IMHO VBG

IMHO=In My Humble Opinion VBG=Very Big Grin

This blog is devoted to topics that interest me and perhaps I'll post information that "the mainstream media" chooses to ignore or deemphasize. The point here is not to debate what I post, just consider it another point of view if you disagree with it, you know, be "open minded" and "tolerant."

Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

Thursday, November 17, 2005

November 17, 2005

Ma & Pa Go Banking
Pa was recently engaged in one of his many hobbies, specifically that of persuading the local bank as to the merits of doing business his way. As his success in this area has been limited, he determined to take his trade elsewhere and accordingly took up a discussion with a teller at the competing bank. Unfortunately, Pa had neglected to consider that his leverage with the institution might be limited if he had never done business there before.

Explaining their policy on not cashing checks for people who don't have accounts with their bank, the teller said, "Why if he didn't have an account here, I wouldn't cash a check for my own brother."

Pa's irate response was, "Well ... you know your family a lot better than I do ..."

LAWS OF THE NATURAL UNIVERSE
Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.
Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
Law of Mechanical Reproduction: If you disassemble and re-assemble a mechanical item enough times, you'll have enough parts left over to make a second one.
Law of the Telephone: When you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal.
Law of the Alibi: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire.
Variation Law: If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will start to move faster than the one you are in now. (works every time)
Bath Theorem: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
Law of the Result: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.
Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
Theatre Rule: At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last.
Law of Coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
Murphy's Law of Lockers: If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
Law of Dirty Rugs/Carpets: The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich of landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug.
Law of Location: No matter where you go, there you are.
Law of Logical Argument: Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about. Brown's Law: If the shoe fits, it's ugly. Oliver's Law: A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Dear President
“I wonder how well you have been sleeping these last nights? Mothers and fathers all over our beloved land are spending sleepless nights worrying again over their boys being sent to fight wars on foreign soil—wars that are no concern of ours.” —Letter to the President from the parent of a U.S. soldier

Talk about discouraging. All year long the negative numbers about the war rolled in like the tide. The President’s approval rating in the Gallup poll bottomed out at 23 percent. Another poll showed that 43 percent of Americans thought it was a mistake to have entered the war. The enthusiasm from early victories quickly evaporated.

Opposition party members spared no effort in blasting the President and his Administration. One senator called the Secretary of Defense a “living lie,” and another called for the Secretary’s resignation. The most bombastic senator went so far as to call the Secretary a traitor. Another senator began using the President’s name when referring to the war, and his intention wasn’t to honor the Commander in Chief.

Newspapers and magazines also joined the frenzy. A New York Times editorial characterized the Administration’s war misjudgments “a colossal military blunder.” A front-page editorial in the Chicago Tribune called for immediate impeachment proceedings against the President. Time said he was “responsible for one of the worst military disasters in history.”

The pessimism was not confined to the opposition. Members of the President’s own Administration shared the negative mood. His Secretary of Defense conceded, “We were at our lowest point.” The British Prime Minister believed that the conflict should be abandoned in order to focus resources on protecting Europe. The British leader flew to Washington to lecture the American leader on how to run the conflict after the President performed badly at a news conference.

That president was Harry Truman and the war was in Korea.

http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.18832/article_detail.asphttp://www.michellemalkin.com/

CNN: Clinton: Iraq has abused its last chance
December 16, 1998- From the Oval Office, President Clinton said Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors presented a threat to the entire world.

"Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons," Clinton said.

Clinton also stated that, while other countries also had weapons of mass destruction, Hussein is in a different category because he has used such weapons against his own people and against his neighbors.

...The president said the report handed in Tuesday by Richard Butler, head of the United Nations Special Commission in charge of finding and destroying Iraqi weapons, was stark and sobering. Iraq failed to cooperate with the inspectors and placed new restrictions on them, Clinton said. He said Iraqi officials also destroyed records and moved everything, even the furniture, out of suspected sites before inspectors were allowed in.
"Instead of inspectors disarming Saddam, Saddam has disarmed the inspectors," Clinton said.

...Timing was important, said the president, because without a strong inspection system in place, Iraq could rebuild its chemical, biological and nuclear programs in a matter of months, not years.

"If Saddam can cripple the weapons inspections system and get away with it, he would conclude the international community, led by the United States, has simply lost its will," said Clinton. "He would surmise that he has free rein to rebuild his arsenal of destruction."

Clinton also called Hussein a threat to his people and to the security of the world. "The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government -- a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people," Clinton said. http://www.cnn.com/US/9812/16/clinton.iraq.speech/

Sen. Reid says Alito Fails to Diversify Court
Nov. 16, 2005 -Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday said he has "significant concerns" about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito saying "The appointment of Judge Alito largely fails to diversify the court."
(Excuse me but where is the requirement to diversify the court? How much you want to bet if President Bush had nominated Judge Janice Rogers Brown or a host of other minority canidates Reid would be screeching just as loud)
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/16/110526.shtml

Former GE Chairman: Bush Should Brag About The Economy
Nov. 15, 2005 -Former GE Chairman and business management guru Jack Welch has some advice for President George W. Bush: Start bragging about the economy.

"President Bush put a tax bill through that supported capital formation and risk taking,” Welch said. "We’ve created 2 million jobs a year after the 9/11 attacks. That’s a remarkable accomplishment. Bush has to get out there and talk about it.”

Despite the recent natural disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the U.S. economy continues to grow, and the stock market seems to weather every storm.

Welch has certainly noticed. Most business people have noticed. Investors noticed. But, according to the recent polls – which show the president’s approval rating at its lowest level of his presidency – the majority of Americans have not been persuaded of the "good news economy."

"One in five kids born in the U.S. are going to start their own business,” Welch said. "We are raising entrepreneurs. They want to start their own businesses and now there are tax laws that are in place to encourage them to do it.”

If there are doubters about the success of the U.S. economy, Welch suggested they look overseas – or simply at the TV news – to measure that success.
"Go to France and see the riots in the streets,” Welch said. "They have massive unemployment and rising percentages of non-citizens who can’t find work.

"Our unemployment rate is less than 5 percent after the 9/11 attacks. Bush ought to be standing on a soapbox talking about that accomplishment.”
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/15/164901.shtml

Floor Statement of Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman on Iraq Amendments to the FY06 Defense Authorization Bill
November 15, 2005- ...It is no surprise to my colleagues that I strongly supported the war in Iraq. I was privileged to be the Democratic cosponsor, with the Senator from Virginia, of the authorizing resolution which received overwhelming bipartisan support. As I look back on it and as I follow the debates about prewar intelligence, I have no regrets about having sponsored and supported that resolution because of all the other reasons we had in our national security interest to remove Saddam Hussein from power – a brutal, murdering dictator, an aggressive invader of his neighbors, a supporter of terrorism, a hater of the United States of America. He was, for us, a ticking time bomb that, if we did not remove him, I am convinced would have blown up, metaphorically speaking, in America's face...

...We will come to another day to debate the past of prewar intelligence. But let me say briefly the questions raised in our time are important. The international intelligence community believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction...He would not, in response to one of the 17 U.N. Security Council resolutions that he violated, declare he had eliminated the inventory of weapons of mass destruction that he reported to the U.N. after the end of the gulf war in 1991.

...If we successfully complete our mission, we will have left a country that is self-governing with an open economy, with an opportunity for the people of Iraq to do what they clearly want to do, which is to live a better life, to get a job, to have their kids get a decent education, to live a better life. There seems to be broad consensus on that, and yet the partisanship that characterizes our time here gets in the way of realizing those broadly expressed and shared goals.

...I worry the partisanship of our time has begun to get in the way of the successful completion of our mission in Iraq...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-11_15_05_Lieberman_pf.html

What's inflation?
Nov 16, 2005 by Dr. Walter E. Williams

First, let's decide what is and what is not inflation. One price or several prices rising is not inflation. When there's a general increase in prices, or alternatively, a reduction in the purchasing power of money, there's inflation. But just as in the case of diseases, describing a symptom doesn't necessarily give us a clue to a cause. Nobel Laureate and professor Milton Friedman says, "[I]nflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it cannot occur without a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output." Increases in money supply are what constitute inflation, and a general rise in prices is the symptom.

Let's look at that with a simple example...
complete article at http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams/2005/11/16/175724.html

Is Wal-Mart a Problem?
November 16, 2005 By John Stossel
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-11_16_05_JS.html

State Senator Proposes Pink Tags For DUI
November 16, 2005- A Bay area senator wants Floridians to think pink before they have a drink.

Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has filed a bill that would require "bright pink" license plates on vehicles driven by people with restricted driving privileges resulting from a conviction for driving under the influence.

...If passed, Florida would join Ohio and Michigan as a state with a punitive license plate law for DUI offenders. Many states have considered similar legislation, including Tennessee this year, but most bills have died after debate about privacy issues.

"Pink plates would hold out individuals for punishment as well as ridicule. We are very opposed to it," said Larry Spalding, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Florida.

...The Ohio General Assembly passed the license law in 1967. But issuance of the plates has increased dramatically in the past two years after lawmakers approved the tags for two-time offenders, Stratmann said. Before 2003, the plates were issued only to people with five or more convictions.

Florida made national headlines about 20 years ago when Sarasota County judges ordered convicted DUI offenders to place bright red bumper stickers on their vehicles as a term of their probation. The stickers read "Convicted DUI, Restricted License."

"The number of DUI arrests in Sarasota went way down after we started this," Titus said Monday. "First-time offenders had told us that the worst part of their DUI experience was their names appearing in the newspaper, and that led us to decide to use the bumper sticker as a roving advertisement against DUI ... to get people to worry about it happening to them."
http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBLB8IQ1GE.html