One Hundred Ten: Government v. The People

The relationship between the government and the governed will always be adversarial. We, the people, will never get our moneys worth from the thieves and hacks who mooch off of the rest of us. The problem is that the "rest of us" is getting smaller and smaller. Each year, the percentage of the working population employed by government at some level increases. It never goes down, it always goes up. Eventually, we must all necessarily work for the government. Then what?

109: Florida

What's good about Florida? Golf. Great weather for cigars. They treat old people with respect. No income tax. Obviously there are many more reasons, which accounts for the demographic influx of the last couple of centuries.

One hundred Eight: Bean II

It's now looking slightly better that Bean will be out as Rep for IL Eighth. Couldn't come a moment too soon. Personally, I have tried to contact Bean for several years, and she ALWAYS dodged me. Bean is afraid of any voter who could expose her woeful incompetence in any area save accepting donations from financial services companies, which is exactly why Rahmbo put her on that committee.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

One Hundred Seven: Bean is History?

Although she has not conceded, M Bean is currently losing to Walsh in IL 8th Congressional District by a slim 500 votes or so. I'm afraid the Dems could manufacture these votes (and more) in the 4 or 5 Cook County precincts yet to report results. While I know nothing about Walsh (I hear he's a two time bankrupt loser), this is the usual case where ANYBODY is better than the totally incompetent Beanster.

One Hundred Six: Saving For A Lifetime

Those of us who have been raised to be savers, and in fact have spent a lifetime saving money, are now completely screwed by Mr. Bernanke. This "zero interest rate" (ZIR) bullshit has literally destroyed the retirement income of all those who have supposedly done the right thing all these years. Instead, Bernanke and the Fed made a career of helping those players who have made the riskiest of decisions, and continue to make them. Right now, all we hear about is "QE2", which as far as I can understand is just a means for Ben to pump money we don't have into banks which don't need it to make loans to businesses and individuals who don't want it. Trying to create demand with this economic voodoo is insane. Just let interest rate float up, and let all the cash make a little money, which will be spent, which will in turn ramp up demand.

One Hundred Five: You Can't See Smoke At Night

You gotta love the ordinary guy in the north woods. Well, maybe "you" don't, but I do. I am up here at our lake place in northern MN, where I would dearly love to retire to, but being a married guy, that is not in the cards right now. Maybe in another decade when I am much less able to do the stuff around which either needs getting done, or I really like to do. But that's another blog story.

I was talking to a local guy about burning down my old cabin, which has been rotting away back in the woods. After a particularly wet summer and early fall, the structure is quite water logged, and I remarked that burning it would be next to impossible. The local guy said: "Tell you what we'll do. I've got some old tractor tires back at my place. We'll fill em up with diesel, stick em in the cabin, and light a match to her." I remarked that the tire and diesel would create black smoke which would be seen for 50 or 70 miles. The local guy said, "You can't see smoke at night."

This is the kind of can-do spirit that the pinheads at the EPA will never understand, or for that matter, squelch.

One Hundred Six: Financial Crisis - My Take

The "Financial Crisis of 2008" or "The Great Recession" or whatever you want to call the most recent natural economic reaction to excess leverage and excess consumption has now been over for at least one year. At the apex of the recession, we saw Warren Buffet purchase an entire national railroad (UP) and the federal government take over another major chunk of the economy (health care). The U.S. economy was able to digest a national pullback of maybe 30%- 40% of real estate equity. Sam Zell made out like a bandit on real estate, but unfortunately, for him, put his money in newspapers. More than 90% of homeowners continued to make timely mortgage payments on their homes and credit cards. The ten percent who didn't, were exposed for the deadbeats they are, and they are now supported by friends, families, and taxpayers. So, not much has changed.