Here Comes Herman

Take off your slippers and put on your marchin’ shoes…here come Herman. Wait a minute. That’s Obama. Never mind about the footwear…but here comes Herman nonetheless. Herman Cain, the Republican answer to Hope and Change, the anti-Obama, a car in every garage and a pizza in every pot, has hit a homerun in Florida winning the straw poll with more votes than Perry and Romney combined.

I am thrilled. I got a tingle going up and down my leg. Here is a guy that can finally relate to people. Here is a businessman that understands retail politics. Here is someone with a definitive yet simple plan for turning around our economy…and actually knows how to make money. I don’t care whether you sell pizza or airplanes. At the end of the day, business is business. You make 1% on every sale. You know, buy it for $1.00 and sell it for $2.00…1%.

In all seriousness, Herman Cain is number 2 on my presidential hopeful list. He has that certain charisma combined with a can-do attitude that is appealing to people. Like Ronald Reagan, he talks in simple terms. He puts out simple solutions to what he perceives to be, at the end of the day, simple problems. The press, both from the right and left, scorn him.  Conservative pundit Bill Kristol said the Florida straw poll victory was a fluke. Rather than a vote for Cain, it was a vote against Romney and Perry. Left leaningSaturday Night Live has already started on him. They did a parody of the last debate making him sound like Steppin’ Fetchit.

What they are missing is here’s a guy that understands people. While Romney and Perry are hobnobbing with political bigwigs, Cain is on a bus meeting the people in Florida. He is telling them things will be alright. He has put forth a plan he calls the 9-9-9 plan in which the tax code is completely overhauled. Corporate tax rates go to 9%. Individual tax rates are 9%, and there is a national sales tax of 9%. That way, everybody pays their fair share to quote Barack Obama. It is simple. It will bring huge amounts of revenue because finally, everybody is paying something with no special deals for a few. Even the drug kingpins pay under this plan when they go to buy one of those fancy cars and the bling.

Do I have reservations about Cain? Of course I do. He has had NO government experience. But then again, there are those who think that’s a good thing. I am also concerned about his foreign policy experience. He doesn’t have any. On the other hand, neither did George W. Bush. That’s why he had a Dick Cheney.

I don’t really think Cain can win the nomination, but stranger things have happened. His message is resonating with the public. A more likely scenario is that with his showing in Florida, the former CEO of Godfather Pizza probably secured the VP slot on the ticket. I don’t anyone that doesn’t like Herman Cain.

Now if we can only find someone for the top of the ticket. Chris Christie…where are you?

They Went Hiking Where?

From time to time I have to vent about people who do stupid things. So these three “it’s all about me” types decide they want to go hiking on the Iraqi/Iranian border two years ago. How stupid is that? They stray over the Iranian border and get arrested. Who'd of thought that would happen?

The girl of the bunch got released for “medical” reasons on $500,000.00 bond. She flies back to the States and leaves her fiancé and buddy in an Iranian prison. They are put on trial…and sentenced to eight years in prison for spying. But wait….there is still hope. As I write this, the whole world is waiting to see if the Iranian government will suspend the sentences in return for payment of a million dollars. Supposedly the plane is standing by at Tehran’s airport to whisk these twenty something gems home to America, after the judge gets back from vacation.  Maybe he went hiking in Yellowstone!!

So here’s the deal. Assuming they are released, who has paid the 1 ½ million dollars paid to get these idiots out of Iran? You know what? Let them rot. If they wanted to go hiking, we have some lovely hiking trails right here in Mill Creek Park. The most you have to worry about here is getting mugged if you are out after dark.

What are we doing? Who are these people who go off to be fulfilled only to get in trouble and have to be bailed out somebody else’s expense? Here are some rules. Don’t go mountain climbing if there is going to be a snow storm or an avalanche. Don’t go vacationing in a war zone. Don’t go deep sea diving in shark infested waters. Don’t go hiking where the bears are. Use your brains for once. You go looking for trouble, you are going to find it!!!  And it's time people stopped bailing these Bozo's out.

Then there’s that babe who is stuck in an Italian prison. She supposedly killed one of her lovers. This chick is portrayed as the Virgin Mary on television suffering at the behest of some pimped out Italian prosecutor. She is no Virgin Mary. She goes to Italy to go to school, but ends up on the party circuit doing God knows what while high on God knows what…you get the picture. Then this guy is found stabbed to death in her apartment. Her and her boyfriend are arrested. She blames some black dude. That turns out to be bogus. The press forgets about the boyfriend, but rapidly decides this little darling is not guilty of anything, which may or may not be the case. 

Enough!!! The folks who find themselves in these situations know exactly what they are doing and the dangers involved. Aruba should be off limits. It’s too bad about Natalie Holloway. On the other hand, what is she doing going off with some foreign guy at one in the morning. And where were her parents…and where was the school? You mean they couldn’t find anyplace else within the borders of the United States to go on a school trip? Noooo!!! They choose a party central island to send these girls…complete with booze, drugs and gambling…when some of these little princesses were just 17. What were they thinking? The pres or anybody else has yet to question the so called chaperones on the trip. What were they doing?  Pardon me if I don’t cry too much.

Then there’s 50 something bimbo who goes to Aruba with some guy she meets on the internet. He turns out to be an abusive whacko who bought all sorts of insurance on this lady’s life before they left the airport. On top of it, she was supposedly engaged to somebody else. Next thing we know, she is dead in the water…literally…as he male friend climbs out of the ocean and onto the beach and immediately call the insurance company to tell them she was swept out to see. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. But you know what? It’s not too sad. It IS funny. What was she thinking? She can’t find enough horny guys to jump into bed with here in the states…she has to go to Aruba???

It’s time the press stopped giving some of these whack jobs so much air time. It’s time the press started asking these folks what kind of responsible people would do these things. Sound cruel? What is cruel is somehow glamorizing this type of behavior, putting others at risk who might be dumb enough to try some of these stunts themselves.

As for those Iranian hikers, they may be out of jail by the time you read this. Stick them and their idiot families with bill for bailing them out.

I feel better now.

Rosewood Bitters - Why We Have No Jobs

MICHAEL STANLEY BAND SINGS THE ROSEWOOD BITTERS

Here are more examples of regulations strangling American jobs. If these stories make you want to rant…they should. Welcome to :progressive" America.

1) The California Department of Fish and Game was on the losing end of a lawsuit filed by various environmental groups against it for failure to do environmental impact studies on fisheries, hatcheries and stocked ponds operated by the Department. While promulgating regulations for itself, the CDFG decided it would be a good idea if it would regulate private fisheries and ponds also. This was not required by the court order, and went way beyond the scope of the lawsuit. It is now proposing draconian restrictions on privately run hatcheries, private fishing lakes and ponds. The impact statements now foisted on private hatcheries and fisheries will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per company and require impact evaluations right down to the grass and weeds around the pond. Translate, there will be no trout stocking in California. If implemented, it will in effect end fishing in California, and cost thousands upon thousands of jobs. The private fisheries have banded together and have filed suit against another whack job agency with not enough to do in hopes of blocking these regulations. What a shame.

2) You have probably heard the story about Gibson Guitar Company, the largest guitar manufacturer in the United States. The Nashville based company uses rare woods in its products, specifically rosewood and ebony which it buys from India and Madagascar. Federal agents raided several of its facilities and seized millions of dollars of these imported woods. The Feds claim Gibson violated United States law claiming that Gibson cannot import wood from a foreign company that may have violated a foreign law. Huh?  Gibson, as well as just about every stringed instrument maker in the country, uses the same agents to purchase these woods as well as the same compliance agents. There is a debate as to weather a 2009 rosewood shipment was exported to the United States by an exporter that violated Madagascar law. The raw wood could not be exported legally, but Madagascar law states that a finished product can…and the wood was precut into specified lengths prior to shipment, and received the stamp of approval from the Madagascar government. But our crack Federal officers determined that it did violate Madagascar law notwithstanding what the Madagascar government said. Yes….you read that right. Funny thing, none of the other guitar companies were raided, all of whom did the same thing. Gibson, however, is a non-union shop, and its owners are Republicans who donate substantial sums of money to the Republican Party. What do you think? Mmmmmm?

Both of these stories would be funny if they weren’t so sad. This is how our country has degenerated…a bunch of bureaucratic thugs. In California, a pissed off agency who decides to take it out on private industry with NO authority. In Tennessee, the United States government has decided it can interpret Madagascar law better than Madagascar, and do a little political persecution at the same time.

And you wonder why we have no jobs.

Jerry Lewis and the Mean and Nasty 30 Somethings

I know that the world didn’t grind to a halt, but in case you didn’t hear about it, Jerry Lewis did not host the Muscular Dystrophy telethon this year. So much for Jerry’s kids! It apparently was not an amicable breakup. From I was able to glean from those reliable entertainment news sites, someone in the MDA got a burr up his/her butt and unceremoniously fired him, except someone forgot to tell him. For awhile it looked like they would kiss and make up for another year, but that too collapsed as air time approached. Instead of an icon running the show, there was an amalgamation of stars in a truncated show after an announcement on air that Jerry Lewis had “retired.”

Time marches on, and change is inevitable. One of my pet peeves is old war horses that don’t know when to pack it in and move on. But this was different. Jerry Lewis was the Muscular Dystrophy telethon. Those WERE Jerry’s kids. He was so identified with the organization it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. Maybe that was the problem.

Or maybe not!!! Why do I sense a thirty something smart ass in the wood pile? Not that I have any inside information or anything, but my experience with folks between the ages of 20 – 35 has not been good these past few years. This generation is the most narcissistic, arrogant, and self centered that the post war baby boom has produced to date. Raised on tech, they have no social skills and rely entirely on technology as a moral compass. 

People this age have always elbowed their way into positions of authority in show business, espcially in television. I have had some interaction with show business types as of late, and I can tell you to watch out. It is a culture like none I have experienced before. No patience. No understanding. No social skills. No decorum. No loyalty. And everything centered on “me”. It is scary.

I have also experienced it in some of the locals around here. They’re not all that way, but more than a goodly portion of them have no respect for anyone or anything but themselves. I can’t tell you how many times I have bumped into young adults of that age group who don’t even have the social grace to say hello. They just stare at you, and when they speak, it usually turns into some kind of chronic whining. They are entitled. Unless you are there to serve them, they want no part of you.

I would like to think that sense of entitlement comes from the government, but mostly it comes from over indulgent parents who have given these kids everything they want when they wanted it. Now the kids want more. There is no working for the future. Everything in their life has to be instant gratification whether it is communication, houses, jobs, or sex. If it is not provided to them, watch out. And if they can’t get a job after college, Mom and Dad better get used to supporting them in the style to which they are accustomed.

Next year, mention Jerry Lewis around telethon time and you will get “Jerry who?” Fame is fleeting no matter how long you may have had it. But I can just see some smart 35 year old account executive sitting at an MDA meeting this past year saying “Time to get rid of the old goat. That senile dude is bringing us down, man.”

And if that’s case, shame on them. And if we don’t start to clean up our act with another generation of self absorbed, self centered tech junkies with no social skills coming down the pike, shame on us.