A Brief Thought on the Violence in Connecticut

It has been three days now since those terrible events in Connecticut. I did not want to write about this. I did not even want to think about this. I have no knowledge or expertise to add to the analysis that must come after something like this. That needs mental health professionals, people of the cloth, or those with legal training.

The first reaction by many people is to blame the guns that were used. That is understandable. But my feeling is that people that are motivated to do this level of harm will always find a way. If not a gun then a knife or a bomb or a Molotov Cocktail. There are just so many ways to create havoc.

When I was a young man it was fairly easy to put someone with mental problems in an institution. Most were dirty and cruel and abusive places. The inmates, and that is what they were, were treated worse than zoo animals were treated. Lawyers got involved and petitioned for the rights of those that were incarcerated. They were freed and many became homeless.

Times have changed. We have the ability and communal conscience to revisit what we must do for those that are alienated from society and need supervision. When an asocial personality spends every waking hour playing violent computer games where you score by how many people you kill they cannot help but be numbed to the results of acting out and uncaring over the pain of others.

In my opinion, what is needed now is not an immediate knee jerk reaction but a thoughtful analysis by those that care only for a solution. It should be a group that is large enough to contain great minds in psychology, law, religion, medicine, and ethics, but small enough to come to a consensus. No politicians, please.

None of us knows what will happen now. I don't even know that my idea will work. But it is obvious that we must try something. I would prefer to do something that controls the doers and not try to control the tools that they use. They will always find new tools.

Sadness in Our Nation

This is a day of profound sadness for everyone. My prayers are for those poor people in Connecticut and for all families with children. This affects them all. 

There will be no new blog for a few days in respect.

Random Thoughts - Fifteen

Wouldn't you love to know how many hours of flight time President Obama has put on Air Force One, compared to other presidents? I mean, when do  they have time to wash and wax it?

Benghazi update. Amazingly enough, it is now coming out that the administration knew that there was a strong Al Queda base working in Libya. We have to stay after this.

Speaking of administration scandals, what is going on with "Fast and Furious"? Is that being dropped?

Speaking of administration scandals, has anyone heard anything about Solyndra lately?

Did you hear where Jeffry Immelt, chairman of GE and chairman of the administration's Jobs Council, says communism works just fine in China? Gee, I thought that things were going pretty terrible in China under communism until they adopted some capitalism. I'm sure this is going to be good news to the survivors of Tienanmen Square and those that are forced to work in sweatshops. Those GE light bulbs that used to be made in the US are now made in China. Think there's a link there?

The President wishes to thank those who have stopped looking for work so that they are no longer counted in the unemployment figures. You are making unemployment figures go down and making the President look good.

I hope everyone is prepared to go over the "financial cliff". Because that is where we are headed at a high rate of speed. The Republican night crawler club (no spine and suitable for fish bait) think if they give Obama the keys to the kingdom they can stop it. I doubt it. If the tax rates go up across the board, Obama gets a big influx of spending money. It also gives him a chance to put the blame on those terrible intransigent Republicans. A double win. I don't think he can walk away from that.

Does anyone really believe that Obama intends to reduce spending?

Hey, it's my blog. So I can say this. How about them Patriots!!!!! My sympathy to any readers from Texas.

I know that I can get a bit cranky. I'm old and I'm a conservative, so I'm obliged to be cantankerous, but the level of incivility in American society today is jaw-dropping. All rules have been thrown away. Nasty is the new operational behavior. People, watch yourselves out there. I really mean this. Especially in the cities. Take a position of "situational  awareness". If you don't know what that means, it is to be aware at all times who is around you. Do they look threatening? Is their behavior odd? Check all around you. When you're on the street don't be lost in your cell phone or I-Pod. If you think this advice is unnecessary, ask a cop.

If the Mayans were right, civilization has only ten more days. I might as well hold off on that Christmas shopping.

Remember Benghazi

The holidays are here and everyone is busy with their preparations. The newspaper, if they report at all, are reporting the crisis of the day. The president is heading to Hawaii in a week. Most politicians have lost interest in anything that matters. There are distractions galore. But through all this, we must remember Benghazi.

The administration, every person in it, hopes that the American people will just move on and call it done. Over. Old history. We must not do that. Benghazi is a big deal. Benghazi is not just one scandal. It is four separate scandals. Every one of them deserves our close attention.

The first scandal is that Ambassador Stevens called for more security and it was denied him. That is unheard of. An ambassador is the highest ranking American in any foreign country. He is the direct representative of the President. Normally when an ambassador makes a request it is granted without question. There are only two people in government with the power to deny an ambassador. That would be the Secretary of State and the President. So who made that decision and why? Was it made on political grounds? Was it made to appease someone in the Libyan government? After all this consulate had been attacked before. Weren't there enough warning flags up? Why was the Ambassador even there? Was he sent there secretly for a meeting? Why was he sent with insufficient personal security?

The second scandal is the attack on the consulate itself. This was an attack on sovereign American soil. When the consulate came under fire they called out for help. None was forthcoming. The people calling for help were experienced military. They had a drone overhead monitoring the situation. The battle lasted over seven hours. Help was available. Even a single C-130A sent from Italy could have been there in an hour. Four honorable Americans lost their lives while serving their country. Why? Was this also a political decision? Do we now sacrifice our people for political reasons? Who was monitoring the feed from the drone? Who did they report to? We need answers. We deserve answers. Whatever was or was not done occurred in our name.

The third scandal, of course, is the pack of lies that the administration put out to cover this debacle. The stories had not even a bit of truth to them. It was not about some movie upsetting a flash mob. Any person with more than two active brain cells knew they were lies. But for weeks after, coincidentally right through the presidential debates, the administration stuck with the story. Week after week, on the Sunday talk shows and in the news papers the media allowed this story when they must have known it was a fabrication. A man in California was jailed for his part in inciting a riot that never happened. In America? Please. That is just wrong. When did our country come to this?

The fourth scandal is a little more difficult for me.  I have a tendency to accept the military as straight forward and honorable under any and all pressure. As back in Caesar's day, they would fall on their sword rather than dishonor their uniform. General Petraeus initially mouthed the party line as to the cause of the attack on Benghazi. He reiterated the obvious lies that were played to protect the administration. It is my opinion, and mine alone, that he wanted to tell the truth. Again, my opinion, he was told that if he went public, his private misfeasance would be made public. Being an honorable man who made a mistake, he did the right thing and resigned. We, as American citizens, need his testimony as to what transpired throughout this whole mess.

I am writing this piece on the evening of December 9, 2012. I plan to publish it tomorrow. I feel it is so important that I will republish this essay periodically as a reminder to those that read my blog that the administration has not answered our questions, until we finally are told the truth or have a new administration.

Aliens Welcome

The politicians haven't told you yet, but the welcome mat is out at the United States borders. An alien amnesty is coming. It is unavoidable. The American public is being sold on this very slowly. But the dirty little secret is that every politician in Washington in the back of their mind know it is inevitable. Most of them want it to happen.

Let me explain. As with everything that politicians get their grubby little fingers into, it is about money. They have messed up the national economy so badly that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are going broke. Over the years the politicians have borrowed (stolen) the money earmarked for these programs and spent it on other pet pork projects. Now we're running out. Years ago there were seven or eight people working to support each Social Security recipient. Now we are down to one or two. This, of course, is untenable.

We need more workers out there bringing money into the government coffers. At least those spending dervishes in Washington think we do, because they cannot find a program that can be cut. Correction, they do not want to find a program that can be cut. There are two ways to get more workers. The most obvious is not working as the birth rate is way down. Now if you good loyal citizens want to get out there and make the effort, in about twenty years we will increase the work force. The only other way to make new American workers is immigration. With an amnesty program there will be a huge immediate influx. The Democrats are particularly for this as these alien imports tend to vote Democrat. So now you see the handwriting on the wall.

There is one small problem. Right now we don't have enough jobs. This gives the politicians more time to seal the deal with the public. Well, there is one other small problem. With the way the administration is handling the economy things are not about to improve. Since the election there has been an increase in layoffs. This is not widely publicized in the media, but if you look, the information is out there. If the country goes over the tax cliff, and I think it will, this will get even worse. The president wants this to happen. If you look closely at the way the negotiations, if you can call them that, have been structured, it is obvious.

The policies in place now are going to take most of a generation to repair. There will also have to be some good honest statesmanship in Washington. Are there any real statesmen out there? Not too many, if any. So if they should, prematurely, offer amnesty, it will only exacerbate what is already a mountainous problem. Also, a great deal depends on what  happens in 2016. There are all ready some ripples in the water, but not enough to see any picture yet. But I'm already studying on it. Stay tuned. More to follow.

A Christmas Crisis

As I have said before, there is nothing President Obama loves so well as a crisis. If you have a shiny new crisis today you can forget about all those rusty old ones that some silly people, Republicans and other miscreants mostly, keep bringing up in conversations and at press conferences. Obama loves crises so much that he will manufacture them as needed. And he has built as beauty this time. He has built it like an onion, layer upon layer. Solve Crisis-Part A and you are faced with  Crisis-Part B and so on through all those layers.

The core of this month crisis is the, so called, Bush Tax Cuts. They are due to expire. That would give every taxpayer in the country a rate increase. Since Obama loves the middle class, he wants to preserve lower taxes for them. And since he hates evil rich folks, he wants to raise taxes on them. Actually he doesn't really care much about the middle class and he loves the rich. The rich give him tons of money to play with for campaigning and stuff. Now the fact is that taxing those making over $250,000 is not going to pull the country out of the financial black hole Obama has put us in. But if enough people believe him and not think too deeply about it, he'll get their support. And, of course, most of the main stream media supports him unquestioningly. By the way, this is the Barack Obama who said that taxes ought not to be raised in a recession. Unless he really really wants to. Then it's OK.

The next layer of the onion is to proclaim that the Republicans have no ideas. So there is no point in negotiating with them. They did produce a list of ideas that are at least worth discussion. But the president's people blew them off as not balanced enough. Whatever that means. Maybe that list could be a start toward negotiating a compromise. So the president, in search of the new ideas that excite him, is heading for the golf courses in Hawaii to see if there are any good balanced ideas to be found there. Aside from that, he needs a good trip to rest up from all those other trips.

So to prove he is constantly involved, the president left Tim Geithner behind to handle the financial negotiations with the Republicans. I must remind you that Tim is the guy that couldn't get his own income tax done right using Turbo-Tax. A fine program that I have used for years. And if I can use it successfully, anybody should be able to. Now, all of a sudden, Obama's demands have changed. He now requires double the tax income, a huge increase in deficit spending, and that congress abrogate, to him, control of the debt ceiling. That is a power given to Congress in the Constitution. It is one of the "checks and balances" designed by our founders and is not to be taken lightly. Additionally, follow this for logic. The increase in deficit spending is supposed to offset the bad effects of the tax increase. Weird logic at best. Fiscal insanity at worst.

The dirty secret is that Obama wants a fiscal blowup. He wants the economy to go over the cliff because he feels that he, being a charming and likable sort of person, can lay the blame on the Republicans and destroy them in the eyes of the public for years to come. So if Geithner and the Republicans should be able to come up with a plan, the president can reject it claiming it is not satisfactory to him for any number of reasons. Then when the unemployment rate goes above ten percent and the GNP goes negative, once again he can stand up at some podium, look down his royal nose at the audience, and claim it all would have worked out if those evil Republicans had only given me what I needed. It's all their fault. This is not about the economy. This is flat out hard ball politics. And it is exactly what the nation does not need and can't afford at this time.

GNP Call Home

Once again, dear friends, we enter the exciting world of economics. I stopped to glance at the TV the other day as one of the usual talking heads said,"people do not understand the GNP". I shrugged off that condescending claim. Those types always think they are brilliant and the rest of us are dolts. But I started thinking, what if he's right. Today's education system doesn't do economics well, if at all. So, as I enjoy writing about economics, I thought I'd try to help anyone that missed that class.

First of all there are two numbers. The GNP is the gross national product. The GDP is the gross domestic product. They are similar but with definite differences. I don't want to wander to far into the weeds here. So Google them if you really want to know the difference. I prefer the GDP, as I feel it gives a better picture of what is happening in the country. The GNP looks at the economy as a whole and is what is most commonly reported on. While either one of these numbers represent the economy the GNP is the total value of all goods and services produced in the United States plus Americans and American companies abroad minus the value of goods and services produced by foreigners and foreign companies in the US. That's a bit to wrap your brain around. You might want to give that one a second read.

The Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ do not represent the economy. They represent the state of certain select stocks offered for sale. Their trends show the anticipated growth or decline in value of those stocks only. A stock can show an increase in value on the Dow for instance, while, at the same time bringing down the GNP. Let me explain. Let's say a company, Cranky Cranks Inc., employs a thousand people at four locations. Their business volume is ten million dollars and they make a gross profit of thirty percent and a net of ten percent. A good well run business. So they net one million dollars. They have half a million shares of stock outstanding valued at twenty dollars a share, so they pay dividends of two dollars a share. That gives them a price to earnings ratio of ten to one. All in all, very nice.

Let's say there is a business slowdown. Their volume drops to five million dollars. They hang in for a while but their dividend goes down to seventy-five cents a share. Their P/E drops to about twenty-six. Not good. Dow looks at them and the stock price plummets. This forces management does what they have to do. First they lay off half of their work force. Five hundred people join the unemployed. Next, to reduce fixed costs, they close two buildings and reduce their R&D program.

So now they have half sized themselves. But because of the reduced costs their net goes back up as does the stock value. So the Dow goes back up, too. Since they are doing less business and generating a smaller gross their contribution to the GNP goes down. Please, you CPAs out there, I know I oversimplify.

Finally, we get to growth. The government produces GNP numbers quarterly. Over the past four years the rate of growth for the GNP has been hovering around one percent. That is a very weak economy. A growth rate that weak will not sustain a growing population. That means further unemployment and underemployment. It is important that the government create an atmosphere where business can grow and flourish. The economy is not a zero sum game. One person making it does not take away from others. In a robust economy everyone does well including the tax collector. 

All Americans need is an even playing field without the obstructions of an over-reaching, over-regulating, and over-spending government and we will do just fine.