Hockey Salutations, Flying Accusations, Debt Corrections
Believe it or not, news reports don’t always get stories accurate or complete and sometimes don’t get them at all.
Let’s start with one that received little play in the mainstream media, the commendable story of an NHL player who had the gumption to effectively tell the president of the United States to stick an invitation to the White House in his hat.
The belated invite was extended to the Boston Bruins almost a year late, coincidentally during a presidential election year, ostensibly to honor the team’s 2011 Stanley Cup championship.
Celebrated Bruins’ goalie, Tim Thomas, winner of the Vezina Trophy, opted to pass on the privilige of having the president pat him on the back–and get some much-needed publicity before November 6th.
Not content with the snub and surely causing cringing in the Bruins’ executive offices, Thomas explained the reasons for his protest.
As he said, ”I believe the federal government has grown out of control, threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people,” although he backtracked slightly by adding that his decision “was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country.”
Thomas is right on all counts.
I wouldn’t even suggest Thomas believes President Barack Hussein Obama is the primary reason “the federal government has grown out of control, threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people” and I extend him kudos for having the nerve to speak his mind and absent himself from an obviously political campaign appearance.
Another story relates to the historical accuracy of producer George Lucas’ newly-released film “Red Tails.”
Acclaimed by everyone except the people who understand movies, film critics, “Red Tails” is a World War Two action flick featuring a virtually all-black cast and dealing with the exploits of the U.S. Air Corp’s Tuskegee Airmen, an anomoly at the time in a segregated military.
There is no doubt as to the racial segregation in our military prior to President Truman’s abolition of the practice in 1948. Likewise, there is no doubt the Tuskegee black fliers served their nation well in WWII primarily in bomber escort missions with the 332nd Fighter Group.
There is, however, much doubt concerning the Tuskegee Airmens’ claim for tears that they never lost a bomber during those European missions. There are also substantiated reports they sometimes acted less than heroically and less than competently. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=12263.)
Showing posts with label national debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label national debt. Show all posts
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Monday, July 18, 2011
The Impending Debt Star
The Impending Debt Star
Thomas Carlyle characterized economics as “the dismal science” in the eighteenth century. It hasn’t changed much in the twentieth, particularly as it relates to our federal government’s handling of the economy and most particularly as it concerns the current debt crisis.
That “handling” has, in fact, gone beyond dismal and has breached the realm of the hopelessly bleak as a result the ongoing, contentious debate over the so-called “debt ceiling,” that is, to raise it for the umpteenth time and burden our children and grandchildren with even more debt or to stop the fiscal insanity of borrowing even more money from people like the Chinese to pay our bills.
Running our households like government runs our government would eventually bankrupt individuals just as the feds and local politicians are bankrupting the country and any number of states.
Washington, of course, has a unique advantage over places such as New Jersey and Wisconsin in that in D.C. they have an alternative to all that borrowing: They can simply print more dollars when they exhaust the national treasury or when China indicates it holds too much of our insecure notes.
If Joe Blow or Joe the Plumber had access to dollar printing presses, both Joes would be accused of counterfeiting yet politicians get away with it.
The issues most Americans understandably refuse to confront are unpalatable and painful.
After all, this is America, exceptional, invincible, wealthy, and wise. We can’t, we refuse to believe we can go bankrupt! We can’t undergo anything akin to post-World War I Germany when it took a wheelbarrow full of virtually worthless papiermarks to buy a loaf of bread! We refuse to accept that our paper bucks, the value of which is based not on anything with intrinsic value such as gold but on the full faith and credit of the United States of America, will succumb to hyper-inflation!
It simply can’t happen here!
To paraphrase the chief architect of our fiscal plight: Yes, it can.
Daniel J. Flynn in “Five Falsehoods of the Debt Debate” lists only the most recent “falsehoods,” a euphemism for lies, perpetrated by that architect.
They include . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5037)
Thomas Carlyle characterized economics as “the dismal science” in the eighteenth century. It hasn’t changed much in the twentieth, particularly as it relates to our federal government’s handling of the economy and most particularly as it concerns the current debt crisis.
That “handling” has, in fact, gone beyond dismal and has breached the realm of the hopelessly bleak as a result the ongoing, contentious debate over the so-called “debt ceiling,” that is, to raise it for the umpteenth time and burden our children and grandchildren with even more debt or to stop the fiscal insanity of borrowing even more money from people like the Chinese to pay our bills.
Running our households like government runs our government would eventually bankrupt individuals just as the feds and local politicians are bankrupting the country and any number of states.
Washington, of course, has a unique advantage over places such as New Jersey and Wisconsin in that in D.C. they have an alternative to all that borrowing: They can simply print more dollars when they exhaust the national treasury or when China indicates it holds too much of our insecure notes.
If Joe Blow or Joe the Plumber had access to dollar printing presses, both Joes would be accused of counterfeiting yet politicians get away with it.
The issues most Americans understandably refuse to confront are unpalatable and painful.
After all, this is America, exceptional, invincible, wealthy, and wise. We can’t, we refuse to believe we can go bankrupt! We can’t undergo anything akin to post-World War I Germany when it took a wheelbarrow full of virtually worthless papiermarks to buy a loaf of bread! We refuse to accept that our paper bucks, the value of which is based not on anything with intrinsic value such as gold but on the full faith and credit of the United States of America, will succumb to hyper-inflation!
It simply can’t happen here!
To paraphrase the chief architect of our fiscal plight: Yes, it can.
Daniel J. Flynn in “Five Falsehoods of the Debt Debate” lists only the most recent “falsehoods,” a euphemism for lies, perpetrated by that architect.
They include . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5037)
Monday, November 8, 2010
Millions, Billions, Trillions? Oh, My!
Millions, Billions, Trillions? Oh, My!
What comes next after trillions? Quadrillions? Humungozillions?
Does it matter?
Good old Everett Dirksen, Republican senator and minority leader from Illinois in the 1960′s, is most remembered and credited today for his semi-tongue-in-cheek reflection that, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
That cynical reference to the uninhibited spending of LBJ’s Democrats during the “Great Society,” which proved to be not so great and which in fact devolved into an economic disaster, is today fiscally as antiquated as high-button shoes have been for a century. In 2010, Dirksen would probably scratch his hoary, grey head and gasp, “Trillions?”
That’s the number politicians speak of today as if it’s simply the logical, economic extension of millions and Dirksen’s billions. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published an article under Real Time Economics titled, “Number of the Week: 10.2 Trillion in Global Borrowing” which, in gross understatement, concluded, ”It’s easy to see that the risk of serious financial trouble is growing:” http://tiny.cc/rmda9
Excuse me? “Serious financial trouble?” Ya think?
Is that in any way translatable for the ignorant masses, us hoi polloi, as meaning, “We’re in deep sh*t?” That the WSJ is well aware of that deep sh*t . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2560)
What comes next after trillions? Quadrillions? Humungozillions?
Does it matter?
Good old Everett Dirksen, Republican senator and minority leader from Illinois in the 1960′s, is most remembered and credited today for his semi-tongue-in-cheek reflection that, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
That cynical reference to the uninhibited spending of LBJ’s Democrats during the “Great Society,” which proved to be not so great and which in fact devolved into an economic disaster, is today fiscally as antiquated as high-button shoes have been for a century. In 2010, Dirksen would probably scratch his hoary, grey head and gasp, “Trillions?”
That’s the number politicians speak of today as if it’s simply the logical, economic extension of millions and Dirksen’s billions. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published an article under Real Time Economics titled, “Number of the Week: 10.2 Trillion in Global Borrowing” which, in gross understatement, concluded, ”It’s easy to see that the risk of serious financial trouble is growing:” http://tiny.cc/rmda9
Excuse me? “Serious financial trouble?” Ya think?
Is that in any way translatable for the ignorant masses, us hoi polloi, as meaning, “We’re in deep sh*t?” That the WSJ is well aware of that deep sh*t . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2560)
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