripes put an end to career politicians.

Career politicians spend most of their time running for the next election to hold on to their very lucrative and powerful positions. Please support term limits.

We’ve suffered through these failures and now it is time to correct their cause. Please understand that power is very corruptive whether it’s a corporation, our courts, or by our elected politicians. Our failures are guidepost for the American people to learn from. If we do not recognize and learn from our failures, no progress is possible, worse, failure is repetitive.

End Failure Part 1

Cheers,

-Robert-

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Failure Part2

Part 1 discusses the failure of a system having career politicians. But in the end, we are responsible for those failures. It is we who keeps re-electing them. The longer a politician is in Washington, the craftier he/she becomes. The wizened politician learns the ins and outs of inserting unrelated amendments into a bill that raises his stature with his voting base, but has to be paid for by those outside of his home territory. This action keeps the politician in office because we think he is doing a ‘good job’. If we force the Congress to pass term limits, we will have made a correction to what we have now and force a different outcome from the repetition of mistakes that the Congress continues to make. Remember, failure is only a guidepost. It does not have to be remedied. No, we can live with our failures to correct problems and continue to repeat them.

But this is part 2. - Failure is also a winnowing process. It takes strong people to overcome failure and make the necessary corrections to arrive at their destination. When individuals become discouraged and settle for less than their objective, failure becomes imbedded and accepted by those individuals. Expectations become lower as well as self-esteem.

It is true that everyone doesn’t strive for the same results. Early attempts at endeavors that fail give rise to the acceptance of failure. Whatever our position on the ladder of economical success happens to be, we are at that position because of how much failure we are willing to accept. The more aggressive among us don’t tolerate failure very well and climb higher up the ladder.

Life starts out with high expectations, but the outcome of those expectations depend on how determined and prepared we are to face the obstacles that have to be faced. Preparation is the leverage needed to lessen the opportunity for failure.

Preparation has its own set of requirements. To properly prepare for a venture takes work and sometimes a lot of work. If you have the goal to do well in school, then you know that preparation for your studies will challenge you for your time away from life’s other distractions. One conclusion that you can make about minimizing failure in life is to have a strong work ethic.

One of the most damaging parts of our society to individuals is our practice of trying to help those of us who fail to help themselves. The help we render to those who are not very responsible becomes addictive to them. Failure has already become their way of life and no amount of help can rediscover that spark. The numbers of people who realize their sad predicament and make the necessary corrections for themselves is pitifully small. No, I am not suggesting that we allow these people to just starve. But they need encouragement. Progress on their part has to be a part of the price for accepting help.

Rehabilitation is more than just a word. Self-confidence has to be reignited with the poverty trapped people in our society. It is the ‘how’ to do it that remains to be answered. This goal can be achieved if we look upon the problem as just another obstacle to be overcome. There has to be a recognition that self-esteem cannot be given to a person. Only achievement can produce that result. With encouragement from the broader population, the spiral of low self-esteem can be overcome. The things we take for granted like paying the electric bill can be a monumental achievement for a person who is struggling just to live. These small steps by a person in the poverty trap of welfare need to have these achievements recognized. If we were to pay the electric bill for the person, that person has no way of being proud of it.

Doing things for people just makes them feel even more inadequate. And, that type of help is addictive. It just further aggravates the problem. A hand out isn’t even a band-aid for the problem of low self-esteem. Sure, the helped person would be appreciative but there is still that part of a person’s dignity that realizes they are failures. Handouts only serve to bolster the egos of the ‘helpers’ whether it is an organization like ‘Habitat for Humanity’ or sponsors of ‘Soup Kitchens’, the result is still demeaning to the recipient. Other solutions need to be found so that the poor can develop that sense of achievement. This problem is not about the givers, it is about helping those in need realize self-worth.

I repeat, continuing the failed solutions that we now employ only bring about more failure. Failure begets failure. We should resolve to recognize our failures and correct them. Remember successful societies overcome failure, those who don’t, perish. It is that simple.

Cheers,

-Robert-


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Birth Skeptics

President Barack Obama has a past and his unwillingness to share it with the American people is astounding. Most of his past is kept shrouded behind legal barriers. A reasonable person could ask -why? Why would this popular president object to the facts of his birth? Why would he object to revealing the name of the hospital where he was born or his college records? Could it be that the birth skeptics are on to something?

The short version: Obama’s mother was in Africa and very pregnant. She was so far along that the airline would not board her. Her only alternative was to have Barack at a local hospital in Kenya and then proceed to Hawaii.

This is plausible because Barack’s birth certificate is the ‘short form’ which doesn’t include the normal items of a birth certificate such as the attending physician, nor the name of the hospital. But, short form birth certificates are legal. Those children born at home, or other places have to have a mechanism to obtain a birth certificate. For that reason, I believe the short form birth certificate to be genuine. However, the short form birth certificate also supports the idea of Barack not being a natural born citizen.

Citizenship is another matter. Bararck’s mother married an Indonesian who reportedly adopted Barack. He was then known as Barry Soetoro at that time and was enrolled into an Indonesian school as Barry Soetoro. See photo below of the supposed school enrollment paper. This document has not been authenticated and represents just a fraction of the documents that proliferate all because Obama chooses to not reveal details about his origin, college enrollment, and other such pertinent data that would satisfy the doubters about his eligibility to serve as president.



This writing will not publish the complaint of Philip Berg’s challenge to Obama. However, those of you who are interested in the details of the doubts surrounding Barack Obama, I include the web address where it can be found. This link will take you to that web page. I recommend that you read the full complaint if you are not familiar to the ‘Birthers’ point of view.


http://headinthegame.newsvine.com/_news/2008/10/22/2029004-from-the-lawsuit-complaint-berg-vs-obama-must-read

Legally Weird: The lawsuits (and there are many) against Barack Obama have never been argued before a judge. All complaints have been dismissed on technical grounds and therefore not judged on their merit. It seems that the legal system is not interested in making sure the Constitution of our Country is being adhered to. This is where I am interested. If there is a legitimate question about Obama’s citizenship, then there should be a hearing to decide with finality the answer to the question.

Apparently, Obama was not vetted properly by the DNC or these questions would not still be around.

Recently, Lou Dobbs of CNN has been criticizing publicly the lack of proof about Obama’s failure to produce any of his school records or the ‘longform’ birth certificate from a Hawaiian hospital.

According to TalkingPointsMemo.com Jon Klein the President of CNN stopped Dobbs from further assertions with an email stating: "In 2001 - the state of Hawaii Health Department went paperless. Paper documents were discarded The official record of Obama's birth is now an official electronic record Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Health Department told the Honolulu Star Bulletin, 'At that time, all information for births from 1908 (on) was put into electronic files for consistent reporting,' she said."

Lou Dobbs had to go on the air and repeat the statement in an effort to give finality to the flap over Obama’s legitimacy as president.

It was after the public retreat from the issue by Dobbs, that Janice Okubo of the Hawaiian Health Department issued this statement: "I am not aware of any birth certificate records that have been destroyed by the department. When the department went electronic in 2001, vital records, whether in paper form or any other form, [were] maintained. We don't destroy records. ... Any records that we had in paper or any other form before 2001 are still in file within the department. We have not destroyed any vital statistics records that we have."

Her statement highlights the audacity and lengths that the left will go to prevent Barack Obama from having to prove his eligibility to be president.

In another twist to this strange saga comes the latest salvo from the complainants. I received this email on Sept. 16th: This should prove to be interesting.

I and many other concerned veterans and citizens attended the hearing today in Federal Court in Santa Ana in the lawsuit against Barack Obama to determine his eligibility to be President and Commander in Chief. About 150 people showed up, almost all in support of the lawsuit to demand that Obama release his birth certificate and other records that he has hidden from the public.

Judge David Carter refused to hear Obama's request for dismissal today, instead setting a hearing date for Oct. 5, since Obama's attorneys had just filed the motion on Friday. He indicated there was almost no chance that this case would be dismissed. Obama is arguing this lawsuit was filed in the wrong court if you can believe that. I guess Obama would prefer a "kangaroo court"! Assuming Judge Carter denies Obama's motion for dismissal, he will likely then order expedited discovery which will force Obama to release his birth certificate in a timely manner (if he has one).

The judge, who is a former U.S. Marine, repeated several times that this is a very serious case which must be resolved quickly so that the troops know that their Commander in Chief is eligible to hold that position and issue lawful orders to our military in this time of war. He basically said Obama must prove his eligibility to the court! He said Americans deserve to know the truth about their President!

The two U.S. Attorneys representing Barack Obama tried everything they could to sway the judge that this case was frivolous, but Carter would have none of it and cut them off several times. Obama's attorneys left the courtroom after about the 90 minute hearing looking defeated and very nervous.

Great day in America for the U.S. Constitution!!! The truth about Barack Obama's eligibility will be known fairly soon - Judge Carter practically guaranteed it!

Video from the press conference after the hearing coming soon. Congratulations to Dr. Orly Taitz! She did a great job and won some huge victories today. She was fearless!

Jeff Schwilk, Founder

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109242

A California judge today tentatively scheduled a trial for Jan. 26, 2010, for a case that challenges Barack Obama's eligibility to be president based on questions over his qualifications under the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.

If the case actually goes to arguments before U.S. District Judge David Carter, it will be the first time the merits of the dispute have been argued in open court, according to one of the attorneys working on the issue.

In a highly anticipated hearing today before Carter, several motions were heard, including a resolution to long-standing questions about whether attorney Orly Taitz properly served notice on the defendants, which she had.

The expedited trial has been set for Jan. 26, 2010, just 4 1/2 months from now!

This news illustrates the point that this issue will not go away. If Obama should prove to be ineligible, he would be known as a usurper, and all legislation signed by him would be vacated since he was not a legitimate president. Wow!

I will point out to all of you birthright skeptics, this may be about a man who just wants to maintain his privacy and a large serving of crow could be in your future.

Cheers,

-Robert-

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