Stop Pulling the Wagon

I’VE GOT A QUESTION.  DID WE AVOID DISASTER SIMPLY BECAUSE THESE AL QAEDA AND TALIBAN WANNABES ARE SIMPLY MORE IMCOMPETENT THAN THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION OR AM I MISSING SOMETHING?

ACCORDING TO PUBLISHED REPORTS:

THE FIRST BOMBER WAS UNABLE TO SET HIS UNDERWEAR BOMB ON FIRE PROPERLY.  I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT AL QAEDA WOULD HAVE TAUGHT THIS DURING MATCHES AND FUSES TRAINING  l-O-l.

THE SECOND BOMBER, AMONG OTHER THINGS: DID NOT LIGHT THE FUSE PROPERLY, FORGOT TO TURN THE PROPANE BOTTLES ON AND LOCKED THE KEYS TO HIS GET-A-WAY CAR IN THE SUV HE PLANNED  TO USE AS HIS CAR BOMB.   TALK ABOUT FORGETTING YOUR CHECKLIST!  

AND STILL, HE NEARLY MADE IT OUT OF THE COUNTRY.  THE TSA WAS PROBABLY BUSY STRIP SEARCHING SOMEONES SWEDISH GRANDMOTHER WHILE HE (THE BOMBER) WAS BUYING A ONE WAY TICKET, WITH CASH AND NO LUGGAGE, ON (ARAB OWNED) EMIRATES AIRLINES TO DUBAI (IN THE MIDDLE EAST).

-BOB

I WATCHED A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE “WOLF’S LAIR” WHICH WAS THE COMMAND POST OF ADOLF HITLER DURING PART OF WORLD WAR II. 

The Germans went to great lengths to camoflage it from arial attack.  After the Allies successfully attacked Germany’s heavily fortified submarine pens with advanced bombs the Germans added further fortifications to the Wolf’s Lair in order to protect Adolf Hitler. 

The Germans did not know that by 1943 General Eisenhower and the Allied Command knew not only the exact location of the Wolf’s Lair and its fortifications but had advanced heavy ordinance (bombs) with which to destroy it and likely kill Adolf Hitler in the process. 

General Eisenhower, in conjunction with Allied Command, made the decision that it was better not to kill Adolf Hitler because Hitler’s lack of ability to make good tactical decisions was hurting the German Army’s ability to defend against the Allies war effort. 

Hmmmm.   I wonder if America’s enemies might be thinking that they don’t need to attack us because this bunch we have elected to govern us is doing a better job of destroying our economy and power than they could by attacking us themselves?

Just a thought………                                                Bob

 

WHAT DOES THE MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEES OF GENERAL MOTORS AND THE GOVERNMENT AND EMPLOYEES OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY HAVE IN COMMON?

                                           ONE OF MY FAVORITE MATH PUZZLES

THREE MEN RENT A ROOM FOR A MEETING IN A CONVENTION CENTER FOR THE MORNING.

THE DESK CLERK TELLS THEM THE ROOM WILL BE $30.00.

THEY EACH GIVE HIM A $10.00 BILL.

AFTER THEY GO TO THE ROOM THE MANAGER FINDS OUT HE OVERCHARGED THEM AND THAT THE ROOM IS REALLY ONLY $25.00.

THE MANAGER GIVES THE BELLBOY $5.00 TO GIVE TO THE MEN AS A REFUND.

WHEN HE GETS TO THE ROOM THE MEN DECIDE THEY CAN’T DIVIDE $5.00 EQUALLY SO THEY GIVE THE BELLBOY $2.00 AND EACH OF THEM KEEPS $1.00.

SINCE THEY EACH ORIGINALLY PAID $10.00 AND NOW HAVE $1.00 BACK THE ROOM REALLY ONLY COST THEM $9.00 EACH.

LETS SEE.  $9.00 X 3 EQUALS $27.00 WHICH IS WHAT THE NET COST OF THE ROOM IS TO THE MEN. 

THEY GAVE THE BELLBOY $2.00. 

$27.00 PLUS $2.00 EQUALS $29.00.  SINCE THEY ORIGINALLY PAID $30.00 FOR THE ROOM, WHERE DID THE OTHER $1.00 GO?

JUST FOR FUN……….                                BOB

4-4-2010  POSTSCRIPT:  I have received quite a bit of feedback both verbal and by email about this “puzzle”.  I really just posted it for fun but it does serve a purpose  to demonstrate how our government does math.  For example, they will create a program or entitlement with an anual escalator clause to increase funding by 10% a year and when there is a an outcry against deficit spending they will “cut” the increase to “only” 5% over the previous year and then proudly announce they have cut spending.  Or, they will come up with  “fuzzy” numbers of projected costs and “expected” savings, such as in the new Health Care program, that neither we nor they can ever figure out exactly what it is going to cost.  As my Dad used to say to me:  “Figures Lie and Liars Figure!”      …………Bob

                                            TRUE FREEDOM REQUIRES SELF DISCIPLINE

What we are practicing as a nation is a system where our leaders can obtain and retain power by promising to give selected groups what they have taken from you and your neighbor in the form of taxes.   Should I say stolen, since it is usually taken without your or their consent?   And these same leaders also “pay” with more dollars borrowed from strangers (example: China).  Dollars that will have to be re-paid with other dollars not yet earned by our children and grandchildren who will live under slavery’s yoke of debt.  

Do we really want our progeny not yet born to arrive in this world as slaves? 

Debt is a form of slavery.   Slavery takes away our freedom, dignity and self esteem.

On an individual basis debt can be tragic both to the individual and family.  

For a nation to be in debt, except in time of external threat (example: World War II),  it can be catastrophic and in my view it is a criminal act on the part of those who rule the nation.  They are enslaving us.

They are spending money we do not have and so must be “borrowed”.  They are doing it in the name of “fairness” and “income redistribution”.  No matter which side of the equation you are on, can anyone explain to me what is “fair” about one half the population paying 97% of all income taxes?

These leaders think they are playing Robin Hood by taking from those that “have” and giving to those who “have not”.  They don’t seem to consider that the overwhelming majority of the “have nots” do not have because they lack the will to work hard, save and discipline themselves.  Most of those who “have” got that way through hard work, saving  and self discipline.  (I am not asserting that we should not care for those who are truly needy through no fault of their own.)

To paraphrase our founders Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton: “America will remain free until  its citizens figure out they can vote themselves funds from the public treasury”.

Have we reached that point as a nation where we have sacrificed our freedom and become slaves to debt through lack of discipline?  Are we on the edge of  becoming “The Late Great United States Of America”?      -Bob

I ONCE HEARD THAT IF YOU ARE UNDER THIRTY AND NOT A LIBERAL, YOU DON’T HAVE A HEART AND IF YOU ARE OVER THIRTY AND NOT A CONSERVATIVE, YOU DON’T HAVE A BRAIN.  

IN “WIZARD OF OZ” TERMS, ONE WOULD BE THE TIN MAN AND THE OTHER WOULD BE THE SCARCROW.

It is my view that neither Liberals or Conservatives are inherently and intentionally evil.  In my later years of life I have even considered myself to be something of a “Closet” Liberal.  I keep wishing that Liberal ideas would work but I have been around long enough to know that they do not.

BIG GOVERNMENT IS NOT NECESSARILY EVIL,  IT IS JUST BY NATURE HORRIBLY INEFFICENT!  THE MOST EFFECTIVE FORM OF GOVERNMENT IS LOCAL, ACCOUNTABLE AND CONCENTRATES ON DOING JUST A FEW THINGS WELL AND DOING THOSE WITHIN VERY SPECIFIC PARAMETERS AND ON A LIMITED BUDGET. 

I am thinking that we may be on the “cusp” of a very Un-Civil War as a Nation.  Not a war of guns and battles (I hope) but a War that would see our culture degenerate into “Unarmed Camps” of non-negotiable demands that are at polar opposition to one another.

THE TRUTH IS THAT NOT EVERTHING CAN BE NEGOTIATED.  I REMEMBER THAT MY FATHER TAUGHT ME THAT YOU CANNOT BE A LITTLE BIT DIS-HONEST ANYMORE THAN YOU CAN BE A LITTLE BIT PREGNANT. 

As just one example, how does a person who believes that life is sacred and begins at conception negotiate with another person who believes that it is all about a womans right to choose and its not a baby till after its born?  There is no middle ground here.  And this is only one example. 

Its sort of like being at war with an enemy who has only one non-negotiable demand.  That you and yours be dead.  Whats to negotiate? 

TRUTH IS TRUTH.  SOME THINGS ARE SIMPLY RIGHT OR WRONG.  NOT EVERYTHING CAN BE FIXED.  SO WHAT DO WE DO?          – Bob