Steve's barking atgime that old time politics

I was shocked, yes shocked that a congressman would call the President of the United States a liar when he was giving his state of the Union speech. I'm so used to civility in my politics.
It seems that I have a short term memory problem. Things can get pretty nasty in Jersey politics. Actually things are not as nasty as they were in the 19th century American politics.
Hell it wasn't uncommon for ghost to vote. It wasn't even uncommon in the  big cities for members of one political party to go into the voting booth and pulling the level for the voter.
Civility in the congress was some times nonexistent many a cursing was recorded. A bop on the head from a walking stick from one member of congress to his colleague was also recorded along with challenges for duels.
It appears that I and my contemporaries have gotten soft, we expect our politics to honest and civil.
To rectify that I suggest real craziness like rigging the polling places electronically.( I know Ohio  has been accused of doing this for Bush V Kerry). In congress a cage should be placed in the middle were debates would be settled by some ultimate fighting.
Come on guys we've got to show our forefathers that we could be dirtier and tougher then them.

Steve's Barking at What is government?

After hearing Justice Scalier  asked questions to the solicitor general of the United States  what is government's role in health care, and (hopefully I'm getting this right) that isn't it individuals right to get health care if he (or she) wants it) This  got me thinking what the f*** is government anyway?
In days of yor in feudal society governments were formed for protection, mostly against other governments. Even before the bible, man needed government for protection, even against himself. And by golly he also needed order so he invented government. Now sometimes governments are too much into themselves and they do things that governments shouldn't be doing. ( No I'm not going to get into blowing a lot of hot gas about what government shouldn't be doing).
Now one would think (or is it just me) that protecting the citizens of the ones country by forcing all to have health insurance is protecting all. That being said that would be the role of government.
I also seem to recall Justice Scalier stated that if a person is sick he could go to the hospital, and even if a person needed a shot hey could just go to the emergency room and presto they would be taken care of, there fore it's not the role of government to force a member of society to buy health insurance.
Now again if my memory serves me straight I seem to recall that there are some hospitals that wouldn't take a patent that had no health insurance. Now that would go against the argument that if one was truly sick and he, she or it could just roll into any hospital and would be taken care of, so of cause I must be wrong.
Now I kind of like the Constitution of the United States, especially the preamble which states that the United States government will promote the general welfare of the country. I kind of think that forcing every one to have health insurance promotes the general welfare.  
There are certain things that a government should do besides protecting against foreign invaders for the welfare of it's citizens and if said government doesn't do these things then why do you needed that government anyway. If we don't have government, what's the purposes of having judges, we can all judge ourselves.

Steve's barking at tbtdp or take back the Democratric party

If  had any influence I would form a group that I would call take back the Democratic Party.
No my commitment wouldn't try to get rid of President Obama, or that Republican in Democratic clothing Andrew Cuomo. No I want a party that believes in itself. That stands for something, not just the shadow of the Republican Party.
Having heard a speech from the Tea Party two years a go I found that I agree with them that the two parties of consequence are pretty much the same. Every time the Republican Party gets more ridicules the  Democratic Party goes to the ridicules that the Republican Party had been last year.
My disenchantment with the Democratic Party started with the Democratic president that had the highest IQ of any president in my life time, Jimmy Carter. Now I've been reading his book of his presidential diaries, in it he calls himself a moderate Conservative. All right I guess I'm not to bright put  a moderate Conservative is an oxymoron?  Ever since his winning the presidential election, The Democratic party believes that it has to move more and more to the ridicules.

Now let me just say this about the next Democratic Party President, Bill Clinton.
I'm going to make this comparison of his economic policies.
They were like cutting down trees and clearing the brush to stop forest fires, It's highly successful in fighting forest fires, it's just not very successful with mud slides when it rains.
( For anyone reading this and who doesn't understand the analogy President Clinton economic policy were very successful during his time in office but they helped set the ground work for the economic collapse of 2008).

Now we come to the present.
President Obama doing the wrong thing for the right reason.
While there are many  things that he's done and is doing that might lead to trouble down the road, I'm most interested in Social Security right now. (Or at least writing about it). His administration cut 2% from what workers pay to Social Security. The money that workers get to keep is like a pay raise and yes this helps the economy. The major problem with that is it weakens Social Security. It's going to be very difficult to have the workers except paying the 2% again. What should be done with Social Security is eliminating the cap all together. My understanding this would alleviate the worries of Social Security in the future. ( My source is AARP).

Now what about the Democratic Party Legislators in congress?
Or the States governors and legislators?
I think I'll leave those for another rant day.

Steve's barking at tweety birds

I have this great fear of tweety birds.
What the f*** are tweety birds?
Tweety birds are those characters who scream inflation at every move that government proactively does to help the economy.
Tweety birds are those who scream our liberties are being taken away  by our government by imaginary means.
Tweety birds are those who complain about the price of gas and demand that we drill baby drill, yet from all indications oil production has increased greater then demand.
Tweety birds are those who are so afraid of the deficit they would paralyze any effort by the government to help the economy, failing to learn the lesson from 1938.
Tweety birds used to find communist under the bed, some still do.

The original Tweety Bird was a Warner Brother creation, who saw this cat Sylvester in every film. You might say that he did, he did.
The modern Tweety bird sees imaginary cats.


  

Steve's barking at job creators

To all of those who think that all job creators are equal think of the local drug dealers. Don't they create jobs. Most of those scoundrels started out poor. Some of them one can say are a tremendous American success story. The greater the risk the greater the glory. Don't forget the auxiliary jobs that  created such as the need for more police, judges and attorneys. Think of the money that luxury car dealerships make and let's not forget jewelers.



** Not all job creators are good for society.

Steve's Barking at the end of American exceptional-ism

American exceptional-ism is dying?
Can't be.
Well one can say that in previous centuries we almost lost our bid to exceptional-ism, but we were bold enough to have made a Constitution that protects its' citizens. That what made us different from all other countries.
We also have a constitution that is living and breathing in form of amendments.
We have had people who were poor one year and then became super rich. ( Think Andrew Carnegie).
There has been religious  intolerance that the citizen of this great nation went against the spirit of the constitution. We have in the past over come this, the question is can we over come this in the future. Is the fear of Islam and some who are fanatical the straw that ended the spirit of religious freedom. 
Any how that's  not  of American exceptional-ism I'm writing about when I say that the end may be in sight.
When the talk of American exceptional-ism, were generally not talking of the Constitution but of the economic advancements that the Untied States has made.
I'm talking about the bold moves that were made by our leaders, the Louisiana purchase, Seward's Folly (the purchase of Alaska), even Gadsden's purchase.I don't really believe that in the present day America there is no way congress would allocate the money.
Could the Erie Canal be built today? No way in hell as the last six  New York Governors think the greatness of government is balancing the budget, and keeping taxes low. I'm sure that's why New York is called the Empire State because the government wants to keep taxes low.
Will the United States be a conduit of innovation? Not if the school systems stymies it students like it's doing now with standardize tests and the inability to have it's student's think.
Will the United States have another Carnegie? Good possibility, after all he wasn't born in the USA.
Will we have new companies like Apple, Google or even Facebook? When I look into my Chrystal ball the longer view is in ten years there will be less and less innovative companies. Money will be thrown at companies that on paper seem good  to make money,not at companies that can capture the imagination.
We'll have our second dot com boom and bust.

In order for a country to be exceptional it has to work it.
The people of a country just can't look at it's past and even it's present that was and is great and pretend it will  always be.

Steve's barking at what ever happened to prodigy?

What ever happened to Prodigy?
What ever happen to Commodore?
Do you remember Wang?
Some times it doesn't pay to put your money on the first with some very good ideas.
If I had any money back then I would be as broke as I am now.

Steve's barking at Gas, methane that is.

Ever so often I read or hear about the use of methane gas.
Some small factories in this country are using methane from garbage to power their factories, Now I just heard that GM is going to make hybrid trucks (gas and liquefied methane gas).
Now if we start using the earths most abundant gas like the preacher ( me) has been saying we wouldn't have to frack the earth. The price of oil would collapse and we will all liver happily ever after.
The only problem with my solution to our energy problem is that I live in a fantasy world.(Bad English)
I know that some one is going to find danger in methane gas.
If we try ti use methane for cooking and warmth, not only power our turbines for electricity I'm positive that the word on the street would be why would anybody want their house to smell like one big fart.I'm also sure that a be-vie of PHDs will expose danger that's associated with methane ( real or most likely imaginary). Of cause people who claim to be in the know will explain how little methane gas there is in the world.


* I know I'm living in a fantasy world as far as methane gas is concerned, I've never heard in serious discussions as a solution to earths energy problems. Especial people much smarter then me haven't mentioned using methane on a large scale.

   
 

Steve's barking economist are not prophets

Now and then on the boob tube I hear some overly made up person complain how come (name a famous economist) didn't know that the economy was going to tank in '08?
Well that famous economist may have said beware of this or that(housing bubble,. oil too high).
The problem with making economic predictions is that there are too many variables to be 100% accurate.
Now hold that thought, I seem to remember that almost everyday I see an advert on this contraption that I'm typing on claiming that he's this here economist that foresaw the collapse of the housing market, and the almost destruction of our financial system.Now this dude claims that the worst is yet to come. He even made a video claiming that the dollar would be worthless, and other financial calamities will befall on us, and he being this great economist, prophet knows the secret of survival.
Now he's not the only one who knew that the housing market would collapse. The majority of the people I know would tell me that (though some changed their minds when it didn't collapse right away).I've been preaching on the fact when oil prices are too high the economy suffers. I'm not the only one who worries about naked derivaties, and there were people myself included who wanted to short the little bundle of joys packaged morgages.
The idiot down the block, who can't spell cat suspected something wasn't right.


Now I know alot of people blame Allan Greenspan for the collapse of the economy. even though he worried about the increasing importance of derivates in large banks.Didn't the man worry of irrational exuberants.

Now I'm strating to sound like Allen Greenspan, completely incoherent.

Steve's barking at the distruction of the free enterpise system

I'm said to say that he free enterprise system as we know it maybe on it's last legs.
Not killed by governments, but by the system that makes it free.
As I seem to recall main and some would say the only purpose for a business is to make money.
The more money it makes the better it is for the business.
Now lets take a business, like the cable company. Now the cable company must have providers of networks that provide it with programs. Now these networks want the best price highest price for their product. The cable company wants to make the most money it can get, so what does it try to do, pass the money on to it's customers, high prices less customers. Less customers the less profits for the cable company, and with less people watch the network the less money that sponsors will want to spend.
Now lets take something that starts out as a commodity that necessary for modern life. Oil, that black stuff that when refined and burned will eventually kill( Surly I regress).We need this commodity to be cheap for we deliver goods and let people get around, but most importantly we need to deliver goods cheaply. If we can't well the less the consumer can buy, the less consumers can buy, well I don't need to write what that would do.
Of cause there are those who will say not to worry that the market will take care of it self.
Of cause these people are right, industries will be destroyed, lives lost, eventually just maybe new industries or just new business will emerge, proving my hypothesis slightly wrong. (Slightly). 


*It's not government that hurts business, but business itself.  

Steve's barking at it's complicated

I've been told that the layman can in no way understand the new financial banking system that almost brought down the House of the United States. It's complicated. I guess that my judgemen the main reason for the financial crises the selling of triple a rated securities that were really z rated wasn't the real truth. I'm also guessing that the nimrods at the banks believed that the junk that they were selling wasn't junk at all. They were so smart that they brought there own crap.( bad choice of words ).I also don't relies that the US government money to people who,bet against the market before the the banks took their money. I!m not versed in these complicated things. Of cause I'm not smart enough to relies that because oil prices went so high that paying off ones mortgage became more difficult. I don't understand it, because it's complicated.
I guess one can't understand the new complexity of the almost collapse of our financial system because everything is written in financialise ( new word that I just made up). If this stuff was translated into simple English perhaps 5 percent of us lay people would understand that the banks don't own most the mortgages now  
but the government probably does.

 Why do I feel that banks used a numbers runner who kept everything in his head who died before the payouts could be made.
   If one doesn't understand what I've written in this particular blog, don't worry it's complicated.