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Daily Archives: November 8th, 2010

Snake Oil


Somewhere in Taylorville there is a car salesman who is probably proud of his ability to move vehicles. This pride is more arrogance than ability, a close friend of mine purchased a vehicle from this person and has no end to problems on a vehicle that was “thoroughly checked over”. An extended warranty was purchased at the time of purchase and even with that the problems were not solved. My Friend finally took his vehicle to a Ford dealer for service and a full check up, it was determined that there were many issues (some were supposed to have been repaired by the seller) with this vehicle but some of them would be covered by the extended warranty,my friend is Hispanic but his English was good enough to purchase this vehicle and negotiate a deal but the same old prejudices against minorities and greed took over and caused the problems of having this vehicle running the way it should and would have had the correct action or check up had been done.The moral of the story is there are still some snake oil salesmen in the car business and you cannot believe what they say especially if you are a minority.
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Hard Choices


The past year has brought some changes in government which were easy and some that were hard. I have noticed that the harder the choice, the more the public protests after some politician emits some political rhetoric which has little basis in fact. The change touted by the current administration is not brand new but it appears that the popularity contest of previous administrations is not lost on this one but has not deterred them from the stated goal of making government work for the people. The public has for so long made the elected officials bend to their will in maintaining a certain standard of living while many of their fellow citizens sink lower into poverty. Cries of socialism, too much government have echoed from main street to the Capitol dome but history has shown that choices now being made should have been made years ago. The events in the financial and political areas have been in the works for years but just been ignored and covered up by the “movers and shakers” to their own advantage. Apparently many of us are still relying on the old and time worn shouts of racism, socialism and government take over yet failing to see that we are in trouble and have been for years. The greed of men has all but crippled this country’s economy while pointing the finger at other unrelated causes. We have allowed outsourcing to the detriment of production and manufacturing aside from the health issues presented due to unsafe outsourced manufacturing. The issue is simple: understand and acknowledge the Hard Choices that are needed, ignore the hype and sound bites that are designed to obscure the facts of hard choices and garner support for election or reelection.