Opposite Day

I was going to try to not blog about the economy or politics.

Then I saw a post that said "Gas will soon be $5 a barrel.  Let's make Obama a one-term president."

At first I thought this was a joke.  I'm not talking about someone wanting to replace Obama.  I'm talking about someone that thinks he is responsible for the high price of gas.

This same person probably believes that if we drill off shore, all of our oil problems will go away.

They probably believe that putting more money in the pockets of the rich will create jobs.  This, in spite of the fact that 2000 to 2008 showed that doing just that ruined our economy to the tune of about 1.6 trillion dollars.  That's not counting the impact of turning a blind eye to sub-prime mortgages.

They must be in favor of invading Libya.   After all, that strategy of attacking when not attacked worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan.  When will we learn that if you break it, you own it.  I saw McCain was in Libya.  He said, "These rebels are my heroes."  I bet he comes to regret that one.

Maybe it is opposite day and I just missed the announcement.  Now that I know, I want to play along as well.

Here is my wish list:

Bring back the Republican Party, preferably the Tea Party.  I'm sure they can cut costs and still pay for everything.  I'm sure they can do this in spite of the fact that we are 1.6 trillion over budget and only have 1.4 trillion in discretionary spending  (and that's if you count paying for the military discretionary).

I think we should not tax the rich at all.  This will allow them to hire even more people to create things that no one can by.  Or, they may create jobs indirectly by buying lots of things and thus allowing the poor to go to work making these things for the rich.   I know this was a big failure during the 8 years of Bush but that was not really his fault...oh wait...it was his fault but maybe the engines of economics have changed since his failure.

I think we should impeach Obama.  He has only turned around an economy that was nearing the Great Depression in scope.  He did it in 2 years while the Great Depression lasted 12 years.

I think Obama is not an American citizen anyway.  Sure, everyone has seen the documentation but saying it feels so good.  And if the Donald says it, it feels extra good.

Finally, I want to fix my remote so every channel is Fox news.  Through them, Rupert Murdock is president and he is really a man with vision.  After all, he just came up with a service where you can buy news and have it sent to your phone.  Only a genius could find a way to make money out of something that is readily available for free everywhere.

In short, I want Bush to come back.  I want a new war, out of control spending, massive job loss and the complete collapse of the middle class.  Alas, he's had his two terms so we can't legally bask under the leadership of his C student, Cheney-sock-puppet hand.  Maybe Sarah can bring us back to his glory days.

Nothing say's leadership like "I was mayor of brown-bear Alaska."

I love opposite day.  Up is down, and Obama is to blame for $5 gas.

Anyway, I need to get back to reality.  There is a world to save.

Up, up and away...

jim

A Gentler Jim

"Nothing to excess and Know Thyself."

This is wisdom out of ancient Greece.  Wisdom that I got half right.

I do Know Myself.

And the one thing about me I am certain of is that I do EVERYTHING to Excess (even the use of capital letters.)

This knowledge has probably saved my life.  For example, I'm certain that if I ever dabbled in Crystal Meth, I would overdose the very first day.  So I stay away from that side of the street.

My only vice is food.  Earlier today, I opened a bag of wafer cookies to take a nibble or two.  Two hours later, I went into the kitchen to get another nibble only to discover the bag is now empty.

I am the only one in the house.

Do you know what this means?  Ghosts like wafer cookies as much as I do.

I'm currently in Hungary and I have to say, I love the food here.  My wife is a great cook but everywhere I go there is thick stew (goulosh) with dumplings.  This stuff is great.  I'll have to find a simple version for my Cooking for the Single Man blog.

Speaking of blogs, have a look at my Poetry for Men Blog.  I tried to transfer my political outrage there.

However, I do have an observation about the GOP budget plan.  The GOP is in favor of reforming the tax code  like Obama mentioned, so that people can't take advantage of it.  This is true.  They go on to say, and I'm not making this up, that the rich will have to pay more taxes because all of their loopholes will be closed.  Therefore, the rich need a tax cut to give them back the money they would lose.  I'm not making this up.  They are proud of this clever idea so do a little searching and see if I'm wrong.

By the way, the U.S. stock has been downgraded by Standard & Poor's because of GOP threatened refusal to raise the debt ceiling.  I feel they will cave, but keep alert for a little more posturing and promoting of political agenda (i.e. stuff that has nothing to do with the budget like abortion but they pretend it does.) by the GOP.  Every day the outlook on our long term debt is low, we pay higher interest.

Travel tip.  There are great airfares available to Japan and the Middle East.  I actually saw this on CNN today.

Inflation is on the rise in China.  This is an opportunity and I hope someone is noticing.  While places like California actively work at driving jobs out of the state, someone will figure out that its time to grab some market share.  The entire world's manufacturing base is flat.  Except for China.  To date, they build crappy stuff but at extremely attractive prices.  If those prices go up due to inflation, a void will be created.  Hopefully, someone is paying attention.

Microsoft has come out with a beta version of some new cloud based stuff.  I don't know about you but I think their sun is setting.  Take spell check for example.  Microsoft Office spell check is only effective it you are "almost" correct.  I never "almost" spell a word correct.  So I often use Google to figure out what I am trying to type.  Why can't Microsoft be as effective?

My next laptop will be a Mac.  Why?  Because everyone that uses a Mac loves it.  I was at an airport lounge the other day.  There were four of us strangers sitting at a table.  The other three people had each switched to Mac in the last three months.  Each loved it and said they would never go back.  I have never heard a story about a Mac user switching to a PC an seeing it as an improvement.

I need to get a job as an air traffic controller.  Lately I have been having trouble sleeping through the night.

The Middle East is filling up CNN's airtime.  My cape is in the wash.  But it will be clean soon enough.  Then it will be hero time.

Up, up and away.

By the way, below is some pre-election video as Fox (Fair and Balanced) tries to push Obama under the bus.