The Jokes have Started for Tiger

 The Jokes have started.

 

Let the fun begin…

 

 

1.  Did you know Tiger isn’t a Tiger anymore? Yeah, now he’s a cheetah!

2.  It was just reported that Phil Mickelson contacted Tiger's wife to pick up some tips on how to beat Tiger!

3.  Apparently the police asked Tiger's wife how many times she hit him. She said "I don't know exactly… but put me down for a 5."

4.  Tiger Woods is so rich that he owns lots of expensive cars. Now he has a hole-in-one.

5.  What's the difference between a car and a golf ball?  Tiger can drive a ball 400 yards…

6.  What were Tiger Woods and his wife doing out at 2.30 in the morning? They went clubbing.

7.  Tiger Woods crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree. He couldn't decide between a wood and an iron.

8.  When asked if his wife struck him, he said " nah, she was just teed off and I was the tee.

 

And the beat goes on…..

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Our Current Attorney General is a politician and a confirmed IDIOT

The current Attorney General of the United States is a guy named Eric Holder. He was appointed by President Obama, he is the 82^nd person to hold this job in America and is the first black man to do so.

The appointment is a political appointment, meaning that the person who holds this office is not hired, he is nominated by the current President and then confirmed by the United States Senate. He serves at the President’s pleasure, meaning that he can be fired by the President as well. He can also be impeached by the House of Representatives. He is a member of the President’s cabinet , but is I think the only one not holding the title of Secretary in the cabinet, currently. He seems to be generally a pretty smart guy, who looks likeable enough and is generally well spoken and articulate to some extent (He says Ah a lot, but may just be thinking, I don’t know.). He also appears to be well trained, is a working lawyer to the extent that a politician ever is a working anything, and is at least as informed as you would imagine, living and working in Washington DC.

Here is my problem with him, and why I think he is an idiot of the first degree.

He makes extremely bad, horrifically stupid asinine decisions that make no sense and he uses wavy backtracking butt sliding logic to explain it, as evidenced by the latest one to surface. And on this one he did not even consult with the President of the United States of America before making it. How important does the content and context of an issue have to be before it makes it onto this presidents radar screen? I am stunned that Obama never signed off on this before the announcement, and has really had no opinion since, except to express confidence in the Attorney General.

This kind of stupidity , ladies and gentlemen, is what got elected.

Yes we can (look like morons)

Yes we can (make stupid decisions)

Yes we can (screw up as bad as John Ashcroft did)

Oh hell yeah, YES WE CAN.

He is going to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (“KSM”), in a civilian , federal court for his part in 9-11 and the attacks on the United States.

Who is KSM do you say? Three links you may want to review to answer that question.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1114/p90s01-usju.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_Sheikh_Mohammed

http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/khalid_shaikh_mohammed.htm

Here is a very good article in the Wall Street Journal about it.

You just have to click this one and read all about it. Click here, go ahead click it.

Eric Holder's Baffling KSM Decision

Pardon me, I have a question that I am sure anybody who knows enough about this to be in disagreement with me will also have to consider.

Just how in the hell does he propose to do that ?

For my two cents, I think that any decent defense attorney would be crapping all over himself to get this one.

Will this terrorist be given some kind of special status that does not yet exist for a criminal suspect?

· He is not an American citizen. What will his immigration status be?

· Will he be given the same rights, privileges and treatment that any other person charged with a federal felony would be given ?

· Could he be found not guilty and be let go? And if not, and he is found not guilty, how are they going to proceed criminally, with a case that began on a battlefield?

As to trial rules and procedures, will he be looked at the same way a federal judge would look at a case involving you or I?

· Was he read his rights?

· Was he denied a lawyer ? Was he told he had a right to an attorney?

· Was he told he had the right to keep silent?

· Was he told he has the right to a speedy trial?

· Will the evidence against him be exposed to the same methods and procedures that evidence is exposed to currently?

o Meaning will collection procedures be questioned?

o Will the defense have access to the stuff no one currently knows about? You know what I mean, the stuff being locked away by the CIA or carried around in the special briefcase by Super Secret Squirrel.

As to his detention and the interrogations he has had

· How can this information be used as evidence in a federal court if there are any of the issues in evidence as I’ve asked above?

· Is any statement he has made legally excluded because he wasn’t “mirandized”

· How are they going to keep “Secrets”, secret ?

And so on and so forth. How is this going to comport with the rule of Law in our country ?

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

WHAT THE HELL ?

They are going to have a trial under these rules , with these restrictions and these guarantees for this murdering , lying, terrorist bastard ?

This is why I think this guy is an idiot and is why I am pissed off about it.

It seems to me that any decent defense attorney who regularly gets pimps, pushers and murderer’s off by attacking trial and arrest procedure would have a field day with this one.

He can’t even explain himself. He can’t answer simple questions about it.

Hell, I’m not an attorney, with no legal training at all (unless you count thousands of hours of Law and Order and CSI as training.”), and I think these issues are kind of self evident don’t you?

How are they going to throw out the rules of law, evidence, conduct and charge and constitute an court to make this work without having the verdicts set aside upon review.

I just do not understand. This is pretty disingenuous and is dangerous precedent and is wrong and stupid and political. Not one thing about this sets right with me.

I have given him a new title. Instead of Attorney General , Chief Law Enforcement officer of the United States of America, he is now just Private Putz, attorney at law.

Reading the latest news about it, not one actual reporter has asked these questions.

The talking heads have repeated the news of his decision, yet not one has asked “How is this going to work?”

Seems like they would want to know.

I’m curious why they don’t.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Stay informed even if you do not agree ! (PS- Eric Holder is an idiot !)

I know I hold a conservative viewpoint and will never apologize for that. You may feel free to disagree with me however in the interest of fairness and in providing full disclosure, I did vote in the last election, did not vote for Barack Obama and still do not think him qualified to be President. He ran a better campaign than the Republicans and won the election , but that still doesn’t make him a leader that inspires my confidence.

Having said that, I’m also not a fan of Janet Reno, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales and the current one, Eric Holder. I think Michael Mukasey (11/2007 to 01/2009) was ok, but he wasn’t there very long.

My problem with our current Attorney general is that he appears to be a mealy mouthed, double talking , lawyer who looks to be in over his head and has self-confidence issues. There are a ton of videos of him out there already, take a look at the following and tell me what you think.

Here are 2 very good videos of Sen. Lindsey Graham, absolutely destroying Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the US, and all he did was ask a couple of questions. Another great example of how badly this is being handled by the Democrats. This guy looks and sounds pathetic, and he is the nation’s top lawyer. I am unimpressed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9bbjBfKJL0

and during Eric Holders confirmation hearing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjjBz4lKedU

There are also lots and lots of Blogs and articles being written about Politics and specifically about Sarah Palin.

Check these two out.

This one is very, very good and very informative.

Be sure to check this one out.

http://thespeechatimeforchoosing.wordpress.com

This one is kind of self serving but makes a lot of spot on good points.

I think it is best to be informed even if you don’t agree don’t you?

http://sarahs-accomplishments.blogspot.com

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Something to consider about Sarah Palin

I didn’t write this, It was sent to me.

Something more to consider.

-Bigmike

By Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman.

As posted in comments on Greta's article referencing the MOVEON ad about Sarah Palin.

Read more about Dewie at :

http://marionsword.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1B80DAF0A76159D5!451.entry

http://barbaricthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/alaskan-fisherman.html

http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:653166773dc88127bd3afe0b6dfe5ea7:9ae919e23694ad6fc72e7eb3056bc894

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/an-alaskan-fisherman-talks-about-sarah-palin/blog-148707/

The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about to mention here.

Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits. The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti and singing, "la la la la" (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar.

Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect the huge, giant oil companies here. Therefore, she constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called "ACES." Exxon (the biggest corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them, "don't let the door hit you in the stern on your way out." They stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course, the other huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar.

The other thing she did when she walked into the governor's office is she got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as "pork." She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the "when-hell-freezes-over" stack. She let locals know that if we need something built, we'll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling the previous governor's jet because it was extravagant. Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor's cook (remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning - I imagine - that she's packing heat herself). I'm still waiting to hear the names of those other governors.

Now, even with her much-ridiculed "gosh and golly" mannerism, she also managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If that doesn't impress you, then you're trying too hard to be unimpressed while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies with her other hand.

For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn't start drilling. In truth, they were holding it like an investment. No governor for 30 years could make them get started... This summer, she told them she was revoking their lease and kicking them out. They protested and threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the way to the courthouse. Alaska won again.

President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan for Alaska to be at 50% renewable by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona. Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, and look cool. However, that's just a cover-up. I'm still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won't be holding my breath.

By the way, she was content to return to AK after the national election and go to work, but the haters wouldn't let her. Now these adolescent screechers are obviously not scuba divers. In addition, no one ever told them what happens when you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin around and tear your face off.

Shoulda known better.

You have just read the truth about Sarah Palin that sends the media, along with the democrat party, into a wild uncontrolled frenzy to discredit her. I guess they are only interested in skirt chasers, dishonesty, immoral people, liars, womanizers, murderers, and bitter ex-presidents' wives.

Therefore "You go, Girl." I only wish the men in Washington had your guts, determination, honesty, and morals. I rest my case.

Only FOOLS listen to the biased media.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

The Sarah Palin Buzz (or return of the hockey Mom !)

Hey guess what ? More non-news !

Sarah Palin has wrote a book.

OK. Lots of books every year.

She is going around promoting it.

OK. Lots of writers promote books.

The goofy liberals and hard core conservatives are both going nuts chompin at the bit trying to see who can bash her the hardest and the longest and get the most hateful comments out in record time because they really don't like this woman. I mean they (both sides) are expending huge amounts of political capital, doing all they can to discredit her and shut her down.

Newsweek went out and "found" (bought) an irrelevant photo of her in running shorts for its cover. They were not being sexist though. All that thigh on the front cover isn't sexist. It is normal for a politician (or ex-politician, whatever) to have pictures like this one on the front cover. They were just using the most interesting picture available. Oh Yeah ? When is the last time you can remember this BS being done to a man? or a Democrat? or a female Democrat? Lord knows Hillary has never done anything or said anything that may warrant such treatment.

Who you kiddin? The picture originally went on the cover of a running magazine. Hence the running shorts. What does the running shorts have to do with Sarah Palin in the context of VP Nominee, ex-Governor Of Alaska, Book author? Not a damn thing.

Sex sells. Cheap sex sells better.

hahahahahahahahaha. Yeah, right. What a load. This is so stupid it makes me giggle.

ROTFLMMFAO !!!

You know what they don't really like about her? (and in the interest of full dsiclosure, I didn't vote for her either). She speaks plain old fractured english , just like a regular american , and nothing like the political doublethunk, doublespeak that every other politician speaks. It scares the hell out of them, because what she says, gets heard and remembered. Classic pavlovian response.

Think about it all you Palin hatin , Bush Bashin, Obama lovers. When is the last time you can remember a politician saying something from the heart, that they meant, that you can remember without looking it up on youtube, and it has nothing to do with campaign slogans or inauguration speeches?

See, the truth is you remember "Hockey mom". You remember , "You betcha".

I might be misremembering this as good old "W" would say, but I think the best you can do is " Now , Listen to me, I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Then again you are probably going to remember "Read my Lips, No new taxes!" and about 750 things GWB screwed up, but nothing substantial from anyone else, until you get back to the '60's.

That's ironic and hysterical at the same time.

I will bet you one thing though. I will bet that Sarah Palin sells more books than Obamalama did in two books, and , they will be more fun to read. His books (and Bills and Hillarys books) all sucked.

God it is a good time to be a satirist.

Anybody got a cigar I can borrow?

Thankx for reading my Rant !!



-BigMike

Windows 7 upgrade version: The dos and don'ts

Windows 7 upgrade version: The dos and don'ts

(Click here for the story at http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10388567-56.html)

From C-net magazine

Here’s a big one.

Don’t.

· Don’t install it.

· Don’t buy it.

· Don’t try it.

· Don’t bother.

If whatever you have right now is working for you, keep it and save your money.

Spare yourself the frustration , the aggravation and the hassle.

Microsoft has never introduced an operating system that has worked the way it was promised right out of the box.

· Didn’t happen with 3.0

· Didn’t happen with 3.11 -wfw

· Didn’t happen with Win 95 (crashed at the opening demo with Bill gates on live TV)

· Didn’t happen with Win 98

· Didn’t happen with 98 SE

· Didn’t happen with ME

· Didn’t happen with NT

· Didn’t happen with 2000

· Didn’t happen with XP

And we all know what happened at the release of Vista.

There is no reason to think they will be any better at fulfilling this promise with their newest offering either.

If they were any good at new products there would not be some 2 gazillion-billion knowledge base articles about how to fix the OS.

Do this.

Wait.

· Wait for the dust to settle down.

· Wait for the bugs to work out.

· Wait for the install failures to be fixed.

· Wait for the inevitable Service pack to fix whatever it not right.

· Wait for the hubbub to die down so the truth gets exposed.

A few months from now all the bugs will be out in the open, they will have released a slew of patches and then it will be ready for you to own.

Not one day before that.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

23 College Presidents make more tha 1 $ Million dollars

It is no wonder that tuiton costs so much today.

All the BS and the garbage they tell you about what it costs to educate a child (or yourself for that matter) all boils down to this :

Its about money.

Money for college presidents.
Money for patents.
Money for research to sell the patents.
Money for athletics.

It ain't about our future.
It ain't about education.
It ain't about society.

If it was it would not be about money, it would be about a quality education.

Whatever.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Thomas Paine's American Revolution

 

Here is a video every American should watch, whether you agree with it or not.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Now What ?

Now what ?

A vacation in an alternate universe

 

The man in the bed was a constant dreamer. He lived to daydream and ponder and could often be found with his head in the clouds , having no connection to his surroundings for hours on end. Today was no exception. He was frequently confused. After all, he was a man.

 

As the light came streaming through the front window, the sun hit him in the face and set off the inevitable but very slow waking process common in humans, he was in the last bit of a very exciting dream. "Shift, shift, make the turn, outrun the Russians !! "He was Jason Bourne in this one and it started to fade. Once eye clicked open, the other one stuck closed with what felt like a tasty jelly. All at once he sat straight up in bed "What the Hell", he exclaimed and then little by little his consciousness returned. The dream slowly began to fade. He blinked a few times, coughed, and then scratched. A primal stretch came over his body. He looked around the bedroom in the dim morning light. There to the right just as he had imagined, was a clock radio he couldn't place. Looking left he saw a nightstand he knew he had never saw before. A trash can with a big liquor bottle and fast food trash overflowing in one corner, a tiny refrigerator in the other. Cheesy curtains and a generic TV nightstand combo in front of him. "This blanket is strange, the pillows are different, this bed is all wrong", he thought. His mouth tasted like the bottom of a trashcan.

 

Today, started out like no other day, he thought,  as it slowly began to come into focus and dawn on his conscious being.

 

"I am ", he thought" in a strange bedroom, I've never seen before". He decided to investigate. Birds chirping in the background. Dogs barking in the distance. The roar and rumble of cars and trucks barely heard over the din of the TV. Throwing the blanket back, he looked out the front bedroom window. "How curious, I don't recognize a thing I am looking at", he pondered. "Ah, there is my car, down there in a parking lot". A view off in the distance of the Ocean, a big stretch of white sandy beach with a few early morning sun worshippers walking by the water. He looked down with his one good bleary blood-shot eye and realized he was stark naked. "Why do I have lipstick smeared all over my chest, and where did these scratches come from?", he was beside himself with no answers to all the questions. "Did he meet a girl and come back to her place? "Oh man, I have to figure this out and come up with some kind of good believable story to cover it, my wife is going to be pissed if she finds out about this one !"

 

He decided to look around this curious room and try to figure out where he was. Padding on bare feet , he went into the bathroom. "This just keeps getting weirder", he thought. Towels, washcloths, and clothes dotted the floor. Two Newspapers stacked on the floor next to the toilet. A couple of magazines were laying next to the Television. He noted a whipped cream can and a produce bag on the floor. Strawberries, bananas and cucumbers were in the refrigerator. The sink in the bathroom smelled like a horse farm. His clothes were strewn all over the room , battered about like he had taken them off in a strong windstorm. A bra and a swimming suit were hanging in the bathtub. "What did I do yesterday", he wondered. "How in the hell did I end up here?" "I wonder how much trouble I am in this time?", these thoughts started tumbling through his head, raging as a wildfire. The closet in the corner had his clothes, two suitcases and some female garments in it. The was all kinds of girl junk in the bathroom with lotions, crèmes, makeup's hair products, sunscreen, insect repellant and various other bottles of female goop.

 

One razor with one can of shaving cream looked to be the male contribution.

 

He started to imagine a scenario where he had spent the night drinking and chasing women. Maybe he had met up with a friendly girl, who had put him up for the evening. "I wonder if I will see her again?", he pondered. "When I do , will I know what she looks like?", "Will she recognize me?", "Why does my mouth taste this bad?" Just them the lock on the door started to rattle, he panicked. He was naked and somebody was coming in. He jumped out of bed and started looking for his clothes.

 

Just as he was pulling up his underwear, She entered the room. "Morning honey", she said. "I have breakfast from the Mickey D's across the lot., How did you sleep ?"

 

He was confused. His wife ? Mickey D's? across the lot ? Oh hell,  wait a minute",  he thought "Ocean?, I live 500 miles from the Ocean. Where the hell am I?, what is going on?", man now he was worried. "What did we do with whipped cream and produce?". His mouth tasted like he licked an ashtray and swallowed the butts. He didn't smoke. Did he travel in time and space? Was he in an alternate universe? He knew he had to answer and try to make a little sense. She couldn't know he had no clue where he was or if this was real. "Hi honey", he said, I slept pretty good , I guess". She smiled and said "Well get up and have some coffee and eat your breakfast and we'll go take a swim in the Ocean, and don't waste a lot of time getting going either, because I want to lay in the sun before it gets too hot. Remember you only got 5 days for this vacation, and even though this is just a Motel 6, I want to get as much out of these 5 days as I can."

 

He knew then that he was in an alternate universe, OR maybe it is possible he thought,that he should not have put the big bottle of Jack Daniels up in the front seat of the car with him as she was driving down here. Long trips had always made him nervous. She was a very bad driver.

 

Today, started out like no other day alright.

 

"But why, " he thought, "Does my mouth taste like the bottom of a trashcan, and what the hell was the produce for?"

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant , ...er, ah, story ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

 

How to solve any State or Federal Budget crisis - Easy as Apple Pie

 

I listen to politicians and pundits go on and on forever about how the government is going to solve the current  budget crisis of mammoth proportions because the economy is down, revenues are down etc etc. I don't think any of these people we elected have a clue , and if they were on Wheel of Fortune, they would buy a Z and call it a vowel. Listen it is not that hard. The main problem is that they (politicians and the like) do not think of the Budget or Revenue as real money. To you and to me, when we talk about our household budget, we are talking about the money we earn from a paycheck and it is real , it is tangible and it has a beginning and an end point. We start off with no money. We earn money from work. We spend money paying bills. What is left over (if any) is a surplus, if none is left over, we are overdrawn and we owe the bank money.

 

The reason we can afford to think this simply is because it is not difficult to understand and it is real and it is effective to do it this way.

 

It actually is that simple.

 

Spend money you do not have and it is either credit (as in credit cards) or it is theft. Spend money from your bank account that you don't have in the bank and see what the bank brings charges against you for. Very easy to explain, very easy to understand. Real worry and real Pain happens when you do not have the money to pay the light bill or do not have money for groceries and you will get sued if you do not pay for the credit card. Trust me.

 

If you borrow more money to cover a shortfall this year, payments to cover this loan increase in future years. This debt increase may solve it this year, but will make it worse in future years as the payments towards the debt increase.  This is much the same as running up a big credit card balance. Using a credit card may help you now, but later on when you have to start paying for it, you have to use real money to cover the expense. If you raise taxes to cover a shortfall in revenue, the folks who pay the taxes make reductions in other areas because it is real money and there is only so much of it to go around. The way we treat it is , if you raise my taxes, I take less of a vacation (for example) and your revenues from vacationers is less because I had less to spend, and I had to make a reduction somewhere. There is a defined amount of money to spend. This is what is known as the self-fulfilling prophecy. You make me pay more, therefore I have less to spend so therefore I spend less and you (the Government) still have less money to work with and the problem is not any smaller, it is just paid a different way.

 

Simple huh? I think if I can figure this out and you can understand it, then anybody can. I also think this is what average people do every day when managing real money.They need to treat the budget just like you and I do. They need to treat it like real money and they don't. They forgot that every dime they spend comes from you and me to begin with.

 

The Politicians would have you believe that it is a whole lot more complex than I've explained. The problem (at least at the Federal level) is if you run out of money, you either borrow more or you print more. At the State level you either borrow more or you try to raise taxes to cover the costs or you try to adjust the money you spend to meet the expected level of revenue. In all cases , they forgot to treat money coming in as real dollars and cents. Here is why none of the three things mentioned above actually work. It seems as if it does because of bookkeeping but it really doesn't because the issue never goes away and we keep hearing about it year after year. Using any or all of these methods just extends the problem into the future. 

 

If you are the Federal government and you decide that you need more money and you decide to print more to increase the supply, it makes the problem worse immediately on two levels. First because the money supply is larger, every dollar in that supply is worth a smaller amount. Read this simple fraction explanation and you'll see what I mean. If you have one (1) of something and there is five (5) of them overall, then you have one-fifth of the overall supply. If you have one (1)  of something and there is six (6) of them in the overall supply, then you have one sixth of the total supply. The amount you control is worth an amount smaller in the overall supply. When you hear about the cost of the dollar or how the dollar rates against a foreign currency, this is what they are talking about. Importing goods costs more because you have to use more of your money to pay for it. Second, because the value of the money you control is worth a smaller amount, you have to spend more of it to purchase goods and services. This is because businesses raise prices to be able to retain the same amount they are used to in order to make a profit at the level they need to continue to do business. This is called inflation. When you hear someone talk about "Buying Power" of money, this is what they are talking about.

 

The next thing they always try seems pretty logical, yet really is not a viable solution because it never takes fixed costs into account properly and it over values items which we cannot afford based on the revenues we have to work with. Certain things in any government budget just won't go down all that much when trying to reduce expenses by making cuts across the board. Things like the costs of housing prisoners cannot really be reduced. What are you going to do, Have less guards, or have less prisons to house the same number of prisoners? It is a silly proposition and it never works. Ever.

 

First, If the President or a Governor says to his staff "Reduce expenses by Ten Percent (10 %) in every department", they may make some changes, however they will never really make substantial change because they do not really control the purse strings. It sounds good on the News or in the newspaper, but makes very little difference because nothing is ever eliminated from the budget. You just end up with the same things at a smaller level.

 

Second, The Legislatures (or Congress) controls what is spent by appropriating funds to programs. If the head of State (The Governor or President for example) makes too many changes they then just re-write the legislation to make it a law to be enforced by the courts or take it away from the Head of Governments control. This is due to the influence afforded selected groups of people routinely called "special interests". You then run into the NIMBY effect. Everybody thinks we need a new prison or a new waste dump, as long as its NOT In My BackYard.

 

We would never have to cut the number of teachers, fire policemen, close fire stations or provide less Children's services if they had the guts to do one one thing right.

 

Every item in every budget should be assigned a priority in the budget just like you and I do. If we have less money, what do we do? We go to the movies less, We spend less money at Christmas, We take less expensive vacations, we buy cheaper goods instead of expensive ones. We don't reduce our spending across the board by ten percent, we eliminate expenses we cannot afford until we spend the required amount less. Here is what they ought to do , yet never will do, because of the influence of "Special Interests".

 

Lets say there are 2000 (two thousand) items in a State (or any Government) budget. There is probably more but lets say it is 2000. Put the highest priority items at the top and start with Number One (1) and then prioritize and number every one of them until everything in the budget is on the list, numbered One (1) through Two Thousand (2000) . Along with each item, list the cost of each item next to it. Now put the accountants to work and figure out how much real money we have coming in as close as we can figure it. Classify every budget expense as one of three things. One is a need (absolutely must have), next is a desire ( just would like to have), next is a want (Would like but could do without). Cut all wants first. If that is not enough, cut out the desires. If it gets bad enough, then you have to cut needs. If you absolutely must have all the needs, then you can raise taxes. Adjust each line item to the level on what is left to levels we can afford and if that is not enough, start with the last item on the list and eliminate it. Keep eliminating until you have your expenses at the same level as revenue. Understand , if we do this, we are going to eliminate things that would be nice to have, but cannot at this time afford to have. We may not be able to give block grants to build a new park or have some arcane study done concerning some state insect , but we would have teachers and etc at the level we have to have. I suspect if politicians would do this , we would never lay off a teacher or a firefighter or a Police Officer ever again. I also think if they would look at it like this, we wouldn't mind paying a little more in taxes, because we would know why it is necessary to raise them.

 

Politicians will never do this because they have forgot that their job is to represent us and not to do things that will ensure that they will get elected in the next election.

 

What do you think ?

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

 

What's the big fat hairy deal about a guy, his wife and their eight kids anyway?

 

Hey man, I seem have a hard time understanding a lot of things.

 

I mean I get the facts of a situation, sometimes though , no matter how hard I try, I just don't and can't get the why.

 

Here's what I mean.

 

You ever watch Cops?

 

Is it just me or does the crook NEVER get away? My question is then, "Why do they run?", I mean do they think they are going to be faster than the radio and the helicopter? Are they going to be the first ones this year to successfully elude the police, baggy pants and all? Why didn't somebody tell them they needed to watch this show. I mean If you are a criminal or have criminal tendencies, you need to know that most of the time (what?? 95 %) When the cops start chasing you, you ain't getting away. Factually they probably know they can't get away, yet when faced with capture, they run? This is the part I don't get. All that is going to happen is not only will you be arrested, you will also be hot, tired and sweaty in the back seat of the car.

 

Is it worth all that ?

 

I think not.

 

So I get the fact that there is a TV show about a Guy and His wife and their 8 (Eight) kids. It is your not so basic Reality TV show and it is goofy as hell. Supposedly 9.8 million viewers tuned in last week (http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/jon-and-kate/jon-and-kate.html) because they are having marital issues and the burning questions in life are are all centered around are they going to stay together? Who is having an affair? Is he really a wus? Is she really a shrew? and so forth and so on until I want to puke......arrrrgghhh!!!

 

A couple of years ago my wife and I had :

 

Me, my wife, 2 Daughters, 2 Sons, 1 Son in Law, I Grandson, 2 dogs and 4 cats under one roof in one 5 bedroom house + also various friends of one of my sons for various lengths of time.

 

It was kind of like ME and HER Plus Twelve (sometimes Thirteen) !

 

So I get the fact that lots of folks are watching this show. OK, so many of you tune into this dramarama and live vicariously through the wickedness of the wife on this show and wish you could beat the crap out of your husband verbally, every day all day long like she does. The men , if any, who watch this are just clueless morons, who go though life saying Yes Dear at every opportunity, trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

 

What I don't get is the why? Why is this worthy of your time. Why do you care and what makes you want to know more every week?

 

That is what I don't get.

 

I would have already probably have been divorced, and been in jail because I would have smacked Dr. Phil in the mouth for talking trash to me about leaving this insanity, once I had divorced her.

 

Oh well. Can you imagine what the child support obligation would be? It would be cheaper to marry her lawyer, I think.

 

It had to have went something like this for the poor schmuck who is the Dad on this show when he was younger:

 

1.    See Hot Chick

2.    Date Hot Chick

3.    Make Hot Chick like me.

4.    Get Hot Chick to have sex with me (Dang , she won't do it without a wedding ring).

5.    Marry Hot chick so she will have sex with me.

6.    Hot chick gets pregnant.

7.    Oh crap, its eight babies. Are you friggin kiddin me? What the hell am I gonna do now?

8.    I know, start a TV show. That'll at least pay the friggin diaper bills.

 

 

Whatever.

 

Empty nesting looks pretty good right now I gotta tell ya !

 

Cue the credits, laugh until sides hurt, fade to black.

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

 

Fox TV cancelled another good show, I am not surprised

Wrote this to Fox Television concerning the cancellation of Terminator : the Sarah Conner Chronicles. I know it won't do any good, but at least I get to vent.

 

If you like you can comment to them at askfox@fox.com

 

-bigmike

 

Fox,

 

I understand you cancelled this show (Terminator : the Sarah Conner Chronicles). I do not hold out any hope you will re-think it, rebrand it or sell it to another network. We only watch a couple of your shows anyway because most of them are crap. With most of them, when your promo comes on I cannot get to the mute button fast enough while I look for something else to watch. Seems like every time you have a good show or the potential for one you figure out a way to screw it up. My opinion? Bad move on your part. Only 5 million viewers? Give me a break, this has nothing to with ratings. This is just a money move, which no viewer respects nor cares about. We could care less that you could not figure out how to finance it, promote it or contain the costs. This was just dumb and is another dumb move in a long line of dumb moves that your programming continues to exhibit.

 

Instead of giving us pretty good TV to replace it with, you decide to go with more reality junk, which is cheaper to make? Whatever. I am stunned at how bad your schedule is and insulted at what you call good TV.

 

I'll still watch the shows that I like that are on FOX (House, Bones, Fringe, Family Guy) but the hour you opened up by cancelling Terminator is going to be taken up in my household by another network, as we can't stand the celebrity cooking,  reality , animation tripe you call programming. It just goes to show me that you guys are out of touch and do not understand the DVR/TiVo owning viewing public. This is another downhill FOX don't matter anymore move as far as I am concerned.

 

For whatever it is worth, here is our take of your shows in our house:

 

• Are you smarter than a 5th grader? Good for one show novelty and then boring. Dumb show. Foxworthy is good but the show sucks.
• Bones? Great show. We watch this one.
• The Cleveland Show? You are kidding right? NO way. A boring character with his own show. I smell flop. Immediately and painful. Junk.
• Cops? Only when nothing else interesting is on, and then can't watch a whole episode.
• Dollhouse? No thank you. Junk.
• Don't forget the lyrics? I forgot to watch. Junk. Insulting.
• Family Guy? Irreverent and funny. Watch every so often.
• Fringe? Great show. Watch every week. Take this one away and lose another hour in my household.
• Glee? This has to be the goofiest concept ever. You actually think this is what we want? I hope this one dies quickly.
• Hells Kitchen? I wish I knew this "chef", what's his name, so I could smack him in the mouth. If he talked to me like he does to those idiots he insults, I'd cut him with one of his own knives. What a crappy show. This could be called dereliction of programming. Cannot express adequately how much we dislike this guy, his show(s) and we would never eat at one of his restaurants.
• Hole in the wall? Hole in the schedule. No friggin way.
• House? Best show on TV. Can't wait to see how you eventually screw this one up.
• King of the Hill? Must be a small hill. Glad its gone.
• Kitchen Nightmares? See Hells kitchen. I can't hate this guy enough. A re-run of Gunsmoke would be better.
• Lie to me? You ALREADY did when you said this was actually a TV show. JUNK. CRAP. USELESS.
• Mad TV ? When I was 12 maybe.
• Mental? You already are because you think this is good TV.
• The Moment of Truth?, Uh, No. Maybe you should Lie to me.
• Osbournes re-loaded? Amazingly bad. A real stinker. Better than a test pattern and that's all.
• Prison Break? Uggh. Couldn't care less. Wish they would get shot.
• Secret Millionaire? Secret garbage television. Sponsors really give you money for ad time for this crap?
• Sit down, Shut Up? ...and go away. Fast.
• Terminator? You cancelled it, was good TV and you decided that two kitchen shows were better. Who's running this network? Are monkeys throwing darts at a board?
• TalkShow? See Sit Down and Shut Up.
• 'til Death. Hopefully soon.

 

Your new shows?

• Brothers? You are mental. More crap.
• Human Target. Maybe. Wait and see.
• More to Love? No. There isn't.
• Past Life? maybe. Time will tell. Hope it is better than the promos. Probably not.
• Sons of Tucson ? Maybe a show about Hells angels would be better, got to be funnier.
• Wanda Sykes? Maybe. Only if she is funny. That only happens every so often. Probably not.

 

Your continuing series?

• American Idol ? Only if Simon Cowell were to die (or leave the show). Fat chance. Can't help it the lemmings love this one. Makes no sense. Otherwise we can't stand it.
• American Dad? How much animation do you think we can take ? NO.
• Americas most wanted? Occasionally. See Cops.
• So you think you can dance? So you think you can program? Uuugghh. Looks bad, smells bad, tastes bad, Is bad.

and as Far as 24 goes- Never watched one minute. Tripe, junk, stupid premise. Total turn off.

 

Anyway, you used to get 5 hours a week or so in my house and now you get no more than 4, because the rest of your schedule is drivel and is painful to watch and is money based (what it costs to produce) versus what is good to watch.

 

Obviously you don't care, so its a good thing I at least get to vent in email format.

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.