Common Sense Wins The Day!

Federal Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Monday, in a case brought forth by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, that section 1501 of the Obamacare bill was unconstitutional. That section is the one that outlines the individual mandate which requires private citizens to purchase health insurance or face fines and other penalties. This is significant in that without that provision in the bill, it essentially has no teeth. Without the individual mandate, the bill is dead.

Most people expect that it will go to the fourth circuit court of appeals and eventually to the Supreme Court. In his ruling, "It is not the effect on individuals that is presently at issue -- it is the authority of Congress to compel anyone to purchase health insurance," wrote Hudson, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush. "Every application of Commerce Clause power found to be constitutionally sound by the Supreme Court involved some form of action, transaction or deed placed in motion by an individual or legal entity. The constitutional viability of the minimum essential coverage provision in this case turns on whether or not a person's decision to refuse to purchase health care insurance is such an activity," he wrote.

Not that I am against reforming our health care system but Obamacare was the wrong way to go about it. For instance, it does nothing to address costs. It merely addresses coverage for everyone. And there are unintended consequences already cropping up as well. Just recently, pharmaceuticals have announced that they will no longer be able to give deep price discounts on orphan drugs to children's hospitals across the country because of provisions in the law. Orphan drugs are drugs that are used to treat rare conditions that affect less than 200,000 individuals inside the United States. Drugs are classified as Orphan drugs by the FDA. By existing law, orphan drugs must be made available to chidren's hospitals at a deep discount. a few pharmaceuticals lobbied aggressively for the new provision in Obamacare and it was put in at the last minute. So the most vulnerable amongst us, the ones least able to pay for these expensive drugs, have been given the cold shoulder. 

Orphan drugs are just one of the many bad aspects of Obamacare. Lets hope that the bill goes down in flames fast as it should. Thank God for Ken Cuccinelli, Judge Henry Hudson, and common sense. The United States needs more heroes like them now.

The Lack of National Pride on the Left.

The one thing that sets Americans apart from the rest of the world is mobility. When Henry Ford took the idea of interchangeable parts to the next level with the invention of the assembly line and gave the gift of mass production to the world, the result was extremely affordable transportation for the masses. People were no longer constrained by geography, and the age of mobility was born.

It is no mere coincidence that the petroleum industry was born at approximately the same time that the automobile was conceived. Natural petroleum seeps had been known to mankind for thousands of years prior to the automobile. They were thought by many to have medicinal value and were applied to wounds to speed healing, and truth be told, that wasn't too far off the mark. And so the natural seeps were revered as a gift from God.

It was used for lighting into the nineteenth century along with whale oil. But it was the age of mobility that caused the ravenous thirst for fuel for that mobility. Serendipitous as it was, oil  was discovered quite by accident in great abundance while drilling for water in Titusville Pennsylvania and it turned out to be the fuel of choice for mankind's new found mobility. And voila, it was the birth of the modern petroleum industry.

The extreme intrinsic value of a highly mobile society wasn't lost on the politically savvy. Hitler capitalized on that value. He honed the idea into a razor-sharp military machine. "Blitzkrieg" as Hitler called it comes from Middle High German and it literally means "lightning attack"; aptly named for the speed of overwhelming force by which Germany took control of enemy territory.


And in like fashion, the politically powerful of today are seeking to control the masses by controlling our mobility. They seek to make purchasing energy for mobility so expensive as to restrict mobility itself. This is the insane and warped reasoning behind the whole "Cap and Trade" ideology. It is a blitzkrieg of a different kind, but the intent and the desired result is the same; subjugation of the masses. It really doesn't have anything to do with environmentalism, or saving the planet. It isn't even about filling their coffers or lining their pockets or balancing budgets, social justice, or the redistribution of wealth. It is all about controlling the mobility of the freest people that God has ever graced this planet with; You!


There is an abundance of modern scientific evidence that refutes the notion promulgated by the left which postulates that there is only a finite amount of naturally occurring crude oil in the ground. The fact is that oil is still being formed today at a fairly fast pace. There is no shortage of oil in the ground. The only shortage we experience is that of will power to overcome the self-imposed limitations on exploration and development of our own oil resources here at home.

Live free or die trying is more than a slogan, it is who we are. It is what we are. It defines us. It sets us apart from all who have been before. Our mobility is why we are the envy of the world. It is why others covet our freedom. That is why even those who espouse unbridled disdain for us would secretly love to come and live here. It is also why those of us already here that preach against our values, simply do not pick up and go anywhere else on the planet to live out days. They talk out of both sides of there necks. Their mouths say one thing, while their actions (or lack thereof) says the opposite; hypocrites every last one.


I for one, know I am free and how that came to be. I make no apologies to anyone for daring to live free or die trying. How about you? Are you proud to be here? Are you proud to be an American? Are you proud to be one of the most free people on the planet? If you aren't perhaps you should look elsewhere for an oppressive regime to live under.

His Incredibly Incompetent Boobness; Obama

The incompetent jackass Obama has lost his appeal to reinstate the blanket moratorium on all offshore drilling for oil. This is more than just being about energy in general and oil in specific however, it is about keeping Obama from running roughshod over the entire constitutional process and usurping de facto dictatorial power for himself. Who would have ever guessed that the Supreme Court would be the fly in his ointment of supremacy! All hail Roberts and Alito! Thank God for the two of them.

Obama is a wet blanket to prosperity anywhere in this country. Every time that damned fool opens up his pie-hole and his extreme disdain for all things American spews out of it like diarrhea, the markets tank, businesses shudder in fear at what this manic fool will perpetrate next. He really is clueless isn't he? A transaction tax? He must be smoking some awfully good crack on the links if he thinks that any Americans are willing to pay any more taxes on anything. STOP SPENDING YOU ASSHOLE!

We don't need bigger deficits, we need austerity. Starting with less damned government. Every time anything happens, this idiot rushes to create a damned commission to study it and develop a report about it (while he duffs another 9 holes somewhere). What does he think, this is a college exam he is studying for or something; develop a report. What an asshole. 

Keynesian economics never worked before, and it will not work now. Free markets are self-regulating and do not require government intervention to "correct" the business cycle. All that government regulation accomplishes is market distortion every single time. History is replete with examples of this.

Gulf OIl Catastrophe Is Made Worse By Obama's Ineptness as Leader.

Regarding the Earth's bleeding of oil and methane into the Gulf of Mexico because of BP's Deep Water Horizon well; why on earth would they have used dispersants to begin with? If the oil is dispersed it will be harder to recover the oil from the ocean. And recovering it should be the goal, not allowing it to linger in the environment where marine life are harmed by it! They suggest that as much as twenty percent of it will just evaporate, but that can only happen if it is on the surface. After treating it with dispersants it hangs at various depths under the surface, where it cannot possibly evaporate.

It was a rash decision for our government to allow British Petroleum to release nearly a million gallons of chemical dispersants into the ocean in an attempt to emulsify the oil. They should have forced BP to use the disparate viscosities of oil and seawater to keep the oil in one place; on the surface, where it can easily be skimmed, or gathered and burned. Now there are multiple massive plumes under the surface at different depths that can never be removed from the environment. They are marauding death plumes for marine wildlife that happen to swim through them or have them settle upon them in their habitat.

And then there is the Obama administration's equally oafish response by refusing several offers of international help and not suspending the Jones Act, and also banning all offshore oil production for six months which hampers our economic recovery by crippling an important industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Americans with high paying jobs.

Regarding the cleanup of surface oil; the use of "off the shelf" technologies can easily handle the entire cleanup. By retrofitting ocean going supertankers with a few large high-speed centrifuges and a little old fashion plumbing, the oil and seawater on the surface can be scooped up in massive quantities, pumped into a centrifuge, spun and separated. The oil can be pumped into a hold, and the seawater can be returned to the ocean cleansed of oil. Yet none of this is being done because the Obama administration is angling for political advantage. They are seeking to capitalize on this disaster with the "never let a good crisis go to waste" mentality, and that is childishly shameful, environmentally irresponsible, and a huge political gamble that he will most likely loose.

The Middlemen

I recently had a conversation with one of my loyal customers of my communications business. They have a main office and two satellite offices, one of which uses dial tone from the main office via IP telephones on the system at the main office. They had moved this remote IP office over to another nearby building in an office park in which they own two of the several buildings. The IP phones were working just fine, that is until they experienced power problems at the new building. The IP phones went up and down several times after midnight one day and this caused the fault buffer in the phone system at the main office to quickly fill up. When the fault buffer filled up, the operating system performed a stack dump which causes a forced rebooting of the system. So the frantic service call that I received was that "Our phone system keeps going down and coming back up repeatedly".

After a few questions I surmised that tech support from the equipment manufacturer was warranted. With tech support on the phone, I had them dial into the switch and have a look at what they could find out. When they told me that the fault buffer was causing the system to reboot on account of extensions 124 and 126 going up and down repeatedly, I knew instantly what the problem was; bad power at the IP office location.

I had the maintenance person at the customer's location unplug the phones until he could procure a couple of UPS for me to put in line with them. After completing the service call, I called the customer back and explained that the real culprit was bad power.

You see, I had worked at Detroit Edison for several years as a contractor in the metering department and a few more in the communications department. I was there before and during the deregulation of the utilities industries and have made a few key observations about it all.

What was supposed to bring increased "choice and competition that would result in lower costs and better service for consumers" has in fact done neither. In fact, quite the opposite has happened. You see, Detroit Edison, which was founded by none other than Thomas Edison himself after he left Ford, used to own the entire process from start to finish. They owned the power generation, power transmission, metering and collections. But with the deregulation that was foisted upon them, they were forced to give up something. They chose to sell off the power transmission part of their enterprise to a company called ITC Holdings Inc. based in Novi, Michigan. Not that I have anything against ITC per Se, ( I actually have a cousin on my Dad's side that is a Linesman there) but having two many chefs in the kitchen spoils the stew. And now after this forced deregulation we have lousy power all over the region that regularly fries sensitive digital electronic business telephone systems. My customer experienced this firsthand a few years back.

And then there is the constant assault on our front door by all the young sales types with clipboards in hand hawking the latest and greatest way for me to purchase energy. There is one who tells me that I can shuck the evil gas company and just pay them instead and they will guarantee that my gas rates will not change for the next five years. I usually ask them if they also guarantee that if the rates should go down, would they as a middle man pass that savings along to me or other consumers? No thanks, I'll take my chances with the original supplier of my energy. And then there is the one who uses green energy as a marketing tool. Like I or anyone really stops and thinks about how the energy we use gets there as we push the button on the remote for our big screen televisions, or flip the light switch, get a cold drink out of the fridge, or make coffee or toast in the morning. Green is nothing more than a marketing tool. Ask Tipper Gore about that one, Oh, that's right she won't be a "Gore" much longer. Guess that she got fed up with the hypocrisy too.

I liked it much better when the only assault or intrusion that we had to tolerate was on the phone. That was handled easily by technology like caller ID or privacy blocker. No, now we have actual people stalking our front doors with clipboards, pens and name tags to look official that try to convince us that we are unwise to play roulette with the evil power companies on our own. We need them to moderate our prices for us because we are so busy and uneducated about the whole process. Folks, we wouldn't have a process to contend with if it wasn't for our lousy government sticking its damned nose where it does not belong; in our business, in the first place!


I feel rather sorry for those fools who carry the clipboards around. I figure that they got suckered into that job because they needed the money that badly since they probably have been out of work for so very long. But I do not feel sorry enough to abandon all reason and add another middle man into the fray between me and suppliers of the energy I use. Adding a middle man into any business transaction will only increase costs for the end consumer.

Sometimes, the wheel is just fine like it is; you don't really need to reinvent it. All it does is turn round and around regardless so why try to mess with it?

New Hate for Big Oil.

The latest news on the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is that it will make landfall as early as tomorrow evening. Governor Bobby Jindahl of Louisiana is mobilizing a united effort to lessen the environmental impact on the beaches, wildlife, tourism, and the shrimping and fishing industries there.

The untold story here is not that the rig had caught fire after an explosion, or that it sank and damaged the well head. The real story here is that the efforts to extinguish the fire are what sank the rig! These rigs (oil platforms) are floating vessels that are permanently moored to the seabed far below. So the question arises, why did British Petroleum try to extinguish a fire on a floating oil platform with water instead of foam?

After what happened on the Air Carrier U.S.S. Forestall, the United States Navy, (which I served in) trains every recruit as a fireman. Every fireman knows that you cannot fight an oil fire or many other chemical fires with water. Water only spreads the fire around because the chemicals are lighter than water and the viscosity is so different. Even some certain solids are best extinguished with foam. Expanding foam quickly smothers the fire and chokes off its access to the oxygen that is vital for sustained combustion. The heat remains, but without oxygen the flames are quickly extinguished.

Knowing this, why then did they choose to fight the fire with water? They only succeeded in reducing the buoyancy of the platform to the point that it became unstable and sank falling onto the well head a mile below the surface of the water and thereby damaging the well casing at three points on the way down.

And now of course the flip-flopping Governor of Florida has penned a letter to Obama petitioning for the end to "drill baby drill" and all exploration off shore. This couldn't have happened at a worse time. This may just doom us to forever purchasing oil from hostile nations overseas. BP should be skewered for this, not necessarily for the environmental impact alone, but also (and especially) for the socioeconomic fallout for United States citizens as well.

And for God's sake BP start stocking fire fighting foam on board your oil platforms, and train every single employee in firefighting like the United States Navy does. And keep them current on their firefighting knowledge and techniques. This catastrophe was entirely avoidable.

Enviro-Religion Madness

The environmental terrorists are at it again, celebrating "Earth Day". They tout rabid conservationism as the panacea for all of the perceived ills of the planet. I would just like to know how the earth got along for so long without us humans and our penchant for recycling?

The earth was here before we were and it will most likely be here well after we are gone. Oh my, how will it survive without us humans to recycle?

The earth does a pretty good job of recycling without us actually. In the 90's there was a release of some "low-level" radioactive deuterium (heavy water) into Lake Erie from the Fermi II nuclear power plant in Michigan, yet the fish have not mutated, nor are they dangerous to eat, and there was no effort undertaken by mankind to remediate the lake water. In the 1960's the Cuyahoga River in Ohio actually caught fire because it was a favored dumping ground for volatile chemicals from industry, yet today people still fish from its shores for pleasure and sustenance. There was no remediation done there either. The fire simply burned itself out. How would anyone extinguish an entire river anyway?

All of this time and energy devoted to "saving the environment" is ludicrous. As a species we can't even destroy the environment so how can we be expected to save it? Wasted time and energy is what it all is. And then there is the capitalists like Gore, who stand to make vast amounts of money on the whole idea of greenness. What a crock of (fill in your favorite expletive here).

I drive for a living. I burn about 6400 gallons of diesel fuel per year. I also drive for service in my business and I burn approximately 1300 gallons of gasoline per year. I run my indoor compact fluorescent lighting approximately 2200 hours per year, (more than I would comparable incandescent lighting because it is cheaper to burn). I employ high tech fluorescent safety lighting outside my house that burns from sundown to sunup, even so they consume over 500 watts of power (but create equivalent light to over 4 thousand watts of HID lighting). My electric cell phone chargers are constantly plugged in even if there is no cell phone charging. I pay for it, and the use is minimal. That energy can't be wasted because it can't be saved either. It isn't stored anywhere, it is generated in real time, and you pay only for what you use anyway. I used to work in the field for Detroit Edison in their metering department and the nominal charge for inactivity is just that, nominal. The charge for the metering on an inactive account is less than $5 per month.

I am just so damned sick of everyone bowing at the altar of environmentalism. Enough already. The planet takes care of itself, lets start doing the same. There are far more pressing issues to attend to than wrangling over "paper or plastic". People like to say that all the "man made" items are what is to blame for pollution. Did we import the ingredients for anything that man has made from another planet or universe? It all comes from the earth anyway. For that fact we don't "make" anything, we simply rearrange or assemble what is already here. So tell me, how can the earth pollute itself with itself? When you post your answer, you can become the Enviro-God.

News From The Road.

Greetings from Grand Island Nebraska. The company flew me out here to cover two drivers taking vacation this week and next. It is rather unusual that I would know what I am doing this far in advance, but the economy is showing signs of rebounding and work is picking up for both my "day-job" here at Ryder and also for my business. I have done five jobs this past two months and I currently have an estimate out on one job and there is yet another looming in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, after I get back from Nebraska next weekend, I will be touring Ontario Canada for the Pella Window account the following week as they are doing a trade show there. I just got word from my boss that the account manager for the Pella account asked if I would be willing to travel cross country for several weeks. I knew that you don't just do one trade show. There had to be more. I told him that I wouldn't mind it at all, I need the money. And it will be very good money going over the road like that.

I traveled light to get here, cause flying is just such a hassle anymore. I would so rather drive anywhere, but time constraints required a flight here and back. So I travel lightly to avoid the added expense and annoyance of extra charges at the airlines. One duffel bag, one hand bag, my file folder and a newspaper to read on the plane.

I am absolutely floored at just how expensive the little conveniences have gotten, especially out here in the plains. A single 20 ounce soda pop will set you back almost two whole dollars! ($1.89 with tax)! Makes me glad that I live in the densely populated and well traveled mid-west, things are so much cheaper there. I am keeping every single receipt for taxes next year. As an employee who is subject to regulation by the DOT (Department of Transportation) all meals and other unreimbursed expenses that are necessary for the job are tax deductible with some limitations. Meals are subject to a 70% ceiling, others can be written off entirely.

Got to go and get some rest now. I have a busy schedule for the next few months!

Cleaning House with the Tea Party Movement

Every neighborhood has one. A person that just can't keep from exhibiting antagonistic behaviors. You know what I am talking about; that dorky looking preteen kid that insists upon gathering all the others around a tree and then using a big stick to whack a beehive and cackle as he runs away, leaving the bewildered others standing there to become hapless victims of the resulting swarm of angry bees. Obama was just that kind of a kid folks. He has whacked the proverbial beehive of freedom with his big "health care" stick, and now he has the audacity to laugh at his hapless drones as the warrior bees of freedom launch a counter attack.

Obama is a professional antagonist. It is written all over his resume. He loves agitating the hive. But the duck and weave only keeps you safe if you are faster than your adversary. He has overreached this time. He can't out run the truth. We the people have found you out Obama, and we are going to fire you in the next election, just like we fired that wacky peanut farming dolt Carter.

We are going to run you off the block. We don't want your kind around here. We don't need your kind around here. Your opinion of this great country is so low, you should have campaigned to be the next "El-Presidente" of Venezuela instead. Perhaps your pal Hugo would mentor you. Oh, that's right he already has. Did he autograph your copy of Hegemony for you when you were down there groveling at his feet?

I guarantee you this; Obama will be a "one term dunderhead", and us Conservatives will take back our beloved country from the clutches of the liberal horde in congress. And all the Obamanoids that currently fawn over his every breathy lilted word read from the teleprompter will be stupefied as to what has happened. They will be wondering "where is Obamaclaus? he promised us all free health care." Well Virginia, there is no free health care, and Obamaclaus is a fraud.

The Tea Party members are those warrior bees and the liberals in congress are the hapless kids on the block. They are in that stupor, that fog of confusion phase right now, not quite comprehending what has happened or what to do about it. Obama has set you up. He is running to distance himself now and he is laughing at you as you bear the brunt of the hive's anger against your assault on our liberty and freedom. You will know which way to run come this November if you haven't figured it out before then. Some of you already have. Good riddance to you!

Obamatopia Falls Short of the Promise

It would seem that Obama is being revealed as the reviled meddler that he is with his insistence on pushing for a government health care takeover that no one wants! In fact, 38 states have filed legislation called the "Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act" based upon model legislation provided by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). And just yesterday it was reported by AP that Virginia is the first state to actually pass the legislation.

Now, Obama keeps saying that there are lots of polls that show that the majority of the people want him to keep yammering on about Obamacare, but he never cites the actual polls. That is because they do not exist. If everyone wants Obamacare, why are 38 of 50 states acting to insulate themselves from the devastating morass of bureaucracy that would be Obamacare? 

Do the math. 38/50=.76

That means that 76% of the states, 76% of the people are opposed to his vision of Obamatopia. Get off of it already. What happened to his "laser focus" on jobs? Obama is ineffectual as a leader. He is the laughing stock of the world. He wants to mothball all of our nukes, while Iran is rushing to build the bomb! He is an idiot. He is without question the biggest dolt we have ever put into office.

He goes around blaming Wall Street for the financial crisis, when in fact it was his own lackeys in congress that originally caused the mess. He thinks that he is a magician who can destroy our economy on purpose and get away with blaming it on Wall Street. But the public is wise to your chicanery Obama, your slight of hand via slight of words will not work. We are on to you, Obama. Your days in power are numbered.

I don't know about you, but I can't stand to hear that stupid lilting cadence in his voice when he speaks. He is the most overexposed President in our history. He is flapping his gums and those big stupid ears on television nearly every single day! I cringe whenever I hear him. 

Apparently the only people that are entitled to profits are liberals like himself. Does anyone remember that half a million dollar book advance he took just before being sworn into office? His lexicon of four-letter words includes "profit". Further proof that he can't do math. If companies don't make profits, the stock tanks. When stocks tank, retirement pensions tank and our financial system spirals downward. Yet this damned fool relentlessly hammers companies for actually daring to make a profit, Incredible! He runs around demonizing Wall Street bankers and day traders, auto companies, insurance companies. He places new and horrifically expensive obstacles in the way of all businesses by pumping up the power and scope of the EPA, and pushing his "greenscape" on an economy that does not want or need it. This guy is a first class ass. He is clueless. He has a piece of paper from a liberal university, and he thinks that he knows it all. He has zero experience at doing anything other than campaigning. He has no real world experience. He has never run a business. He hasn't got a clue as to what it takes to run a business and it is painfully obvious for all to see. He is "The Professor". Will someone please do another parody song; Joe Walsh's "The Confessor" as "The Professor"? Heavy music, for the heavy hand of liberalism, with a punishing beat to match.

Mark Levin said it last night and he was right; soft tyranny is here now. It is personified in Obama and his vision of an ever metastasizing government. His Obamatopia that has an entitlement program for everyone. The only problem is paying for it all. But since he lacks any semblance of business acumen, he does not understand that you can't spend what you do not have. You can not borrow against future revenue to fund expansion without controls in the plan for future growth. You can not cover everyone. Everyone does not need or want coverage. 

Medical inflation and rising insurance rates are concurrent and it all started in 1965 when our stupid government passed Social Security and Medicare! How did we ever get along without those damned programs for so long? They keep raising the age that you can take benefits out. It is a fraud, a sham, a hoax. how many people retire early, can't take anything out for a few years and in the meantime they pass away, and still the damned thing is insolvent? It is an abject failure. It is high time that we realize that as a nation. I do not expect to ever receive any of MY MONEY that they have been stealing from me all the years that I have been working anyway. It is outright theft and I am tired of being reminded about it by that jackass Obama on television and radio every damned day. I wish that he would just shut the hell up already and start working on lowering taxes for everyone. Lower taxes on businesses and individuals. In fact, we should eliminate the IRS and go to a fair tax system that is based upon consumption. A national sales tax. No more IRS, No more loopholes, no more complicated forms, or returns to file, no income tax, no FICA, no FUTA, no more Medicare. Just a simple national sales tax. Those that consume the most would pay the most. Those that consume less would pay less. Everyone would be paying their fair share. The Rich and the poor would pay the same rate of taxation at the cash register period. Now that is a plan for economic stimulus!

Tenth Amendment Rights and Obama's Takeover of Health Care

Forget right verses left when it comes to a government takeover of health care. What should be of great concern is adherence to our Constitution and especially the tenth amendment. Even if you  feel that our system is broken as far as health care goes, it is unconstitutional to force anyone to purchase any products from any entity. That is a slippery slope that once embarked upon could easily lead to severed rights for all citizens with an all powerful federal government that should be feared.

Nowhere in the entire Constitution is there any power granted to the federal government to mandate that all must purchase health insurance, even though if everyone where to do so it would invariably spread the risk farther and pool greater resources (premiums) for greater coverage for more people.

Utopia on this earth, under man's rule, man's government of men, is not possible period. The right to choose not to purchase insurance is guaranteed to all Americans by our tenth amendment.

And it is not about health care anyway. It is about expanding our government. Government jobs, government power, government control over you and intrusion into your lives. If they pass it, it will be challenged on a Constitutional basis and it will be defeated, invalidated, and overturned by the Supreme Court if Congress and the President will not.

There are currently 17 states that are insulating themselves from participating in a federal takeover of health care by standing on and asserting their tenth amendment right. I am glad that Michigan is one of them. Between MSU and Wayne State college of Medicine, among many others there are great innovations in medicine and pharmaceuticals being made here. We will get to keep all of that and access to it for our citizens in spite of Obama's health care rationing schemes, and government panels that determine who can get what care.

Opportunity For Lateral Growth In The Low Voltage Telephony Market.

I know that it has been a while since I last posted, but I have been rather busy lately. I think that the economy is beginning to show signs of picking up despite Obama's war on prosperity. Several side jobs have come my way lately. I suspect that a few of them were pent up demand for services that businesses were just holding off on until they could simply wait no longer. Others are simply the direct result of some semblance of stability returning to the business environment as a whole.


It is nice to know that a good reputation for quality service precedes me, as I have been able to expand laterally into a new market for low voltage work. A very good customer of mine, (a commercial properties management and investment company) called upon me back in the spring of 2004 to restore service for one of their tenants. It seems that one of their electrical contractors was working in an adjoining vacant suite doing demolition work and had cut the T-1 for the tenant. Well, I had their computers and phones back up and running later that very afternoon. The tenant was rather impressed and took one of my business cards. They subsequently called me to work on their phone system about a half dozen times over the next year, and then again when they moved into a larger suite it was I who cabled it and moved their phone system for them.

Well, that tenant just so happens to be an HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) company. They sell, install, service and repair HVAC units and they also remotely monitor and manage them for their customers. Up until now the units that they have monitored have been large commercial type rooftop units that control the climates for common areas in office buildings and warehouses however, they have started to push into a new market; controlling individual office suites with IP addressable thermostats. That is where I come in. They asked me to bid out a job for them, and they liked my quote. They liked it so much so that I have been told that we may get the opportunity to bid on many more of these jobs that they are looking to sell! 


So I have moved laterally from doing primarily the traditional telephony work on business phone systems, voice mail systems and data networks into a contractual relationship within the HVAC market. This comes as the telephony side of things are beginning to pick up for me as well. This is good news. There is still some sluggishness in the telephony market however, as my receivables are cycling longer. They languish for an average of 40 to 45 days before payment, in spite of offering incentives to pay earlier.


So it would seem that the credit market is not dead after all, because I have continued extending credit to my customers. But my customers are creditworthy and it behooves me to do so, or they may look elsewhere for service.

Tiger

The dichotomy of man is personified in a most dramatic way by Tiger Woods. His recent public commentary was very contrived and wooden. While he is no doubt the world's greatest golfer, he has been kept cloistered by his handlers for good reason; public speaking is not his strong point, neither is publicly reading from written notes on a page. It lacked genuineness. It lacked remorse. It lacked sincerity.

At one point he expressed concern at whether people would ever "believe in me again", as if he is divine or magic or something. What the hell is that about? One massive ego for starters. Yes, he did admit that he felt "entitled" to philander at will. But the proof of his reform from his "addiction" is in the pudding. How he acts from here on out is where it is at. From now on is where the rubber hits the road.

He brought up his religion of Buddhism and how he had failed at living up to the ideals of that. I certainly think that Brit Hume was right about him coming to the cross and giving Christianity a try and asking his wife and children for their forgiveness. This fool does not understand that he is broken. He will never find "Nirvana" unless he discovers the cross first. 

Buddhism teaches that all suffering is caused by craving (covetousness). If that were true, then Job would never have suffered the loss of his children, fortune, health, or the lousy counsel of his friends. But Jobs story was not about suffering; it was about integrity of character, which he had in spades. Perhaps Tiger should study that book and then John.

But the real story here is not so much about Tiger, nor his reprehensible behavior; it should be about the media and his handlers that looked the other way for years as this was happening. How not even one of so many people could not confront him before it all blew up on him is astounding to me.

Perhaps Tiger shouldn't be so worried about being perfect. Accepting brokenness is what truly liberates us not finding some magic path to enlightenment. I feel sorry for him, but unless he comes to the cross he will always wrestle with his own brokenness. He will be cursed with supplanting one aberrant behavior for another.

This is not rock bottom for him yet. He will fall further, unless he comes to the cross with sincerity and no written statements. 

People never "believed in him" to start with. When people saw him golf they said "God has gifted this man indeed"; they believed in God and His ability.

Will Tiger return to prominence in the world of golf? Surely he will one day golf again, but no amount of zen can make up for the moral lapse. In a christian nation like ours he will be forgiven by fans but how far and how fast he returns will be up to him. I posit that the fastest course would be to convert to Christianity and repent.

Macroeconomics, Growth and Prosperity in a Free Society

I was recently discussing the economy with a friend and something that he said got me to thinking. He said that as far as giving to Haiti, that our government should just fire up the printing presses and print a lot of money and give it to Haiti. He suggested that they also do that for shovel ready jobs (primarily road construction and repair) and put people back to work. Now one could argue that this would help usher in inflation, and in a sense that would be quite correct, but it got me to thinking.

Hypothetically speaking, if I created a new country today, how would I go about issuing currency and distributing it throughout the economy? How would I get it into the hands of the people? How much would the total economy be worth?

Well, at one point in our history, the United States of America faced this very same dilemma, So how did our country become the most wealthy nation on earth? Because the founders who fought for freedom took huge risks. They bet the farm so to speak. They pledged their fortunes to finance the revolution. Some of them lost everything, many lost their lives. There is one man who borrowed $2 Million dollars from the French and pledged his personal property as collateral. He was unable to repay it and not only did he lose his property to France, but he was also thrown into prison where he subsequently died as a pauper. He funded the fight for freedom and in the process gave up his own.

Of course great rewards can only come from taking great risks. But there has to be a balancing point somewhere. Macroeconomics is the study of the the economy as a whole whereas microeconomics is the study of a more narrow focus like the pricing points of a particular company. Our country's treasury began issuing currency that was backed by gold. A modest growth was expected and occurred, albeit cyclically. That is that the growth was not constant, it raced ahead for a while and then it went through a contraction. This is the normal cycle for economies, expansions followed by contractions. Growth is naturally regulated by contractions. The very idea of sustainable growth, which means indefinite growth is not realistic. There is only so many workers, only so many consumers and that only supports a reasonable and realistic rate of growth that is as cyclical as birth rates will support.


But how did our economy grow to such an astronomical size int the first place? At the end of each growth cycle, during a contraction, we financed renewed growth with debt. This has continually pushed up the net worth of our entire economy. Advances in technology have also fueled growth. Innovation is an economic growth engine, and only in a free society could an economy grow as ours has. What other country has contributed to the world as we have? A partial listing of contributions to global society is; AC power generation on distribution, Interchangeable parts and mass production, aviation, super computers, personal computers, radio and wireless, radar et al.

So when Obama states that we should eradicate the cycles of growth followed by contraction, he shows two things. The first is that he just does not understand the natural order of economies. The second is that he believes that sustained growth can be achieved by suppressing the naturally occurring highs and lows. The problems with this view is that it stifles creativity, retards innovation, which in turn minimizes both risk and reward.


There will always be winners and losers. To attempt to manipulate the markets to create only winners is folly. There can not be winners if there are no losers!  if it were so then there would only be gliders, people just getting by the skin of their teeth, not reaping any rewards for risks taken.


If the treasury's printing presses run all day and all night, and they (central banks) do not destroy older currency at a raster rate than they are creating money, then that can result in inflation if confidence is lost in our ability to start the next cycle of economic growth. it (inflation) has very little to do with the currency itself (it has not been backed by gold for several decades now), it has more to do with the attitude of the people regarding hope for their future. That hope is not found in any book, or politicians platform, or party's agenda; it is found in the hearts and minds of the hard working men and women that drive our economy forward with risk taking, innovation, ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that only a free people can foster.


So let the printing presses rattle and hum, pump the economy with fresh new money, but stop trying to regulate the hell out of the economy. Deregulation is crucial to the recovery that we now need. No new government agencies are needed to oversee and regulate and consume an ever larger percentage of our GDP to regulate growth. Get big government out of the way, so we can all have the opportunity to prosper.

The Real Scoop on Obama.

Some are now speculating that Obama is changing his tune because he now understands what the public expects from him. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is starting to talk like a conservative at times, but he is not changing. It is a head fake, a rope-a-dope, if you will. He is a rigid ideologue. He is merely adopting the lingo of his nemesis; conservatism. That way, perhaps he can blend in and engineer a Trojan horse for his radical agenda. That is his new tactic you see. He has realized that bludgeoning the public over the head with it is not going to be tolerated. The people are much more spirited than he estimated. They will not willingly subjugate themselves to his omnipotence, so he must resort to trickery!

As far as his business acumen goes, well there isn't any. He is absolutely clueless. He thinks that businesses borrow to meet payroll. He does not understand the two fundamentals of business; the business cycle and the business environment.

He thinks that businesses hire in order to grow. That is backwards, businesses grow first, then they hire. I am astounded at the number of small business owners who are not aware of how to actively shorten the business cycle as far as receivables go. I was listening to talk radio and owners were calling in giving opinions on Obama's understanding of business with regards to his comments on borrowing to expand payrolls.

You can give your customers incentives to pay early by giving them a discount, like shipping terms of 10% Net 30. If you still have a large percentage of outstanding receivables that are aging past 30 days, there are other options. You can sell your receivables to a factoring company for 98% to 95% of their face value. You get to remove the outstanding receivables from your books, and improve your cash flow immediately. The factoring companies typically charge between 2 and 5 percent of the face value of your outstanding receivables for the service. You avoid the use of banks altogether and shorten your collection cycle and associated costs for outstanding receivables. You also reduce the likelihood of having bad debts on your books by using a factoring company. High volume, low margin companies like common carriers, or other shipping companies often utilize factoring company services, but any type of company can use them. No business wants to carry bad debts on its books. Factoring is a simple way to avoid that.

Businesses only borrow to grow when they can not issue debt of their own with bonds. The growth that is funded with debt is for capital investments, like real estate or equipment. Larger businesses sometimes do this type of debt financing to diversify into other areas not related to their core business for the purposes of revenue generation. Small businesses generally do not do this type of investing in areas outside of their core business for expansion of revenues.

The reason that the banks are not lending to small businesses is that small businesses are not seeking loans for expansion! They are hunkering down, conserving their cash and other capital until the business environment is more stable. The instability that exists now is precisely because of all of Obama's wild policy gyrations. Cap and Trade, Health Care, Slush fund Stimulus, Pay Czars, Soak the rich smack talk, the whole class warfare thing. Obama is like a bull in a china shop when it comes to the economy. Is it any wonder why businesses are taking a wait and see attitude towards growth, expansion, and hiring?

And then he has to have a jobs summit because he does not understand that he is the one who is keeping unemployment so damned high with his war on prosperity. He is really transparent after all. You do not have to be a genius to see that this guy is in way over his head. He is clueless. And that is what makes his presidency especially dangerous. We must not fail to make sure that he is a one term wonder. The Tea-Party people know this. That is what unites them!

Personal Responsibility In Health Care and Conservatism

Appearances can certainly be deceiving, as the saying goes. I have been accused of being able bodied, as if that were a crime. But seriously, I have a handicap placard for use in vehicles, and both of my cars and my wife's car have a red handicapped sticker in the upper left corner of the license plate. Granted, I do not use a walking aid, and one of my vehicles is a panel van with ladders on a rack on top of it. But on more than one occasion I have been derided by of all people, the elderly! One lady sneered at me as I was coming back to my car, "you certainly look handicapped". I asked her if she would like to see the scar from my defibrillator? She just got into her car continuing to jeer at me.

I do get about rather well because I responded well to the regimen of medications that I take. However, without those medications, I would be in a world of hurt. Without those medications I could not walk more than 75 feet without having to take a 5-minute break to catch my breath.

I have severe dilated cardiomyopathy. That means that I have an enlarged heart that is severely weakened. My heart has been damaged. Perhaps it was genetic, as my grandfather also had this condition. It could have also been years of hard living in my youth that contributed to this condition; I make no claim on sainthood. But regardless of the reason for the condition of my heart, the fact remains that I am handicapped.

This condition of my heart was found out as a result of going through another health crisis back in January of 2004. I had what is called ARDS, which stands for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. ARDS is respiratory failure that is often accompanied by other complications like congestive heart failure or sepsis, or multi-organ system failure. I had it all in spades. I had double pneumonia and I very nearly died because of it. I spent 42 days in the hospital from January 21, through March 2. I spent 15 of those days on advanced life support in the respiratory ICU. The reason that I had gotten so ill in the first place was that at some point in my past I had contracted HIV. This lengthy hospital stay was when I first found out that I had been carrying around this deadly virus for possibly the past decade.

It was a harrowing experience, a very narrow escape. Not only was I bedridden, but I was paralyzed as well. I was totally reliant upon others for everything. They fed me, washed me, changed my bed sheets, medicated me and helped plan for my rehabilitation. I went through intensive physical therapy to regain my strength and the full use of my limbs. It was an arduous task fraught with tears and doubts. I also received extensive speech therapy that was designed as much to assess my capabilities as well as to regain them. During my time on life support, my brain had swelled dangerously and they were not sure if it had been irreparably damaged or not. It was exhausting work, but well worth it. By the time that I checked out of the hospital, I was able to walk with a walker for about 100 feet before requiring an extended break.

I had received a crash course in medicine and the health care system. I was attended by several teams of doctors and nurses of various specialties. I learned about endocrinology, cardiology, virology, gastronomy, immunology and infectious diseases, and internal medicine.


To this day, after leaving the hospital, I continue to see the infectious disease doctors on a regular basis. I did not start HAART therapy, until a few weeks after going home. HAART stands for Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy. Retroviruses are different from viruses in that viruses normally contain DNA that allows them to reproduce its RNA by taking over a host cell's resources, whereas a retrovirus contains only RNA and enzymes that it uses to insert it's RNA into the DNA of a host cell which then becomes a virus factory. The host cell becomes totally responsible for replication of the virus.

The infectious disease doctors along with the Visiting Nurses Association of Michigan provided me with information about all the available medications for combating HIV. the VNA also provided case management for me. But the decision as to what particular medications to use was ultimately left up to me. I researched possible side effects, efficacy and ease of compliance. I had to pick three medications for my HAART therapy. The doctors told me which classes of drugs that would work best for my specific HIV genotype but the specific drugs to use was my choice.

It has been six years since then and I continue to do well. But after what I went through then, I can not possibly support what Obama's administration is proposing to do to our health care system. I have too much at stake. I have too much to lose if I can no longer access all the teams of my doctors, or no longer have access to all of my medications. I have been through step therapy with medications already, and the regimen that I am on works well for me. It is not time to reinvent the wheel here. I have one cardiologist who takes care of my implanted defibrillator/pacemaker and another one for my heart itself. I have a primary doctor who specializes in internal medicine. I have a wonderful dentist. I have a great podiatrist. I also have a great ophthalmologist. I even have a wonderful otolaryngologist. I have a fantastic dermatologist.

I have established relationships with all of these doctors. They all accept my insurance. They all know my medical history, and me! Now is not the time to have some bureaucrat insist that I start the process of assembling my medical team all over again. Or that government officials insert themselves into my business at all. I know best what works well for me!

Good health care begins and ends with the patient. If you aren't ill, you don't need a doctor. And when you are ill, you must actively participate in your own recovery. You can't show up at a doctor's office and expect them to just wave a magic wand and make you all better by prescribing a medicine for you. Personal responsibility is a huge factor in getting well again. Personal responsibility is also a huge factor in maintaining your good health.

William Beaumont hospital in Royal Oak Michigan is a very large hospital system. There are three hospitals in it and the Royal Oak campus is the largest and the original one. They are one of the top 10 hospitals in the country for number of beds, admissions, and for positive outcomes. I could not have been in a better place or in more capable doctors' hands while there. They certainly did all that they could do for me but even they would tell you that it was nothing short of a miracle that I am still here today. But as with most large corporations, they tend to move slowly from an administrative point. Beaumont is no exception to that rule. They did not get around to billing my insurance until six months after my discharge. That was unfortunate indeed because the over the road trucking company that I was working for at the time was self insured and had switched administrators for the plans that they offered right in the middle of my stay! I checked into the hospital on January 21, and on February 1 we had a new plan administrator. Now my COBRA payments were all up to date, but because my company chose only a 90 day run out on the previous plan provider, when the bills finally came to the new provider their records showed that I did not have coverage for those last 10 days of January when in fact I did. So it took several phone calls and one 80 page fax of denied EOB's (Explanation of Benefits) and hospital bills to my former employer's human resources department to get it paid. 


Because the hospital had begun billing me for the unpaid balance, I was amazed to see just how much my stay had cost. The total bill was $742,636.59! Over 54 thousand dollars of that was for medications alone! Now I did have an obligation to pay my co-pays, and my out of pocket maximum. Thankfully, it only came to a few thousand dollars. My wife and I immediately organized a debt management plan through our credit union and we were able to pare it down in short order.

I pay my part. I pay my co-pays. I pay my premiums. I shopped for low cost generic medications. I get most of my prescriptions from Walmart. I take responsibility for my own health care. I will not foist this responsibility upon others. As far as the poor or indigent goes, there are free clinics and charities that willingly take up the cause of those who fall through the cracks. Our current system works well. I know this from experience. That is why when I say that this administration's efforts to take over health care in our country has nothing to do with health care but instead has everything to do with power and control over you, I am indeed speaking from experience! This is not some slogan or bumper sticker or talking points that I am parroting. I speak from experience!

I know what works best for me. When this hospitalization happened, I had lost my job, was on COBRA and disability for 18 months before I could return to work. My wife and I were deep in debt, had all of our stuff in storage and were living in a room at my grandmother's house. Now we own our own home, I am back working my day job, and running my business, and advocating for responsible solutions to the minor problems that our health care system does have. Believe me when I say that Obamacare or Pelosicare is not one of them! 

The Best Job In The World

Well, I was scheduled to run the Visteon account for Wednesday through Friday (Chrysler's Warren truck assembly), but one of the drivers for Haas Overhead Door in Wauseon Ohio was having chest pains in Pennsylvania on his way back from the east coast. So my boss called me last minute and asked me to hold tight as they figured out just what to do. The driver was going to a clinic and depending upon what the doctor found, I may have been needed to go out on a one way car rental and retrieve his truck. My boss said that they thought of me because they needed the best of the best for the job! Anyways, they decided to put me onto another Haas run for today and tomorrow, by then they should know if they need for me to go and retrieve the truck on Sunday.

I have recovered trucks before for another employer. I once recoved a truck and the female driver that was in it! She was wigged out on something. She was on eastbound I-80 just west of  the Wyoming border in Utah. I had to bring them both back to the main terminal in West Valley City, a northern suburb of Salt Lake City. I felt bad for her. She was paranoid about losing her job. I tried to calm her down. The company did have a zero tolerance policy, but they also offered rehab for substance abuse. It was kind of a second chance program. I think that she had other issues however, because she just could not stop obsessing about losing her job.

It was the first Volvo that I had driven, and it was loaded to the max. The jakes in that thing were the crapiest set I had ever had the displeasure of using. It was wierd shifting it also, had to rev the engine way up to about 2200 before even thinking of grabbing the next gear up, else it wasn't going to go in it (with or without the clutch). I was trying my damnedest not to soil my pants going down those mountains into SLC and I had to remain calm and cool so as not to set her off, and all the while try to calm her down. Talk about your multi-tasking! Did I mention that it was after dark also?

What is cool about the route that they gave me for today and Friday is that it runs me right within 5 miles of my Mother's house in Canal Fulton, Ohio. So I parked the truck at the TA at Portage Road and I-75 and called Mom up. She came out and met me at the restaurant. She had just eaten, but I was starved. So she kept me company while I ate and then we went back to her house for a visit. She wanted help learning how to use her new laptop computer.

Tomorrow morning early, I have to deliver my last stop in Dover, Ohio and then I make a pick up in Gnadenhutten for the return trip to Wauseon. I love this job. Where else can anyone get paid to visit with family members that live in another state!

It is nice to visit with Mom, but she is a chain smoker, and I have bad asthma. So I will visit with her for a while and then have her take me back to the truck for the night. I can only take so much. Three cigarettes ago I wasn't wheezing. Now my throat is sore and my voice is hoarse and raspy. I fare much better under the mildness of mere deisel particulates at the truck stops than with the durress of second hand smoke. 

Commercial Drivers Are Latest Victims of Liberal Obama Administration.

Driving is by definition an exercise in multi-tasking. You have to operate the vehicle safely, obeying all traffic laws while reading street signs, traffic control devices, addresses, other drivers for clues as to what they are doing or are going to do, and watching out for pedestrians all at the same time. that's why Transportation Secretary, Ray Lahood's edict that specifically bans text messaging on cell phones while driving commercial motor vehicles or buses is silly.

There are varying degrees of excellence in any profession. There are "A" grade engineers and there are "C" grade ones. There is a large continuum between the "A" and "C" grades of every profession. There are even those among the population who for some reason, are passed along with even lower grades; those who border on failing with "D" and "F".

Even an "A" grade operator in any profession will occasionally have a bad day where his performance slips to a lower level. So for the government to say that it is against the law to multi-task while driving any kind of vehicle is an oxymoron.


So what is next? Should we ban smoking while driving? Should we ban playing the radio while driving? Should we ban looking at a map or atlas while driving? Should we ban eating cheeseburgers and fries while driving? Should we ban drinking a Coke while driving? Should we ban shaving or putting on makeup while driving? Should we ban talking on a cell phone hands free while driving? Should we ban talking with a passenger while driving? Should we ban singing along to the radio while driving? Should we ban disciplining unruly children while driving? Should we ban eating pistachios while driving? Should we ban reading a book or newspaper while driving? Should we ban conducting business with others while driving? Should we ban planning vacations or surprise birthday parties or family meals while driving? Should we ban thinking about what we will watch on television tonight while driving? This is still America isn't it? Should we ban being human while driving? I guess that we should all become little robots during the time that we are driving.



How in the world does Ray Lahood expect law enforcement to actually enforce this decree? Distracted driving is a problem that continues to grow as our lives become more and more complicated, especially with the advent of newer technologies. But I think that the emphasis here is misdirected. Instead of criminalizing "texting", we should be reinforcing the values of common sense in executing the multi-tasking required of driving any vehicle. 


I have made and sent politically satirical texts while driving big rigs on several occasions. But not while driving in heavy traffic. Not while driving during rush hour. Not while driving in the city. Not while driving on two lane roads. Not while driving in adverse weather conditions. Not while driving on unfamiliar roads. Certainly not while backing. Not while moving through any parking lots. There is a time and a place for everything, and common sense should guide us as to the proper times for each thing. That does not mean that one can never "text" safely while driving a commercial vehicle, nor does it mean that any commercial driver cannot text while "on duty".


This is a prime example of what a bloated, out of control, appointed bureaucracy that has become a de facto part of our government thinks about you and its attempts to subjugate you as they force their agenda upon you. These unelected and unaccountable officials view themselves as the preeminent purveyors of the civil society. They issue laws without open debate with or consent of the people. There is no checks or balances on their power. They answer to no one. This is the danger in the growth of the forth branch of our government. And under Obama, the growth of the bureaucracy has been massive. He has grown it more than all previous administrations combined. The only growth of our economy of late has been in government. There has been no growth in the private sector.

The result of all this massive governmental growth is continued invasive intrusion into your personal lives, and continued erosion of your liberties and freedoms. And so by edict of a bureaucrat you have lost your freedom to text while behind the wheel of commercial vehicles and buses. If Ray really had his way, he would have even banned talking on the cell phone (even hands free) for everyone who drives any vehicle. But that would never have flown with the public. So once again the Obama administration has sought to demonize and victimize yet another market segment; commercial drivers. This clown has to be a one term wonder folks. Let's make sure that happens please.

Implications of Supreme Court Decision in Citizens United vs. FEC

It has certainly been a bad week for the Obama administration. On Tuesday, the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sent a powerful message to Washington D.C. by electing conservative republican Scott Brown to the senate seat formerly held by senator Ted Kennedy. And then there was the stunning decision handed down by the Supreme Court on Thursday.

The case revolved around a movie on demand that Citizen's United offered as Hillary Clinton was trying to win the democratic nomination for president. It was a scathingly critical documentary. Citizen's United was not given a "media exemption" and the release was blocked by the Federal Elections Commission under campaign finance laws, specifically the McCain-Fiengold law.

David Fossey of Citizen's United was left with no option but to sue the FEC. David won with Thursday's decision. Although it was originally brought as a narrow issue regarding only the release of the video on demand offering from Citizen's United, the winning argument came from the lawyers for the FEC. Justice Samuel Alito asked the lawyer for the FEC "if the documentary was in book form, would the FEC still have banned it?" Of course, the lawyer said yes, that the FEC had that discretion to ban it even if it were in book form. This did not sit well with the conservatives on the court regarding the first amendment and free speech.

The majority opinion, written by justice Kennedy and joined by Cheif Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito is a new treatment for corporate speech and spending. Kennedy worte, "By suppresing the speech of manifold corporations, both for profit and non-profit, the government prevents their voices and viewpoints from reaching the public and advising voters on which persons or entities are hostile to their interests".

While the left is furiously scrambling to draft legislation that would curtail this by placing limits on corporations who hold federal contracts, this November's elections will possibly be quite different from before. The gloves are off now. No longer are businesses handicapped against expressing opinions that favor them.

But what is good for business causes profits to increase. As business profits increase, businesses grow. As businesses grow, they will need to hire more employees. In essence, what is good for business is good for the economy and what is good for the economy is good for jobs. And jobs are what is foremost in the minds of the people these days. So as distasteful as the left finds this decision to be, the people stand to be the biggest winners here. No longer are campaign messages the sole property of the far left Political Action Committees (PACS) who are well funded by leftists like billionaire George Soros.


No longer is prosperity a victim of the far left agenda. No longer is prosperity a victim of environmental extremists. Now, the playing field has finally been leveled. Thank God!

Polarizing Ideologies

I heard an audio bite from Martha Coakley today on Rush Limbaugh's show. She stated that our health system was broken because it actually treated people who were ill, instead of preventing the illness which was too costly to treat after it had established itself. Rush capitalized upon another aspect of the comment, the openness of the left to willingly impose their crazy ideology upon the rest of us regardless of the majority being against them. While that was very true, the part that caught my ear was the flawed idea that we have the capability to detect all illnesses before they happen and that the left views ill people as a financial drag on society because of the costs associated with treating them to make them well again.

As Rush likes to call it, "the Universe of Lies" that the left lives in was made painfully evident by the clueless remarks of a hapless Martha. As if we have the technology to predict who will come down with whatever illness before hand and prevent it from happening is absurd. Where is that crystal ball at? I would like to know what the next set of lottery numbers are!

As people age they are more susceptible to illnesses. As people age the probability of contracting an illness increases. It is a mathematical certainty that nearly everyone will at some point in their lives suddenly find themselves battling some illness. It could be cancer, arthritis, dementia, MS, Heart disease, allergies, asthma, diabetes, or many others. Some of these diseases have genetic markers that predispose certain people towards contracting them, but even that is not any guarantee that they will come down with whatever it is.

No, the real intention of the left was inadvertently exposed in Martha's comment that it was too costly to treat people who already were battling some disease. That is why the left really thinks that their rationing of health care is a sensible, rational, and reasonable thing to do. After all, it is the responsible thing to do. I mean, all of you people who dare to actually be ill, should do the right thing and reject treatment, to save society money. You who are ill, should die responsibly, and quickly so that the rest of us can have the easy life with well paved roads and bridges to drive on and higher unemployment benefits for those who are out of work. You who are sucking up resources by treating your illness, are being irresponsible bad citizens. You should be thinking of the potential benefit to society first.

This is the twisted thinking that plagues the rabid leftists in the liberal horde. It is warped to say the very least. I can't think of a better example of egalitarianism and yet they will sell this bilk all day as compassion. It is elitism and nothing else. They try to package it as compassion but it does not pass the smell test. They would have two classes in society if they got their way, theirs for the elite and yours for the rest of the dregs. That is how they view the world; through a warped prismatic lens that is their heart. These stalwarts will never change. They represent about 20% of the population. Another 20% feels that nothing they can do will make a difference, and so they sit on the sidelines doing nothing. The do nothings will not change either. It is the remaining 60% who can be swayed either way. Those are the ones worth the effort of reaching to change their minds to make a positive change. That 60% can be persuaded that conservatism is the answer.

For Jackie; Please Keep All Comments Clean!

To commenter Jackie; I am not quite sure how you got misogyny out of my recent post, "The Smell of Desperation", (which was about the imminent political defeat of "tax and spend" liberalism in Massachusetts), but nothing could be further from the truth. I love women, and respect all life from the unborn to the elderly. I knew two complete sets of my own Great Grandparents for the first 18 years of my life! The reason that I did not publish your dissenting comment was strictly the language used. I have published dissenting comments before, in fact, I welcome them! For future reference, please keep the language clean, so I can publish your comments whether you agree with me or not. Thank you.

The Smell of Desperation.

The blood is in the water now. the Massachusetts senate race between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican contender Scott Brown is one of the most closely watched races in recent history. The fate of Obamacare rests upon the outcome. Obama just finished stumping for Martha in Boston. He was shouted down twice by a man and his son who were opposed to the support for abortion in Obamacare. The hecklers were removed, but Obama was clearly unnerved by the incident, probably because his teleprompter wasn't loaded with a contingent quip against such moral objections. He actually walked away from the podium for a moment, and when he returned struggled to remember where he was in his rhetoric, amazing!

All of the polls show that the defeat of Obamacare is imminent with the crescendo of common sense that is building in Massachusetts to deliver the crushing death blow at the ballot box soon. The very fact that Obama is there stumping for Martha, is proof that they are running scared. Obamacare is on the ropes and with Brown's win, we can knock it clear out of the ring.

Obama talked about his idiotic idea of a special tax on big banks to "recover TARP funds" that were given to them. What a load of crap. The treasury department forced them to take that money. They were not "given" it! Most of them did not even ask for that money. And most of them have paid that back already. All this will do is make any transactions with potential borrowers more expensive which will crimp lending by driving demand down even farther than it is now. In a time when they want to encourage lending to grease the wheels of commerce, this makes no sense. This just shows how very little Obama and his administration really understand about the free market and how it works.

He spoke about equality, which the left frequently does to try to frame their argument for increasing the size and scope of government and its increased intrusion into everyone's lives, as a humanitarian endeavor. This is of course, hogwash because while all are created equal, (having equal rights and intrinsic value as human beings) not all have equal talents, or are given equal opportunities by God. And so this is the tactic that they employ without fail. They are so predictable. Wrong, but predictable.

The President started his speech stating that he did not know much about the record of Scott Brown, and then he spent the rest of his time attacking it! That is pure desperation!

The public has had enough of politicians attitude of "tax and spend" from both parties. But it is the liberal democrats that have ratcheted that policy up exponentially since just last year. The tipping point has been passed, and the liberals are not aware of it yet. They will get the message loud and clear soon enough though. It started a while ago with Virginia, and New Jersey. It continues with this month's senate race in Massachusetts, and it will surely continue this November elsewhere..

Keep the faith folks. We are going to defeat Obamacre and so much more before it is all said and done with.

The True Cost of Bottle Deposits.

I recently found out that Michigan is losing five and a half million dollars per year on its bottle deposit program due to bottles that were purchased out of state and returned here. To understand how this works, I followed the flow of money logically.

First of all, lets understand just what the bottle return deposit system is. All plastic and glass bottles, and aluminum cans that contain carbonated beverages have a ten cent deposit placed on them by our state government. 

1) This deposit is collected by retailers from consumers and handed over to the state. 
2) The bottles are returned to retailers through machines that issue receipts to consumers. 
3) Consumers exchange the receipts for cash at retailers.
4) The retailers collect and aggregate the receipts and exchange them for cash with the state.

The whole system adds costs to products. Bottles must be handled by retailers. It used to be that a human being did this in the beginning. This person had to collect the bottles and cans, issue receipts and separate them for the recyclers who picked them up. Retailers had to hire a person who did nothing but handle returns. The free market came up with a solution to this by introducing collection machines. There are separate machines for glass, plastic and aluminum. So separation is performed by the consumer as they are returned. And the counting of the returns and issuance of receipts is now automated. The machines require minimal attention and can be maintained by current employees.

The machines cannot differentiate between out of state bottles and cans because it merely reads a bar code that has only product information in it. Retailers are not required to accept for return, brands that they do not sell. So cans and bottles that were purchased out of state that do not have the deposit on them, can easily be returned in the machines. So money is siphoned away from the state by people who have exploited this loophole. I call it the Kramer loophole, after the famous episode of Seinfeld in which the wacky Kramer teams up with Newman to run a postal van full of bottles and cans from New York to Michigan to turn them in for money.

Evidently, the count of out of state bottles and cans returned in Michigan is fifty five million per year. This would equal the five and a half million dollars that is lost each year on Michigan's bottle return program. So, in order to keep the environment free from aluminum cans and plastic and glass bottles, Michigan is spending five and a half million dollars each and every year.


Does this sound like a good use of public funds to you? I grew up in northeast Ohio, and I never saw a blight of aluminum cans or plastic and glass bottles littering the environment. Ohioans, collect the cans, crush them, and take them to the scrap yards who pay the current market price for them based on weight. Also, they turn in plastic and glass when they recycle the cans. In Ohio, there exists a culture of recycling. They also recycle cardboard and paper. In fact it has always been a common thing to do as a way to raise funds for local schools. I can remember my grade school and high school having a "paper drive" with one or two roll-offs placed on the property which community residents were encouraged to fill with used newspapers and magazines. The paper collected was turned in to the paper recyclers and money was issued to the schools based on the tonnage collected. 


In Ohio they spend far less than five and a half million per year to promote this culture of recycling. They do place occasional adds on television and on billboards to maintain this culture of recycling, the environment is cleaner, and the cost to the public is far less.


Meanwhile back in Michigan, the cost of the bottle return system to the taxpaying citizens of Michigan is bigger than just the deposit on the bottles and cans. Because the program pays out more than it receives, the funds must come from somewhere. Typically it comes out of the general fund leaving less for other uses like road maintenance. This has helped create a structural deficit in state finances and it must be addressed. The typical response of our government is to tax more heavily. They have raised taxes on rental cars, and hotel rooms and bed and breakfasts, because they reason that these are typically paid by nonresidents to try to make up for the shortage. But this is a shortsighted fix because about 60% of the 5.5 Billion dollar Michigan tourism industry is fueled by locals. This hurts the tourism and hospitality industries which are involved with tourism. This causes more job losses in a state that can not afford to lose any more jobs!


This is a prime example of why government intrusion into the lives of citizens no matter how well intentioned, can have disastrous consequences for the economy as a whole. It is very interesting to note that the one mention of the free market in this article is a positive one while the same can not be said of government solutions to a problem.