Good Times Coming, HUH?

As stocks tumbled, crude oil prices fell $5.95, to settle at $42.63 a barrel in New York, after the Energy Information Administration reported that crude stockpiles rose 6.7 million barrels through last Wednesday, far above most expectations. The sharp dip in oil prices pared gains from an equally swift rally over the last two weeks. I said ...this morning... that figured the economists telling you that the price of oil was gonna keep going up were about as reliable as my ex-son-in-law...who had a job one day...

And about that projected a $1.2 trillion budget deficit? Obama says this:

“If we do nothing,” Mr. Obama said, “then we will continue to see red ink as far as the eye can see.” And the underlying problem, he said, “is not just a deficit of dollars, it’s a deficit of accountability and a deficit of trust.”

No shit..one hell of a deficit of trust! And I don't trust him to do a gotdam thing but make it worse. Maybe some of you can explain to the venture capitalists just why they should invest their money in the USA seeing as how Obama is on record saying he is gonna tax hell out of whatever profits they make so he can "spread the wealth!" Tell you one thing...I keep just enough funds in the banks to cover month to month expenses...they don't pay shit on the money anyway...I ain't gonna give the sumbitch a chance to spread my wealth...hell..even if he did it one be one damn thin spread...

Circle the wagons folks and herd the live stock inside. Getting close to lock and load time.

Are Ya Looking For A Home?

Okay people, listen up. Take a quick look on my side bar just under that bio shit...see that line what says "Find Military Real Estate for sale"....? Yeah? Okay...click on it. Don't ask questions dammit..just click on it.

Yeah, I have done something I have never done before and that is put a bit of advertising on this bit of shit and wit of mine. But this is an outfit that I believe that is providing a much needed service to our service men and women. See, I was one of those military types for many years and back then we really didn't have anyone specializing in helping us find a place to buy or lease as these people are doing. Yeah, we had the Base Housing Office where we could see what had been listed through them...mostly junk in a bad area that they could sell to anyone else so they tried to pawn it off on some poor GI. And most of the time the local real estate "saw us coming" if you know what I mean...

Did I get paid for this ad? Damn right...I ain't cheap but I can be bought for the right price...but not unless the buyer is someone that I believe is trying to do the right thing. And I'll tell you this up front...if any of you avail yourselves of these services and have a bad experience be sure to let me know...huh? Money ain't worth steering someone to the wrong people.

Turkey Shoot

HA! Shot a 25214 score today! The key is not to miss!

Mahone Predicts:

BAWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ha

I am betting on a massive implosion among the dim-a-crits before Obama gets impeached. But then I don't know why they are so upset with the chosen one's appointment of Leon E. Panetta to head the CIA. Hell, they elected a man to run the country who has even less qualifications than Panetta! And they swooned over Obama's selection for Secretary of State...a woman whose experience in foreign relations was gained keeping her husband away from foreign women when they traveled together overseas...well, maybe she did gain some experience by proxy from Janet Reno who had experience kidnapping Cuban children in Miami.

Yeah, we are about to get that change Obama promised you. He is in the process of gutting the CIA, increasing the national debt by a trillion plus a year, and he wonders why we rednecks cling to our guns and religion.

Good Morning Blog World

A Trillion dollar deficit? GOOD GAWD GIRTY WHAT A GASH! And the best analysis I have seen of this fucking mess that congress has put us in?

Mr. Bixby added, “Now the government is in the same position of the auto companies, but they haven’t come up with any plan for sustainability.”

I reckon so and I also reckon that my stash of precious metal will get even more precious before long.

And the Israelis continue to kick Palestinian butts as the left wing wrings their hands and screams about civilian casualties. And of course Hamas continues to fire rockets from schools and mosques and hide behind civilians...I reckon they figure that if they can incite the Israelis to kill enough Palestinian civilians the UN and EU and others will put enough pressure on Israel that Israel will give up. And then, just as Hezbollah did in Lebanon they can claim victory. I have some doubts that Israel will allow it to happen this time.

Gasoline prices are creeping up...but will they continue to rise? Maybe but maybe not. The American economy is crashing down around our ears. Some economists...and they are nearly as reliable as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers...are predicting eleven percent unemployment by the end of the year in the USA...a major recession that will effect the entire earth. People who are not working don't buy much gasoline and those who do have the money to buy gasoline save the money and drive much less during the tough times. I figure it is going up because of war and OPEC but there is this thing about supply and demand...when demand goes down oft times prices also go down...at least til the point where the slow demand will cause the opportunity cost of supply to be such that it increases...kinda like hanging a consumer item on the wall that only sells once a year...better have one hell of a markup if you want a profit from that item. But I digress...the point is if we just continue to drive less the ragheads will do the same thing they did back in the early 1980s when the bottom fell out...cheat their OPEC cohorts by selling crude oil under the table at a lower than OPEC set price...

I don't belong to AARP. I did for a while because I got a break at motels when sweetthing and I traveled. But finally I could not in good conscience have my name associated with a group that I figure is a front for the American Socialist party! They want government to come up with the money but never stop to consider that the retirees with money are the ones who pay the higher percentage of taxes. No tax breaks for us unless we have our homes mortgaged..see, we don't have the curtain climber deduction. Yeah, just another one of those "free lunch" crowds. Besides, most places will give me a discount on my retired military ID card...I earned it. But then I reckon there are many who figure they earned a free lunch by just living long enough to join AARP. Fuck 'em and feed 'em soy beans.

I have an appointment with my primary care quack this morning...routine bull shit. Sweetthing made the appointment for me...says I need a new prescription for darvocet plus TRICARE sent me a letter saying that they were raising my co-pay on my high blood pressure med but allowed that there be some generics that do the same thing...at a much lower co-pay...about 24 bucks a month lower co-pay. I'll suffer through an appointment with the quack for that savings.

Then we are gonna swing by Wally World where I am gonna get some more precious metal and pick up a bunch of CD-R discs. I learned something last night...I can burn music onto the DVD-R discs but it will only play back on the PC...hmmm...people it ain't easy for a redneck to learn how to be a geek. I always seem to make this fatal error before I remember, "WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS READ THE FUCKING DIRECTIONS" and then I get out my geek to redneck translation notebook and figure it out. Yeah, I am one of those who learns better by doing...and my doing generally means "everyone just get the hell out of my way...something will probably blow up."

Speakin' of blowin' up...I am just now getting over them damn blackeyed peas I cooked up for my New years day feast. I noticed that both of the dawgs slept in the bed next to me last night for the first time since I ate them peas and this morning Miss Sassie Poodle finally came near me without her paw over her nose. Heh, I think I'll fix me some boiled cabbage for lunch....

And did you hear what happened to the Atomic Blond? She got blowed up by a guided muscle.

I reckon if you read this shit and wit this far you might have grinned at that...y;all come back, heah?

New Toy

The guy in the Brown truck brought me my new toy today...a USB Cassette deck with the compnents to trafer cassetes to my PC....or laptop. I ordered it on line from "Think Geek". I am sorta kinda learning to use it...right down I am downloading some of sweetthing's music from a cassete she made sometime back and once I get that done I'll try to get it on a CD for her. I may get her an ipod...might make things simpler.

I have a collection of cassettes that I want to transfer to CDc...mostly some old stuff...real old stuff from the 70s that I like as well as some Fender from the sixties. I'm not sure but I think I can use this program to download home videos to this bit of shit and wit also...

DAMN! Translating all that geek talk into redneck is getting tough on this old man. But so far I'm getting 'er done.

Remembering A Few Things

Many years ago..in fact in October of 1971..I was sick of the USAF and the head games and sick of the war in Vietnam. I was stationed at a Minuteman Missile base in Montana and was assigned duty as a classroom instructor teaching management and supervision to newly promoted non-coms. I was having a hard time staying motivated to teach and I knew that my feelings about the war and the USAF at the time were being transmitted to my students. My enlistment was about up and I had decided to give up the 11 years I had accumulated towards retirement and rejoin the civilian world.

But a conversation with an extremely wise old Chief Master Sgt changed my mind..he referred me to Mill...the quote about war in particular but Mill's early philosophy in general...he may have been one of the first libertarians. The Chief also referred me to the works of Ayn Rand as well as the sci-fi of Heinlein and asked me to read the works as philosophy instead of escape fiction. I did so and I think for the first time I understood what freedom was about and how precious it is...and it changed my outlook and of course my life.

I reenlisted of course and then spent a lot of time with the Chief as well as his mentor, a Col. who became my mentor..as well as the Chief. One afternoon the Colonel explained something to me about war that I have never forgot...in fact I think I wrote about it here once....

War is illogical although necessary. War is about killing people...lots of people...and killing people never solved a problem...in fact killing usually just causes more problems. However, total war...a war fought until the enemy is completely subdued and surrenders an unconditional surrender might...and that is a BIG might...eliminate the problem that caused the war. The Col. referred us to history..history of the course of human events and all of the wars fought since humans climbed down out of tress and began living in Jim Walter's houses...the only wars that ever brought about a successful conclusion for either the defenders or the aggressors were wars that were fought to the finish..with one being a victor over a totally vanquished foe. The ancients understood this concept very well...they fought to a conclusion and either killed or enslaved the vanquished thus eliminating the problems that led to war. We of the modern world have forgotten how to fight a war and because of this we continue to fight a war...

I despise war. But I do understand the words of John Mill..."War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things...."

Yep.

It is damn seldom that I agree with much of anything from the op-ed people of the Washington Post. But I have to agree with Anne Applebaum's column. Especially her closing words:

"...there is no point in bemoaning the passivity of the Bush administration, the silence of Barack Obama, the powerlessness of Arab leaders or the weakness of Europe, as so many, predictably, have begun to do. It's no outsider's "fault" that the fighting continues, and pretending otherwise merely obscures the real issues. Diplomats might be able to slow its progress, but this war won't be over until someone has won."

Good Morning Blog World

Heh, seems Europe is out of gas...literally. You would think that after all these centuries they would have learned by now that they cannot trust the Russians.

I don't know how you feel about it but considering that the left wing has control of the country THIS seems an exercise in futility. There are some of us old enough to remember what happened the last time the left wing had control of the country...complete control...they hamstrung the CIA and the FBI although Bill Clinton and Janet Reno did use the FBI as their private army at times. Kinda makes me wonder why the rush now to increase the manning of the FBI? Could it be that the left thinks they are gonna need a bigger army to force their agenda? Hmmm...no, I do not trust the incoming administration...none at all.

I betcha next time the baby sitter will be more careful about where he steps. Some have said that children are more honest than adults...naaaa...children just act more often on their impulses. I suspect that most of us have had the urge to shoot some rude sumbitch...we just refrain.

Israel is still kicking raghead butts while the Arab world gives lip service to a cease fire and the EU screams about civilian deaths. I kind a figure the EU is running scared...scared of their own raghead population. They have brought it upon themselves with their ideas of political correct diversity. I suspect there will be ragheads burning cars in Paris before long and they will claim it is justified because Israel attacked the Palestinians in self defense...damn...I don't know which I despise the most..the ragheaded Muslim militants or the PC crowd that condones and thus encourages them. I hope I live to see the day when the world has enough and declares open season on both..maybe a bounty....? At least enough to buy more precious metal.

Yep, the web is full of news this morning...most of it bad. But there is some good news for the Texas Longhorn fans...it was one hell of a ball game and I reckon Texas has a pretty good claim that they were screwed out of contending for the number one spot. But then the Florida vs Oklahoma match up should provide an entertaining game..especially if Oklahoma can find some defense. Florida already has a decent defense which I figure will slow down Oklahoma some.

Enough for now. My neighbor has a tree he wants taken down and hauled and I have promised to help him...which means that I will take the tree down and haul it off for him. I reckon I can use the chain saw time...need to stay in practice I reckon. Y'all come, heah?

John Stuart Mill on War

I have posted there words of John Stuart Mill on this site several times. However, just in case there are some of you who have not read them here they are again:

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873


I put the quote here because of what I am reading by some bloggers that I really figured had better sense...as well as the obviously biased world wide media. I believe that Mill's words are as valid today as they were when he wrote them...maybe even more so.

Is MSM Biased Against Israel....well, yeah...

World opinion appears to be going against Israel..no surprise, huh? The left wing media was quiet when it was Israel getting bombarded with missiles from within the Gaza Strip but now that it is the ragheads getting hit MSM laments the Palestinian civilian deaths.

BULLSHIT! The Israelis are doing what they have to do if they want to protect their people. Remeber just a few short years ago when Israel forced the Israeli settlers in the Gaza out and turned it over to the Palestinians? They even left the infrastructure that the Israelis had built as well as the green houses. The ragheads tore down the greenhouses and are using the infrastructure to launch missile attacks on Israel. Does Israel have the moral high ground? Fuck a bunch of moral high ground...the important thing is protecting the lives of the Israeli citizens from the murderous ragheads. Yeah, the Sons and daughters of Allah who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center...remember? The children of Allah who have committed countless terrorists acts against the western world during the past forty years or so...the ones who took over the American embassy in Tehran Iran and held the American civilians who worked their hostage for a year plus...remember that? Remember the marines killed in Lebanon when a son of Allah drove a truck loaded with explosives into the Marine billets killing himself and over 200 Marines...who were there just to keep the peace..not to fight. Moral high ground? There is no moral high ground when the fight is against those with no morals to begin with...kill them and keep killing them before they kill you.

Hmmmm

Ordinarily I have a lot of respect for John Bolton and agree with most of his conclusions... but not this one. He is advocating giving the Gaza back to the Egyptians and giving the West bank back to Jordan. At least he admits that Egypt nor Jordan want a damn thing to do with the Palestinians.

Israel is in the process of pursuing the only possible solution to the problem...well, let's just say the only possible solution that will permit the continuation of Israel as a nation. Total destruction of Hamas will go a long way towards establishing a lasting peace. However, until the radical mullahs and teachers who instill the hatred of Israel in the Palestinian children are rounded up and locked up...or better yet hung for the criminals that they are...there will NEVER be any peace in what we used to call the Palestine.

Good Morning Blog World

Okay y'all...UP AND AT 'EM! It is the first Monday of the New Year and you that still have jobs need to get out there and work extra hard...get that overtime if you can! We old farts need you to keep producing so we can still collect on the socialable security ponzi scheme! And you without jobs? Pound the streets and do that 'networking' thing...and if all else fails be sure you sign up for your share of that ponzi scheme known as unemployment insurance. Ain't much but will buy the groceries...at least you can get that rocking chair money in good conscience knowing that you paid for it...or at least your previous employer did.

Yep, this is the first Monday of a new year. In years past I always looked forward to what the new year would bring. Now I just look forward to getting up alive every morning. I know things are bad but what the hell...they could be worse...and may get worse. But one thing about it, eventually the country will hit rock bottom and then there ain't but one way to go and that is up!

I have been getting these inspirational e-mails from investment groups wanting me to jump into the stock market. Seems they think that with Obama putting a trillion dollars into the economy that the stock market is gonna rally and now is the time to put my bucks to work. Yeah, right. Maybe so...maybe one can jump in and make a wheelbarrow full of dollars in the stock market...but I figure the wheelbarrow will be worth more than the money in it before this economic fuck up is said and done.

The last time this country was in this bad of economic shape it wound up in an economic depression that ended only after the country went to war. All of the jobs programs and rules and regulations put into place by FDR and his socialists didn't help...in fact might have just prolonged the agony. And Obama appears to be following FDR's footsteps. My advise? Buy lead...lots of it while you still can.

On the world scene it looks to me like France is trying to get Israel to do what France has always done...roll over. But I don't think it is gonna happen this time...at least not until Israel takes out enough Hamas and makes it tough enough on the Palestinians that they beg for a cease fire. A Israeli journalist who I had a lot of respect for..a man who went by the name Jonathon Ur, told me some years ago that the answer to the mid-east problem was simple. All the Palestinians had to do was lay down their guns. The Israelis want peace. However, if the Israelis lay down their guns there will be no Israel.

There is no doubt who the MSM is pulling for in the fight...I had hoped with the election of Obama that the media would once again support the USA but I reckon the hate is so entrenched that they just support any one fighting the USA or an ally of the USA. Damned if I don't believe that if the USA dropped all support of Israel and supported the ragheads the fucking media would suddenly be the best friends that Israel ever had. Only problem is that the gotdam media doesn't sell guns and I have my doubts that the left wing muthas can even shoot!

Were any of ya surprised at the results of the weekend's playoff games? I was kinda surprised that the Colts couldn't pull it out. But that is what happens when a defense makes the mental mistakes..choke under pressure I reckon. Tony's teams are usually better disciplined than that.

Sweetthing allows we gotta go do some errands today...which in sweetthing talk means we gotta go to Wally World...heh. I do have some things to do such as hauling a load of household trash to the land fill, a bit of banking, and a lot of lead buying...at least a couple of hundred rounds of 9mm NATO...getting ready for a New Year, see? Also want to drop by the local public library and see what kinda trashy escape fiction I can find to take my head out of this fucked up world for the next week or so. Y'all come back, heah?

Heh

Naaaa, can it be? A democrat with enough honor that he withdraws from his nomination to a cabinet post because....gasp!!!! he is under investigation by a grand jury for maybe taking a bribe?

I kinda figure Richardson is pissed because he didn't get the nod for Sec State...he has all kinds of experience rolling over for our enemies, he spit in the Clinton's eye, and I reckon he figured that spitting in Clinton's eye and living to tell about it earned him the position.

Democrats and graft are common enough, huh? For that matter republicans can't say much without calling the kettle black....except that republicans usually just leave office before they fight the charges. democrats like to stick around until the FBI puts the handcuffs on them...

January Color

I figured these were gone back in November when we got an early frost. But it has warmed up and darned if they ain't blooming again! I may put them in the shop on the cold nights and see if I can save them for the summer bloom.

I have been somewhat disappointed in these Formosa. I put in twenty two of the plants back in the spring and have babied them every since but they are just now starting to bloom..and only a few of them are doing that. I do like the big purple bloom though and I hope if I continue to baby them next year they will have another foot of growth and be full of blooms. I have no idea why some bloom and some do not...I reckon it could be that some like that rap shit they hear from my Portable Rican neighbor...and some don't. I sympathize with those what don't...

HEH

And I thought I has seen about everything there was to see on a ranch... but I ain't never seen a hawg herding cows before...amazing critter!

Got the link from another critter.. a Fox.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

It is a hell of a lot quieter here on sweetthing's half acre than it is in the Gaza Strip where the Israelis are kicking Palestinian butts! This is going to be interesting when Obama takes over and can no longer vote 'present' and will have to take a stand...or does he? I reckon he could just do the same thing he has always done...just vote present. And that might be in the best interests of the Israelis. But I figure it will be about 3 am when he calls Hilary...

The hell of it for Israel is that it is a no win situation unless they do what nations have always done to win wars and that is kill a shit load of non-combatants. Well, from where I sit it seems that seeing as how the ragheads don't wear uniforms and the ragheads have no problems sending their children in with explosives strapped to them to blow up Israeli children...there ain't no non-combatants in the Gaza. Anything that moves should be fair game unless it is moving with its hand up waving a white flag! I figure the best thing for Israel to do is take the Gaza like Sherman took Georgia...burn it to the ground! Yeah, a concept known as "Total War"...remind the ragheads that like Sherman said, "WAR IS HELL!"

And of course there are ragheads in the USA using our laws against us and protesting in the streets against Israel... even in places like St Pete Florida. Well, I do my own protesting against the ragheads. I refuse to spend one thin dime is an establishment that I know is run by a Muslim...hell even if I suspicion that it is run by a Muslim I boycott it. Look, if everyone in the country did this it wouldn't be long before they would get the idea and the 'good Muslims' (an oxymoron?) would get the idea that they either have to shut up the rest or shut down. My bet is they will shut up the rest....

Ain't this goat rope Just Charmin'? Blagojevich played the race card and has dared the senate to trump it. I think if I lived in Illinois I would be thinking about moving.....damn. And I thought Florida politics wuz crooked. We ain't got shit on Illinois....I bet when Illinois politicians die they just screw the sumbitches into the ground instead of burying them...

I got a refund check on my mortgage escrow account yesterday. I knew I had been overpaying for the past year but was figuring the house payment would just be lowered to account for the escrow overage. But instead they sent me a check...assholes used my money interest free for a year. The Feds used to do that when I was stupid enough to let them withhold more than I figured I would owe just so I could get that tax refund check...the Feds will hit your butt quick if you owe them and hit it with interest and penalties...but the sumbitches have NO problem using YOUR money for a year...interest free. Fuck 'em. I had rather owe them than they owe me.

I reckon it will be another slow day here on sweetthing's half acre. I'll go out in a bit and water the flora...might get a picture of some Formosa Azaleas in bloom...pretty flowers. My pineapple guava plant is also in full bloom...I am gonna get some more of those things..I do like color in the winter.

But now I reckon I'll call for my cackleberries and grits and another pot of jumpstart. Y'all come, heah?

And The Fight Is On...

The Israeli Army is now inside the Gaza strip. I just hope that the bombing has softened up the ragheads enough.

I kinda disagree with this tactic. Seems to me just keep on bombing and killing is the best way to bring them down. Hell, the borders are already sealed...fuck a bunch of humanitarian action..stave the bastards into submission if nothing else. The Palestinians elected this terrorist bunch so they have earned everything they get...and my hope is they get it in spades and full metal jackets...

Works For Me

News reports out of the Gaza allow that the Israelis hit a Mosque and killed ten ragheads. Good! If the USA and allied forces had done the same in Iraq instead of pandering to the raghead mullahs the war would have been over a lot sooner. People, make no mistake! The ragheads will use whatever compassion you can generate for their religion against you. They use their Mosques to store weapons and then scream about their religious buildings being desecrated. They store their weapons among women and children and hope that the women and children are killed...and then scream and bemoan to the world about the brutality of the Israeli military.

KILL THEM! KILL THEM until they unconditionally surrender. Kill them until they spit on the Koran and defecate in their mosques and beg to live any life that is offered them. Kill the radical mullahs...and it is my humble opinion that ALL mullahs are radicals and believe in conversion by the sword. Kill them until they understand that the only way they will ever have peace is to give up Islam and its murderous tenet of conversion by the sword. The Islamic world was conquered and converted to Islam by force...and it will take force....a lot of force to change it. And now is a good of time as any to start making that change.

Once again I tell you that this is not a new war but a continuation of conflict between Islam and western civilization. The Palestinians are pawns in the bigger game..the game of Islamic conquest. But oft times to take a knight one has to trade pawns and that is what the Iranians and others of the Islamic powerhouses are doing... Except that it is backfiring on them..the Palestinian pawns are being wiped off the board and it might be that the Israelis go after the knight in Tehran...with a nuke! And that works for me also...kill the gotdam snakes in their home nest.

Good Morning (?) Blogworld

Your prez elect...he ain't mine...I voted for the other loser...says we need an economic stimulus plan and we need it PDQ! I concur...it is just that I don't concur with the type of stimulus plan that Obama wants.

He is talking of spending close to a trillion dollars...hell people, this country ain't got another trillion to spend and spending money we ain't got is what has us in the tank to begin with! Sure, a tax break would be nice and no doubt me and sweetthing can find a way to spend the extra bucks. But giving the so called middle class a tax break ain't gonna prove much in the long run except to put the country even farther in the hole.

Everyone has some opinions about why the economy is tanking...and most of us figure that opinions are like assholes..everyone has one and the majority smell. And maybe my opinion stinks...but here it is anyway:

I reckon the reason that the economy is going south is because of lack of confidence in the federal and state governments to control government spending and the promise (or maybe threats) of the democrats to raise taxes on business and those in the upper incomes. So, if I was going to do something to help the economy I would do what I could to inspire some new confidence in the government's ability to stabilize the dollar against other world currencies. I would do what I could to encourage those in the higher incomes to produce more and let them keep more of what they produce...the people who are earning the most money are the ones who spend the most money!

What it comes down to is trust. Do you trust the government to be a better steward of YOUR money than you trust yourself? Well, according to THIS POLL over 73 percent of the public disapproves of the way congress is doing its job...does that sound like trust to you?

And now your new prez wants to spend another trillion dollars of money that the country doesn't have to spend. Where will it come from? Well, one of three places...out of your pocket via higher taxes and fees, borrowed if the Feds can find someone fool enough to lend to them, or by just putting more money in circulation. And from where I sit none of these options will do a gotdam thing but make the economy worse in the long run.

What would help is a new prez who would promise to wield the veto pen and put a stop to wasteful spending. It would help if a new prez came on board and says, "Look heah folks, I gotta raise taxes. But I ain't gonna penalize just you what make some money. I'm gonna hit all of you another five percent (or whatever it takes) across the board...and oh yeah, you sponges that are living off an unearned government check are gonna see your checks reduced by the same percentage. If a new prez had the balls to take on the unions and say enough is enough...either give in or I'm gonna let the company you work for crash and burn and you are gonna crash and burn with it...yeah, maybe that would give some venture capitalists enough confidence to maybe consider investing in a new business...new business that would create some jobs.

The one thing I always keep coming back to when I think about government and government spending is that government has NEVER earned a gotdam penny of what government spends. Government does not create wealth..it just spends it...your wealth...the results of YOUR hard work that government has confiscated via taxes and fees. I just cannot accept the government logic that confiscating more of my money and giving it to someone who has not earned it will help the economy more than me spending it myself! In fact the only result that I can vision of this plan is that spreading the wealth will result in us all being equal...equally poor. Except of course for the government wieners who will be living their life of luxury and cracking the whip on YOU to produce more so they can steal more.

You are right...I ain't very optimistic about the new government nor the future of what is left of the republic. But the people are getting what they voted for...free bread and the circus in Washington D.C...the town is full of fucking clowns!

And you think this was a rant? Wait until I get my third mug of jumpstart down...y'all come, heah?

On Israel and the Gaza

Charles Krauthammer is a voice of reason from an otherwise left wing rag, the Washington Post. I agree with Krauthammer's analysis of the current Israeli offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza strip although I don't necessarily agree with Israel giving the Palestinians fair warning that they are coming with bombs to blow up the homes where weapons are stored. From where I sit it would be better to hit with no warning and send the terrorists sumbitches on their way to Paradise. Why? Because the way to win is to make it so miserable for the opponents that they surrender...and surrender unconditionally and submit to whatever the winner has in store for them.

And I would also target every mosque and school in the Gaza strip as well as every means of communication..TV and radio broadcast towers and studios. Stop the propaganda machine from preaching, teaching, and broadcasting hate. A price should be put on the head of every Mullah in the strip...enough that it would make it worthwhile to hunt these teachers of hate down and kill them.

I will tell you this...the moral high ground is a matter of perception and I reckon trying to convince the world that one has the moral high ground is necessary if you want world opinion in your favor. But wars are not about morals. Wars are about economics..trying to either protect what one has or else take something from someone. No people have a historical right to any place on this earth...never have and never will. The land belongs to whoever can take it and hold it...and those who can take it and hold it have the moral high ground. You see, it is not about morals, it is about winning or losing and history is written by the winners...who will claim the moral high ground. And the Israelis are winners.

Good Morning Blog World

Ain't THIS JUST CHARMIN' ??? What a way to start a new year...more taxes!

A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

Government at various levels already makes more per gallon of fuel than the ones who produce it. And now they want to add some more taxes to road fuel? And who is the greedy ones here? The government or the 'big oil' companies?

As the economy continues to go south and more and more Americans lose their jobs will more Americans start to take a harder look at illegal aliens in the country? During the past elections it seemed to be put in the background. Only Tom Tancredo came on strong against the illegal invasion....McCain of course is on record backing Bush's amnesty plan as are several more of the RINOs and damn near all of the dim-a-crits. But now that times are getting tough it seems that some Americans may be needing that public housing and public funded medical help for themselves...damn shame that the country has to go broke before the public will ever concentrate on WHY it is going broke...and then only when they can see what's in it for themselves.

The Israelis have started the new year with a bang...and the bang is in the Gaza strip where the Palestinians are not celebrating the 9-11 attacks in the streets anymore. Israel appears to be determined to keep it up until Hamas cries uncle and the only way this is gonna happen is to keep killing Palestinians in the Gaza until they get so sick of death that they start turning in Hamas members in order to protect themselves. This is the way a war is supposed to be fought. Truces just prolong the agony of war. A fight until one side of the other totally defeated usually can bring about some peace for a few decades...and even sometimes the one time enemies can become allies.

One thing that impresses me about this fight in the Gaza strip is that the Israelis are not letting the ragheads use the mosques as sanctuaries...and they are going after the leaders:

Israel bombed a mosque it says was used to store weapons and destroyed the homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives on Friday, the seventh day of a blistering offensive in Gaza and the day after an airstrike killed a prominent Hamas figure.

And if they will round up and hang every gotdam one of the mullahs they will be money ahead in this war.

Enough on the news...most of it is depressing...the Israeli kicking the goat shit out of the ragheads does make my day though.

We are taking Miss Sassie's Little Sister, aka "DON'TGOTDAMIT!", to the groomer this morning. It ain't something what Sister likes...but she always primps and struts her stuff when she comes out smelling good and looking pretty. The appointment is at 0800 and it is 0730 right now so I reckon I had best get a move on...y'all come back, heah?

New Year's Day Feast

Lookin' good, huh? ya know what I dread worst about this new year? Well, let me just say that it was the middle of November before I got out of the habit of writing 2007 down when I had to date something...





I ain't gonna take no picture of a can of Collard Greens...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

Sweetthing woke me up with a hug and a kiss this morning...it may be a new year but some things never change and I hope they never do...

Naaaa, I didn't stay up and watch the old year roll out and a new year come in...most years in the past I have but this past year is one that I don't mind ending...it has been one of the good, the bad, and the ugly for just about all of us. But then I reckon most years are something like that.

I am both pessimistic and optimistic about the year...and years to come. And I hope I am wrong about my pessimistic opinions...HEY! I have been wrong! Once or twice.

I don't see the economy going anywhere but down even though Obama will push through a trillion dollar economic stimulus package which will mostly help the drug dealers and political cronies get rich. Sending everyone a check for $500 bucks will provide the bread and congress will continue to be a circus...or goat rope...both of which are entertaining but useless endeavors. The rest of Obama's ideas for spending money the country does not have to spend involves massive projects on the infra-structure that will 'create jobs' and put people back to work. Yeah right! A few political cronies will direct the contracts to their friends and get the kickbacks, the 'guvmit' jobs will require union scale wages which will limit the number of jobs because of the labor costs, congress and Obama will pat themselves on the back, and the taxpayers get soaked as usual and the economy will continue to tank. And jobs created that are not union jobs will be filled as always by illegal immigrants...why? Because people in the country don't want no gotdam job...they want a POSITION!

But I am optimistic that once the country hits an economic bottom the American people will once again find a common ground and start a climb up. Seems we have always done this when there was no where to go but up. And, I figure we will again...just not this year.

In any event there are some bright things in the future...HEY OJ IS IN THE SLAM! Who would have thunk it. The war in Iraq is winding down. We retirees got a pretty decent cost of living increase..enough to buy several tanks of gasoline now that the price is down to near a buck fifty a gallon.

I see more and more out of state tags now that the fuel cost is cheaper...maybe the yankees will start to come back to Florida for their winter vacations...Florida needs the money... y'all come on down. Nice and warm heah compared to yankeeland. And if you don't the sumbitches in Tallahassee may raise my real estate taxes and sales taxes...again.

And this winter might even see a blog writers conference up in NE Florida! Hope she is able to put something together.

Sweetthing and I don't have any real big plans for the new year. Hell, at our age we just take it one day at a time anyway. But we do plan on a few trips up to catfish country and maybe if the price of fuel stays down a trip out to bow and arrow country.

I also have several projects on sweetthing's half acre for this year. All of them involve a dreaded five letter word and a more dreaded four letter word..money and work. Just thinking about both make me kinda cringe but a couple have gotta get done.

I see that the new blog that I linked the other day is off to a good beginning. Thanks for checking her out folks. I talked to her on the dinglah last year when I was helping her Pop a bit set up his site. Heh..ME helping someone set up a site is kinda like the blind leading the blind...but we got 'er done.

Kinda chilly here this morning to start off a New year. Not freezing chilly just wind chill kind of chilly..45F and windy and damp..the kind of wind that cuts through my bib overalls and sends my testicles hunting someplace warm...yeah, you guys know the kinda weather I am talking about...kinda like jumping into a cold pool of water...what you used to brag about suddenly is much smaller...

My New Years Day feast is done...I sampled the Blackeyed peas..great stuff. The rubbed ribs are falling apart and smell delicious. There is enough here for me to graze on for days and believe me...I WILL!

But now I am gonna get my rations of grits and cackleberries and another mug of jumpstart. It may be a New Year but some things just never change...y'all come back, heah?