In The Shadow of The Valley of Debt

Today I came home from a hard day at work and my wife hit me with a bombshell, she wanted a new credit card AmeriKan ExPress.

We are $140,000 in debt, we have two mortgages on the house, the roof is leaking and the eaves are sagging. My car burns oil, her car needs a new radiator, but we did install a new sound system that cost $900 and it sounds great. I had to take a pay cut because the company had a fire and didn’t have insurance.

My kids need to see the dentist, but without dental coverage in the insurance plan, we decided to put it off until next year. Tomorrow we pick up our new 68 inch flat panel LCD and we are giving the old 58 inch to our son, who is in the local private college rather than the public university down the street.

Our credit is shot and I had to get a new cell phone to avoid the collection agencies that are constantly calling me. But I did get a new MePhone that had a $50 rebate off the list price of $600; the best part is it has a lightsaber application that only cost $.99. What a bargain.

So I signed the application and the card should be here in a couple of days. I am so happy, that will give us some more much needed wiggle room in the future, plus we to register the boat.

An economist created a term called “Conspicuous Consumption” and I would modify his definition slightly.

Buying things, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t know. Thorstein Veblen (italicized words added by author)

The Congress and President seem to have the same delusional reality as this fictional character, except the amounts are much higher and the spending even more ridiculous.

Neither will be able to get out of the mess that they created unless they stop increasing their spending, create a budget that shrinks the spending levels, and then have the courage to stick to it regardless of the sacrifices that must be made by the family.

A man cannot be free when he stands

in the shadow of the looming monster named debt.

Want a Plate of This?

Well, I am not the King of England, nor the King of Texas.
So my prediction of a Muslim being behind the next terrorist attack must have some correlation with something else besides my magical ability to predict the future.


Either way in Texas you will soon be able to get a new license plate...of the Gadsden Flag.
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I would like to think it is in honor of the brilliant writing that I post here, but I think it may have more to do with the idea that people don't like a big government telling them to purchase insurance or face a fine and other recent ideas presented by the congressional swine that feed at the government trough.

Maybe we should feed them a plate of this?

Don't Hold Your Breath.

Okay, so we are not at war with Islam. There I said it, now I am politically correct.

The only thing I don't understand is that last month I predicted to my friends that the next terror attempt or attack directed towards the United States or her citizens will be from someone who is Muslim. Lo and behold, Somali teenager tries to blow up a holiday family party.

What I don't understand is I keep predicting the lottery numbers being 1,2,3,4,5 and it never happens.

So, either I am not magically able to predict the future or we are at war with Islam.

Let's check and see...

Tomorrow I will be crowned the king of England.

I am Sure They Will Leave an I.O.U.

In Ireland the government is going to be taking over the banking system in order to rescue a crippled economy…

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Does anyone really think a politician having their hands in the cookie jar is a good idea?

We know what they do when they find out they can rob the Social Security accounts to pay for their pet projects, what is going to happen when they find out they can rob from your account?

Think about it.

Latest security threat, The Printed Word.

A headline today is “Homeland Security is banning toner and ink cartridges from U.S. bound passenger aircraft.”

As a former juvenile delinquent I have to question what sort of idiot is in charge at the Department of Homeland Security. Seriously, they banned water bottles because of liquid explosives now they are banning toner cartridges because of solid/power explosives.

Shouldn’t they be working to solve the actual problem that is the root cause?

What are they going to do, ban the next medium that Al Qaeda decides to use? A common terror tactic is belt bombs, are they going to ban belts?

What about vest bombs? Although the sweater vest should be banned for multiple reasons, I don’t think this would be a rational conclusion.

Radical Islamic Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki said all Americans are the enemy, clerics don't need to issue any special fatwas or religious rulings allowing them to be killed.

I think a good solution should be courts that address cases like this. People who actively persuade individuals to kill others should be tried absentee; however, they can show up to defend themselves in a fair trial. Any person advocating the death of innocent people should also be eligible for the death penalty.

Our problem isn’t the toner cartridges, it isn’t devout nut-job followers, it isn’t even sweater vests; it is the radicals that encourage the terrorist killings. Islamic or otherwise, as long as we allow them to plan, execute and then plan more attacks, we are at risk.

It is as if we are trying to win a football game by having the entire team follow the ball around rather than stopping the play before it gets started. We need to get the quarterback.

We aren’t fighting a war against printers, we are fighting against homicidal maniacs. Maybe I should print off this letter and send it to Homeland Security…

No, they wouldn’t get it…

on so many levels.

Founding Fathers Friday

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
~ Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence)

I thought this quote was very fitting for this week.

Did You Vote?

Okay, let's see a show of hands.
Who Voted and who sat this one out?
If you voted:
Great you can hope your taxes will go down and your representative in Congress will listen to you. Or you can show them the door in the next election.

If you didn't vote.
Shut your mouth and don't complain. The price to complain was voting, if you didn't pay, you lost your turn to talk until next time.

Speech is free, but you still have to pay for it.

On another topic, I have heard Obama say that if you want to drive the car you should select "D"
Although, I think he misses the point.

You see he is not driving, we are, and when we vote we are selecting the destination.

R takes us down the Roadway
D takes us in the Ditch