Thursday, April 10, 2014

A few days ago I read a brief story in the TCPalm about a seven year old youngster named Ethan Hendon. It seems that Ethan was born with a heart defect, and though he has had several operations and received vitally needed care, he is now at the point that he needs a heart transplant.  Again, he is just seven years old. The story made me think, not just about Ethan's precious life, but about our country and ourselves.  So, it brought to mind foreign aid.  This is money that we basically jusy give away, mostly to countries that don't need it and hate our American guts.  Take a guess at how much of our tax dollars we send away.  Go ahead.

Now I'll get back to that, but let's think about the Ethan's of our country.  This young boy's family could be facing medical bills of $1,000,000.  Think about that.  Where does the money go?  Well, you have to make lots of $ if you are a doctor because you have school loans, malpractice insurance, and so on.  Nurses, aides, medicine, etc.  And if it's a private hospital you have to feed the bottom line.  So it adds up.  I got it. So, a million dollars is the price to save this young boy's precious life.  That the price of his life.

Now back to what we throw away.  It's over $37,000,000,000.  That's thirty-seven billion dollars.  That one million to save poor Ethan is .00002703% of the foreign aid we piss away.  Sorry for the term, but this stuff makes me angry, and it should make you angry, too.  That's our money.  Shouldn't we be spending it on AMERICANS?

Check out Ethan's story and his picture here: file:///C:/Users/Owner/Desktop/Vero%20Beach%20boy,%207,%20in%20need%20of%20heart%20transplant%20%C2%BB%20TCPalm.com.htm

According to the story you can donate to:
Mail: Send to Children’s Organ Transplant Association, 2501 West COTA Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403. All donations are tax-deductible. Checks should be made payable to Children’s Organ Transplant Association with “In Honor of Team Ethan H” written on the memo line.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Ode to Warren Buffett

The odds were long
The brackets were tough
But I thought I knew
A lot about the stuff

What would I do
With all that money
A billion buys
Lots of milk and honey

So I'd buy
A fancy Land Rover
And take a trip
To the cliffs of Dover

Then I'd buy a house
With lots of land
Some where on the beach
Surrounded by sand

I'd buy my girls
Lots of bling
And for my wife
A 20 carat diamond ring

Maybe buy myself
A baseball team
I'd bat lead off
Livin' the dream

Yes a billion
Goes a long way
I could spend a million
Just about every day

But here's the thing
You got to play to win
So I made my picks
And gave it a spin

Then they played
I picked Duke
When I saw the score
I wanted to puke

Good bye house
And fancy cars
And living life
Like those Hollywood stars

But I'm still happy
Cause like Ben Franklin said
I'm still here
I ain't dead

So thanks Mr. B
You can keep your cash
Keep on keepin' large
Counting your stash

Nobody won
That's no shock
You had it all along
It was a lock

The odds it seems
Were trillions to one
But what the heck
It was still lots of fun!







Friday, March 21, 2014

So I haven't been back for a while, but lately my mind has turned toward 2016.  Yes, the next election.  I don't think James Madison or George Washington or Abraham Lincoln will be on the ballot, and probably not John Quincy Adams or FDR.  We just don't have those types of leaders any more, or for that matter those kinds of brilliant political thinkers.  So, what will we get?  Or better yet, what do we need?  It came to mind that what we need is Vladimir Putin!!!  What?  Yep, Mr. KGB himself.  The Crimea land grabber. No, I'm not kidding.  I was having a discussion with my neighbor the other day and we hit on one important aspect of the Crimea showdown.  Well, not exactly a showdown or a standoff.  More like what a real leader does, not what we presently have in the White House.  I don't mean we need a Russian agent, but what we do need is strong leadership.  Let's remember, Putin came to power in a Russia that was down on it's knees. He knew that the only way to bring it back was to act without fear.  He could care less what the rest of the world thinks.  He has done what he thinks, and knows, his people want.  The Crimea's population is vastly of Russian ancestry, they think Russian, call themselves Russian.  They were in no mood for Western democracy.  The "revolution" in the Ukraine was not to their liking.  Putin merely took advantage of the situation, "protecting" the pro-Russian population.  Now, let's go back in history a bit.  You may claim that Hitler entered Austria under the same disguise of protecting the German heritage of the population.  Okay, fair enough.  Back further.  Texas.  Do you know why I mention Texas?  We, that is the US, land grabbed Texas from Mexico to protect the so called Americans.  Andrew Jackson disregarded orders and land grabbed Florida from Spain.    Ancient history.  Hey some might say that Lincoln land grabbed the Confederacy, but that's another story all together.  But you have to give props to Putin since his land grab was done without a single dead body, or at least as far as we know.

Now, what might we do to punish the Russians?  Hey, I have an idea!  Let's go to Alaska and grab it from...oh, never mind.

It's just plain silly to think that Putin cares one iota what sanctions are leveled against him and his country. He knows that Europe depends on Russia for raw materials.  He was smart enough to land grab to the west.
Don't go east Vlad, that's China over there and among other things you don't want to steal from the Chinese.

So, except for the need for new maps, does it make much of a difference that Crimea is now part of Russia? He faced down the rest of the world and it looks like he's won.

We used to have that kind of strong presence in the White House.  I don't think Putin would have messed with Reagan.  And remember that Kennedy faced down Nakita over Cuba.  Nobody messed with Ike or Truman.  And we didn't need weapons to show our strength.  We needed strong leadership.  We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

The downfall of our nation is the lack of spirit.  The lack of leadership.  The lack of will.  It comes from the top down.  Weakness at the top, like a roof full of holes, causes the house  to crumble.