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Monthly Archives: January 2012

Pipeline


The recent posting by a contributor to the local paper railed against the Presidents decision to hold off on the Keystone XL pipeline. This opinion is based  apparently more on political or personal feelings than fact. The real facts are:  America is producing more than half of our oil domestically. We are coming out of a 40 year decline in oil production and under the leadership of President Obama we are poised to start a gas and oil boom within our own borders. The keys to this boom is based on insuring that the gathering of these resources do no environmental harm ( or at least minimal and short term). It is everyone’s right to voice opinions but these opinions need to be based in fact and or experience rather than political  innuendo and misunderstood information. There in absolutely nothing wrong with opinions if they have some basis in fact but political “facts” and possibly prejudicial feelings are not truth.

GBU


In the progression of this years presidential race many sides of the candidates are revealed.  As an explanation,  a well known western has the perfect name to explain this spectacle ” the good, the bad and the ugly”!  Where each candidate fits is the choice of the voters. Our Congress has been the constant in these recent elections but no one appears to see this correlation. Congress enacts laws, not the president. Congress denies passage of laws, not the President, Congress funds and declares war, not the President. The President gets the blame for all manner of ills that befalls the country yet the President is in office 4 or 8 years and the Congress on average is in office 12 to 30 years. Where would you think the power to change is? Could we as the people who elect the Congress push for changes that will give us a better Congress and insist on changes in their pay, term of office,pension ans office perks? I believe we can.

Closeted?


A news reporter on national TV condemned a RNC representative who castigated the President by comparing him to the Italian Cruise ship captain. Politics has always been dirty but since 2008 it has become racist. The assorted factions who normally are anti current government for  any number of reasons have basically removed all stops in an effort to have the White house “White” again. Our Congress has led the way with the resistance to any change, more because of the person who proposed it isn’t white. It is bad enough that this country has problems initiated by the “white” establishment years ago we now have once closeted Racists emerging into the light. America wake up, the last thing we need is another Rosewood, Wounded Knee or My Lai  in our history. If we are to ever really become a Democracy to be proud of, we need to stop supporting any group or faction that has the nerve to promote racism as a way of life. It can be said that is this just political rhetoric but it is way beyond that. This type of situation is a primary reason for NOT following any particular party and limiting the time our Congress can serve (?).

Pursuit of Change


In pursuit of  reasons for the current Congress  I read several  quotes from Thomas Jefferson, you may remember the primary framer of the constitution and Declaration of independence. The Jefferson papers reveal  statements made by Mr. Jefferson that extol separation of  church and state, the right and duty of the people to oust any and all representatives including the President when they fail in their duties to the people. We currently have numerous candidates racing to be elected President in order to turn this country around. The real change will occur when we change Congress and their high handed ways.  It is not bad enough that we are in the doldrums of a poor economy, increased  unemployment and a generally stagnant economy but we have a Congress that has allowed it to happen on their watch and willing to lay it on whoever the President is or will be. We the voters have yet to see the real truth behind our economic woes but we want the problems solved immediately and ignoring the fact that this Congress has allowed this situation to fester over the past 10 or more years but still collecting pay for work not done. Our real problem is our inability to understand that rhetoric does not solve problems but action from 500 plus representatives does.  Anyone, yes anyone can make speeches about what they will do once elected but the truth is no one can accomplish any thing without the assistance or approval of the 500 plus. The information put on the airways daily  is at once ludicrous and often exaggerated.

Near Governor


The Governor of Illinois has in his own way made as little progress as his predecessor. The current seat filler (not in Springfield) has managed to take a bad situation and make it worse while giving the usual political speeches that amount to gibberish understood by no one including the speaker. What is it about the job that has this man confused? He saw the radical actions of his former boss yet he has in some ways followed the same path without the mad ravings. Understanding that there were and are economic issues caused by previous administrations but is it not the job of the chief executive to address these issues no matter who created them while maintaining the proper staffing and care of the neediest residents of the State? We nearly have no governor and definitely are lacking in the Legislative department but for some reason we keep voting the same folks in year after year.

Step One


The recent blackout by internet services and their customers appears to have gotten the attention of Congress and postponing indefinitely the legislation on the online piracy of movies. That massive committed action shows how we the people can change the actions of the Legislature by our solidarity. It has been said that even if we vote the current office holders out there are others ready to step in the and walk the same paths. Looking at the result of the recent internet action should give the voters the courage to remove the current office holders while sending the message that the we have had enough. We must remember that our country is in the grips of a neer do well Congress that has pointed the fingers at every President who did not fall in line with their policies. If indeed the Congress were representing the people we would not have the deep divide in Government or the long running problems in the economy. The existing Congressional group have an average of 10 plus years of doing it wrong and blaming someone else . We lean toward believing the highest profile leaders even if their message is off line and other worldly. Their messages are no more than carefully crafted sound bites. These pun like messages tend to grab our attention and move our conscience mind away from the real facts. This is not way a free country is run unless you are looking to regress to the “war of independence” era (you may remember a little dust up in the1770’s). There is only one (1) way to change Congress and it is voting them out. Imagine how an office seeker will feel when they have the knowledge that their official fate is determined by the people.

Salt


Are there any one left over the age of 12 years who does not understand that this and the previous Presidential pursuit is about RACE? Many of us will deny it but our elite politicians in the backrooms of Congress are expressing this with the snickers that accompany the ethno racial slurs we all know exist. There is no way to prove this other than information from insiders who will not come forward unless there is something in it for them or due to an extreme attack of conscience. This is still America and until we as members of the American society begin to see one another as just that we will have the elites sprinkling us with the salt of racism to foster their own agendas. This thinking has brought our country to its knees by dividing us along racial lines and allowing the elites and their cronies to pick us off like snipers. This miscreant behavior has been going on for many years yet the political community is attempting to tie this Albatross on the neck of this president as they did on previous oval office holders. Our major hurdle to national economic health rests in the hand of the 500 plus who have no apparent interest in doing the jobs they were elected to do. These 500 plus have many members of the law profession thereby giving that profession a bad name.

Half Gov


We all chuckle when we hear a spoof of someone ordering a special coffee at a coffee shop. Is a half caf-latte more or less humorous than a half Gov?

Pocket Protector


The modern pocket protector, a device first patented in 1902 (as far as we know) by H.C. Dexter. The original product was a firm, slim wire shaped like a semi circle with a flexible fabric which fits in a pocket or purse. Later improved versions patented by H. Smith and Gerson Strassberg ( a small war ensued).Short story and history follows.The pocket protector was invented during World War II by Hurley Smith while he was working in Buffalo, New York. He was awarded US 2417786 for the device on March 18, 1947; the patent was filed on June 3, 1943.
A competing claim for the invention is from Long Island plastics magnate Gerson Strassberg around 1952. Strassberg was working on plastic sleeves for bank books. One day he placed one that he was working on into his shirt pocket while he took a phone call. When he noticed it there, he realized it would make a great product.
“I stuck the half-made passbook holder into my pocket; the front of it sort of fell over, and while I was talking on the phone, I also stuck my pen in there,” recalls Strassberg, a young development engineer working at a Brooklyn company at the time. “When I got off the phone, I looked and said, `Holy smoke, this is great. ”
To this day, says Strassberg, the mayor of Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., “I haven’t the foggiest idea” what the call was about. Nor can he remember the name of the caller. All he knows is that his hasty response caused a small accident.
No, not an ink-stained shirt pocket — an accidental discovery: one of the first known pocket protectors. “It was the unfinished bank passbook holder,” he says. Thus inspired to use the same vinyl welding technique on a few more passbook holders, then a few more, he knew he could be on to something.
Indeed, Strassberg was. The kid from the Bronx, weaned on Buck Rogers and modern science and schooled in electrical engineering at City College, had just created a small but significant icon for the soon-to-dawn world of geekdom. The low-heat welding technique popularized during World War II, which uses a combination of physical pressure and high-frequency radio waves to fuse sheets of vinyl, had just affixed Strassberg securely to his own future.
Soon, he would seem to have the world in his pocket. And vice versa: The common sense and simple style of the small plastic accessory was to become geek chic among the slide-rule set.
Strassberg’s move from the Brooklyn factory in 1956 to a partnership in a manufacturing plant in Queens set the pocket-protector machinery in motion. It cranked out nearly 1 million of them a year, and the popular protectors retailed for about a quarter. He declined to disclose his revenue.
Today, lower-priced competition from overseas manufacturers, plus a decline in overall demand for pocket protectors, has the same factory where Strassberg eventually became president producing about 30,000 of them a year (now retailing for about $1 apiece). It’s a negligible blip on the production map at a business creating more than 200 other products, ranging from artists’ portfolios to file folders and other office-supply
pocket protector is a sheath designed to hold writing instruments and other small implements, such as slide rules, while preventing them from damaging the wearer’s shirt pocket (e.g., by tearing or staining by a leaky pen). The pocket protector is designed to fit neatly inside the breast pocket of a shirt, and may accommodate pens, pencils, screwdrivers, small slide rules, and various other small items. A flap overlapping the pocket exterior helps to secure the pocket protector in place.
Originally fashioned from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), pocket protectors were first marketed toward corporations as branded promotional fare. However, a more general market for the product soon arose, made up of students, engineers (prominently mechanical), and white-collar workers in sundry fields. Ever notice that no one in Congress appears to use a pocket protector?

2006


In a 2006 transcript from the Federal Reserve  (the Fed) some officials noted that the 2006 housing boom was softening (going South). This softening was spear headed by the subprime mortgage lending  which eventually spilled over into the general economy as jobs were lost, and people went into default. One area that is little discussed are the mortgages in which debt increased rather than decrease. These items while not the whole story certainly suggests that the crisis was on its way to be a full blown economy killer. Several central bank Governors including  Susan Blies (a member from 2001-2007) expressed concerns on a number of occasions but was  ignored. Look at the time line of her voicing concerns and the onset of the “crash”. Our Congress was in a position to deal with this situation long before it snowballed into fruition yet they blamed the Presidents and their parties. No matter who you chose to slam about our economy (and for what ever other reasons associated or not), the fact remains that the sitting collection of Scamocrats and Dupublicans are  more to blame than anyone since they were supposed to have our backs! I offer again the notion that we as voters have the duty and right to oust these neer do wells. It is of no importance that there are others being groomed to ascend to the political stage under the tutelage of  the  current sitters as long as we continue to place the blame where it belongs by voting them out when they fail. We will make mistakes but we can correct them in each future election. We as voters have a simple obligation and that is to disregard the political theater, get rid of our prejudicial dispositions and see the facts. We need to stop being advertised into voting for the wrong people.