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| | Idiots Come in Swarms pt 2 | | | Saturday, May 3, 2008 (3:49 PM)
(I'm feeling sick) | |
Okay! Here is where I get to the "Swarm" part. The neighbor next to "The Beverly Hillbillies" I like to call "The Gardners". They are an older couple that work a lot in their yard, hence the name. Their house sits up the hill and they have stairs down to a deck and more stairs down to a gazebo in the yard. In the summer, a creeping vine covers the gazebo with beautiful purple flowers.
Roses climb on trellises over the fence gates, etc. The crowning beauty of the yard is the weeping willow tree in the corner. The picture above captures the corner of their yard with the willow tree. I have immensely enjoyed this tree since I moved here. We have some hot summers, but most summers are mild enough to be able to spend a lot of time on my deck. I have a tree next to my deck that shades the deck for most of the day, and the view of the willow tree and park is very nice(considering I'm in the city). The Hillbillies next to them have a oak tree that must be over 100 feet tall. It's by far the biggest tree in the neighborhood and very beautiful. Trees in Nebraska have to be appreciated, since they are all planted. I come from Mississippi where pines and hardwoods cover most of the state, except for the delta. Pastures are painstakingly cleared or there would be no pastures. Nebraska is the exact opposite, and while the picture above shows trees, it's nothing compared to what I'm used to. So why am I rambling about trees? I came home on Thursday and walked out on my deck to find "The Idiot Gardners" (their new name) standing next to a hugh pile of sawdust that used to be that willow tree! I was sick, and still am. Everytime I look outside I want to punch that guy! I woke up a 8 am on Friday morning to a noise that I was sure was the sound of the end of the world. The Hillbillies had so much fun watching the willow tree die that they had decided to have a go at their oak tree! In less than 2 hours they systematically cut pieces out of the tree and fed it to a chipper, and a truck hauled the dust off to the dump. What took 100 years to grow only took 2 hours to remove all traces of. I can't imagine what these two idiots were thinking! I'm sick and disgusted. I think the Hillbillies were just pissed off that they couldn't get the oak to lean to the left by 30 degrees, in harmony with everything else in their yard!
I may have exaggerated the angles but as you can see..........
No more tree! If you look closely there is a portion of the sawdust they kept for flower beds where the tree lived. If the old man comes up missing, I think it only fitting that they find his wrinkley ass under it.
The tree by my deck is very nervous but I have assured her that they'll have to throw me in the chipper first before that happens to her!
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| | Idiots Come in Swarms part 1 | | | Friday, May 2, 2008 (6:37 PM)
(I'm feeling aggravated) | | I have lived in the same house for 11 years now. They build parks into neighborhoods up here and out my back door and small yard is a 50 foot wide swath of grass with a sidewalk leading to the park. I can sit on my deck and watch kids play, people walk their dogs, etc. There are 2 houses on the other side of the sidewalk before it opens into the park.
We are not friends, but I refer to the ones straight across from me as "The Beverly Hillbillies" mainly because they bought and placed two concrete Lions on either side of their 30 ft driveway, like it was an entrance to a regal estate. (we're just talkin' bout a ordinary split level home here) That strikes me as ridiculous but the back of the house faces me so I don't have to see it every time I walk out back. Unfortunately, "Jed" is a Do-it-yourself type. He started off building a fence around his backyard, and in order to keep the top of the fence level, he left a 2 foot gap at the bottom on one end where the lot slopes. (I'm not sure what he thought he was fencing in). In addition, the fence does not adhere to the 90degree angle to the earth policy so popular these days, so it looks drunk. Then he built a deck that leaned so badly to the right that the stairs fell off! Then he built a shed from scratch to the left of the deck. I was initially impressed as I watched him level the earth and pour a concrete foundation and complete the structure, but within 2 weeks the whole shed tilted 20 degrees to the left. Then he bought an above ground pool that he put up without leveling anything, so it leans toward my house at 30 degrees! When he filled it up, guess what? Yes it fell over and flooded his yard! The solution? Just put a "little" water in it. You ever see an above ground pool with a shallow end?
In the years before the building frenzy, "Granny" wanted a garden, so they tilled up rows and planted various edibles. A garden can be a beautiful thing. I wanted to go over there and tell them what a hoe was for, because it wasn't long before the weeds and grass took it over and was so tall, only the okra plants stuck up out of the tangle. Then toward the end of summer "Granny" was out there with a lawn mower. I figured she had declared the garden a fiasco, like I had. I went out to watch and it turns out she was picking her tomatoes, which she never bothered to "stick" so they grew on the ground and she had set the blade high enough to miss the tomatoes, but otherwise could not find without mowing first! My Dad lived and died without ever seeing someone pick tomatoes with a lawn mower!
Describing these people has turned into a blog unto itself so I'll end part 1 here. Please keep the stupidity of these people in mind as you move about your daily activities.
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| | Forming Opinions | | | Saturday, April 19, 2008 (11:53 AM)
(I'm feeling happy) | | | I haven't done a blog or video for a while now. I've been busy forming opinions/beliefs somewhat. I swore off keeping up with the news a while back. A lot of it just made me angry. I guess you really do need to be informed though if you're going to have an opinion. I try not to take my opinions too seriously if I'm not willing to dig a little and find out some things for myself. Taking someone elses opinion and making it your own because it feels good is foolish at best. Discounting someones opinion because it doesn't feel good or is "Crazy" is also a bad recipe. I've read and seen some things of late that needed some investigation of my own, and it's not easy. Big media seems dedicated to placating the masses with drivel for the most part, and they slant their stories from their own personal beliefs. It's rare that news of real importance finds it's way to the forefront in a forthcoming manner. It's more of a distraction for the masses. The news that will scare the crap out of people is hidden in a vast cauldron of words and images. This is the where I've been, trying to dig some truth out of it all. | | | | 140 Views | 8 Thumbs Up | 5 Comments | |
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| | Bar Stool Economics | | | Monday, April 7, 2008 (8:17 PM)
(I'm feeling amused) | | (By the way, I'm not one of the first 4 men, but I'm no where close to the 10th man. I thank God everyday for rich people. They're the only ones hiring!)
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And t he first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia
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| | The First Time | | | Saturday, April 5, 2008 (10:25 AM)
(I'm feeling content) | | The Friday night rush was over. I looked out into the dining room and there were two girls giggling as they moved from table to table, stealing the paper placemats off the table. (Yeah, that's about as classy as Pizza Hut gets.) My duty to stop the madness led me to them. The fact that they were cute didn't hurt. We talked and they giggled for a while before they giggled their way out the door. Our second encounter was the next week, when they showed up to apply for jobs. I didn't think much of it,as they were just giggly high school girls. Their giggling appearances persisted every weekend. Of course they never bought anything.
Several weeks later, needing a waitress, I came to their applications chose the less giggly of the two. It turns out that she had gotten a job at TG&Y. Oh well, I'll call the other one.(she was cuter anyway.) I gave her the smallest uniform that she could fit into, and boy did she fit into it!(I always like to enjoy my work.) It was easy to become friends, since she hung on my every word. (Never underestimate the male ego) It wasn't long before we were dating. Yes, back then you could date an employee and not worry about a sexual harrassment suit when they got pissed off. Yes, her mother thought I was 19, not 20. (I didn't know that until years later, nor did I know that all of the above was part of her evil plan. I thought I was in control. Never underestimate the male ego.)
We are still best friends today, though she quite wisely does not hang on my every word. Yesterday was our 27th anniversary. We had some rough times, but made it through. I take no credit for that. I'm just lucky as hell I picked the right one.Yeah I know i was the one that got picked. (never underestimate the male ego) | | | | 115 Views | 6 Thumbs Up | 3 Comments | |
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| | What's America's real inflation rate? | | | Sunday, March 30, 2008 (1:35 PM)
(I'm feeling scared) | | This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Federal Reserve. If you haven't read up on the Federal Reserve or the Illuminati, I suggest this channel- infiniteSPIRITEproductions - which has a 20 part video series discussing these things. You don't have to watch the whole series to get the picture. I wish skeptical people to view part of this series and and refute it's ideas with real facts and not "they're crazy".
WND Exclusive NEWS ANALYSIS
What's America's real inflation rate?
If rate is so low, how come food and energy cost so much?
Posted: March 19, 2008
9:44 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Why is it that the federal government says the U.S. has virtually no inflation – less that 2 percent – but everything keeps getting more expensive, especially food and gasoline?
Today, gasoline is well above $3.00 a gallon. "Sticker shock" comes not just from the cost of buying a new car, but from the $50.00 or more it costs to fill up the gas tank, even if you don't own an SUV.
You're lucky if $100 buys two bags of groceries at the supermarket, even if you avoid the filet mignon.
Take a family of four to a movie theater to see a first-run film and it can cost $75 even in the Midwest. You will shell out somewhere between $6 and $9 just for one adult ticket, and you can end up spending somewhere between $65 to $75 total if all you do is spring for the luxury of popcorn and sodas.
Still, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August 2007 a remarkably low inflation rate of only 1.7 percent.
(Story continues below)
Solving this riddle – that is, why everything costs so much when the government tells us inflation rates are low – is simple:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics lies.
Inflation numbers are intentionally manipulated to keep cost-of-living numbers low.
If the average chief executive officer cooked balance sheet numbers the way the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the Consumer Price Index, the CEO would be in jail, even without Sarbanes-Oxley reporting standards.
Why does the federal government lie about inflation?
Again, the direct answer is simple.
Telling the truth about inflation would require the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates and that would be bad for economic growth.
Besides, hundreds of billions of dollars in government entitlement payment outflows depend on the inflation number.
For instance, federal law mandates that Social Security checks increase thanks to "cost-of-living adjustments," or COLAs, that are supposed to compensate for inflation.
So, higher inflation numbers cost the federal government millions more in increased Social Security payments.
But when the Bureau of Labor Statistics intentionally rigs the Consumer Price Index calculations to low-ball the inflation rate, Social Security entitlement payments are kept level.
As a result, retirees quietly lose billions of dollars that should have been paid out, had the cost of living numbers been reported honestly. But the government saves the expense.
How does the federal government manipulate inflation numbers?
The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, is the central statistic the federal government uses to calculate inflation.
The CPI is a complex government statistic that was introduced in the 1920s to track the market cost of a "basket of goods and services."
Beginning during the Carter administration, federal economists cleverly redefined the CPI, with the goal of removing from the index expensive items, including food and energy, that would push the CPI higher.
Today, the Federal Reserve when setting interest rates focuses on a variation of the CPI that measures "core inflation."
According to the Forbes "Investopedia," core inflation excludes items such as food and energy because food and energy "face volatile price movements."
In other words, since food and energy prices can spike upwards, as they have this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates "core inflation" without food and energy prices, under the rationale that food and energy price spikes are merely temporary price shocks that would distort the measurement of underlying long-term inflation.
To a family faced with paying rising food costs to feed the kids and skyrocketing gas costs just get to work, the definition of "core inflation" at 2 percent is a joke, not at all reflective of the increased dollars the family has to shovel out just to get by.
Even more disturbing, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' calculation of "core inflation" is not limited merely to throwing food and energy prices out of the CPI.
The price of any good or service in the CPI market basket prone to spiking can be thrown out, under the rationale that the items with the largest price changes reflect passing market disequilibrium that would distort the measurement of long-term trends.
When removing expensive items from the CPI market basket of goods and services was not enough to depress inflation numbers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics innovated even more, changing the "weighted factors" used in calculating CPI statistics, so the results end up under-reporting the true inflation people experience in everyday living.
Econometrician John Williams maintains a website and publishes a newsletter devoted to tracking federal government manipulations of economic statistics.
Williams estimates that current Social Security payments are roughly half of what they should be if the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the Consumer Price Index honestly.
Many of the CPI manipulations were masterminded by Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from 1987 under President Reagan to 2006 under President George W. Bush.
Williams points out that one of Greenspan's manipulations of the CPI involved the consideration that when steak got too expensive, the consumer would substitute hamburger for the steak. So, Greenspan argued, the inflation measure should reflect the costs of buying hamburger, not steak.
"Of course, replacing hamburger for steak in the calculations would reduce the inflation rate," Williams commented, "but it represented the rate of inflation in terms of maintaining a declining standard of living. Cost of living was being replaced by the cost of survival."
"The old system told you how much you had to increase your income in order to keep buying steak," Williams noted. "The new system promised you hamburger, and then dog food, perhaps, after that."
Williams properly concluded that Greenspan's arguments violated the "intent and common usage of the inflation index."
"The CPI was considered sacrosanct within the Department of Labor, given the number of contractual relationships that were anchored to it," Williams wrote. "The CPI was one number that never was to be revised, given its widespread usage."
Williams calculates that the manipulations of the CPI index cause inflation to be under-reported by as much as 7 percent.
The results of this under-reporting are dramatic, with the compounding effect just since the early 1990s reducing annual cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security by more than a third.
Greenspan's recently released autobiographical book, "The Age of Turbulence," openly admits how political the calculation of inflation is.
He notes that Richard Nixon imposed wage-and-price controls in 1971, even though the rate of inflation then was less than 5 percent.
Greenspan argues that the 4.5 percent inflation we experienced for the half century since we abandoned the gold standard may become the norm for the future, with the unfortunate consequence that such a high rate means we will see our saved dollars lose half their purchasing power "in fifteen years or so."
At the height of the gold standard, between 1870 and 1913, just prior to World War I, the cost of living as calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rose only 0.2 percent annually, Greenspan notes.
The dilemma the Fed faces under our fiat currency system is that to keep inflation truly low, the Fed has to keep interest rates high.
"Yet to keep the inflation rate down to a gold standard level of under 1 percent, or even a less draconian 1 to 2 percent range," Greenspan wrote, "the Fed, given my scenario, would have to constrain monetary expansion so drastically that it could temporarily drive up interest rates into the double-digit range not seen since the days of Paul Volcker."
High interest rates constrict the money supply, make borrowing difficult, and generally depress economic growth.
Greenspan's own solution was to keep interest rates artificially low, as low as the 1 percent interest rates Greenspan in 2003 aspired to hold that low for years – while simultaneously rigging the CPI numbers.
The Greenspan years can be characterized as a strategy of lying about inflation to avoid the adverse political consequences of being honest and facing the true cost-of-living music.
By lying about inflation, Greenspan justified 1 percent interest rates, which in 2003 were the lowest rates in 45 years, in a determined plan to keep the economy growing while he was at the helm.
But one result of the Greenspan liquidity party was to fuel real inflation.
So, when you wonder why food and gasoline cost so much when the government says inflation is low, just remember: You are being lied to – something we suspect you figured out long ago, just by going to the supermarket and the gas station.
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| | How Much Should a Free Dog Cost? | | | Friday, March 21, 2008 (10:36 PM)
(I'm feeling aggravated) | | If you read my last entry, you might know that I was involved in a deal to procure a free Chihuahua puppy. That went bad when it turned out that the dog had as much Chihuahua in it as I do. The problem that has arisen is that since I have expressed a willingness to love another angel, Shay has assigned that love to a Yorky puppy(as yet unseen) that will cost $600. So now I go from free love to $600 love. Holy Crap! More on that as the story unfolds.
We've been here in Mississippi for a week now and leave in the morning for Omaha. It's been so good to see and feel Spring with my own eyes and sinuses.
We took care of a lot of business, cleaned out closets, and enjoyed a lot of Family. There are lots of things blooming, but the Wisteria is just now about to bloom, so we'll miss that treat. My Dad planted Wisteria everywhere on God's little acre. Birds are singing, just like my heart. | | | | 146 Views | 4 Thumbs Up | 2 Comments | |
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| | Deal Gone Bad | | | Friday, March 21, 2008 (11:11 AM)
(I'm feeling amused) | | | We waited in the parking lot at the women’s rehab facility. It seems like a strange place for a deal like this to go down. The waiting is unbearable. I was chain smoking cigarettes in nervous anticipation. You never know how these deals will turn out, if at all. How many times have I done this now? The car finally turned in and parked on the back side of the lot, so as not to be seen. The dealer, unkempt and scraggly, was worse for wear for partaking in this business. You could tell she wanted out, and she wanted out badly. This was her last ditch effort to be free of it. She wanted this to be her last deal. Knowing this should be a warning for me to just leave and don’t look back, but I can’t. Just thinking about the score makes me tingle. She finally pulled out her wares and placed it gently before me for inspection. Disappointment immediately set in. What was supposed to be two pounds of high grade Chihuahua had obviously been cut by more than half with Feist. I quickly told her no deal and got in my car to leave. One last look in my rearview mirror brought feelings of sympathy for the poor woman. I knew she’d never be able to give that dog away. | | | | 121 Views | 2 Thumbs Up | 1 Comment | |
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| | Spring- YAY! | | | Tuesday, March 18, 2008 (8:53 AM)
(I'm feeling chipper) | | We're in Mississippi this week to take care of some business concerning my Mom's estate. I've been looking forward to this for a while because I love Spring down here, and I don't think Omaha got above freezing for 3 days in all of January and February. Be careful what you wish for though, because we're just in time for all the pollen too! If you don't live down south and haven't seen the pine trees do the pollen thing, you don't know what I"m talkin about. In Nebraska they don't know what a real pine tree is. They have something that passes for a pine tree, but they have to trim the limbs from the ground up to make it a tree. It's more like a bush. I never have been allergic person,(maybe occasionally have itchy eyes from something) but this time around it's affecting me bigtime, and if I wasn't so happy to be here, I would be miserable!
There is plenty to do around here and it's all work! We are starting to clean out the house and throw away junk collected over two lifetimes. In addition, Dad was unable to work in his yard for years before his death and paid a guy to do the bare minimum. It's a mess! I had to fight Dad to let me beat back the wisteria, or it would have taken the house by now. I'm not even going to tackle the yard this time. I really don't have the tools or the time. It wears me out just thinking about it.
The internets has slowed to a crawl as I only have dialup here. I have read some blogs and gotten email, but watching videos if almost impossible. I have watched a couple by letting them buffer for an hour or two, but it's really frustrating. LV is addictive! More later......... | | | | 101 Views | 2 Thumbs Up | 1 Comment | |
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