Tom's Random Thoughts

Why bums will always be bums.

2011-10-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

Hello, loyal readers. As you can see, I have freshened the look of the blog a little bit, I hope you like it. Tonight's musing will be a discussion on the "Occupy Wall Street" protests.

The bums protesting around the country treating public places like slums or communes. The "Occupy Wall Street" movement started around a month ago as the left's response to the tea party. This movement has several different elements. The primary groups of people included are what I call "professional protesters," communists/socialists/anarchists, and some frustrated people who feel they have done everything right (getting a college degree that doesn't provide a marketable skill) who can't seem to get ahead. Combine these group with some organization from vestiges of the disgraced ACORN organization, and some assistance from union organization, and you get a group of people who have both a mob mentality and a herd mentality. This group of people is very similar to the types of people who protested in Madison, WI this spring over union collective bargaining reforms aimed at saving the state of Wisconsin money at the expense of overpaid public sector employees. I will quickly summarize the primary list of their demands, and why I believe they are outrageous.
If you want to read the list for yourself, here is the link to it. http://www.openmarket.org/2011/10/05/occupy-wall-street-protesters-make-demands/

1. Restoration of a living wage. While I agree with the nobility of this goal, it is simply impractical in a capitalist society. You don't get to make a certain amount of money just because you exist. You have to have skills and a work ethic that enable you to earn a living. If you have a marketable skill and a work ethic, chances are you will make a living wage.

2. Institute a single payer health system. A government monopoly is bad in any sector, especially one that has to do with your health. If this were a good idea, it would have been passed with Obamacare. Over half the country still oppose Obamacare almost two years after passage.

3. Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment. See #1. It is un-American to be paid a middle class wage to live like a bum. This is why if you only got unemployment checks for 13 or 26 weeks like it use to be (versus 99 weeks like it is now), people would take any job they could get their hands on, not just ones they wanted, as many would rather collect a check from the government than work for less than what they use to get paid.

4. Free college education. College is NOT a right, it is a privilege, While the cost of college is way too high (professors need to teach more, do less research, and we should eliminate the tenure system from our colleges and universities), this does not mean taxpayers should be on the hook. In fact, if I had my way, high school should be tuition based also.

5. Bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while bringing alternative energy up to meet energy demand. This is just nutty. What is wrong with coal, oil, and natural gas. Very little. Yes, there is a finite supply of these resources, but we are so far from using them up that it will be hundreds of years until we do so. Alternative energy is not ready for actual usage. Nobody really wants an electric car, unless they want to show their green bona fides, and most other alternative technologies cannot compete without government subsidisation. We will get alternative energy eventually, when the private sector says it is cost competitive (alternate energy also breeds crony capitalism, see Solyndra).

6. $1,000,000,000,000 in infrastructure spending now. While this is a responsibility of government I approve of, this spending level is outlandish. Infrastructure spending currently by government and private sector is about $350 billion. The demand is to triple it. We can barely afford what we do now, let alone tripling it. Who would pay for it? The taxpayers pay too much now. Maybe if we redistributed a lot less money to the poor, we could afford more infrastructure spending.

7. $1,000,000,000,000 for ecological restoration (reforestation and restoration of wetlands and river flows), and the decommissioning (closing) of all American nuclear power plants. This is an environmentalists wet dream. Nuclear power is relatively safe, and while realistic environmental work is OK, an orgy of spending like this combined with an overzealous EPA would help ruin the USA. Remember, most environmentalists are just communists in disguise.

8. Racial and gender equal rights amendment. We have this, it is called the 14th amendment, and no, this does not apply to gay rights or people in this country illegally.

9. Open borders migration. Remember, Democrats want voters and establishment Republicans want cheap labor, the people want them to go home. If you want to come to our country legally, we welcome you. If you want to come illegally, don't come, and if you are here, go home.

10. American elections should be at international standards. I think this is paranoia over Bush v. Gore in 2000 and the fact that Democrat voters couldn't read directions. One reform that should happen is a requirement of photo ID to vote. As an aside, if you hear ads encouraging the US to change to a national popular vote from the electoral college, resist it. The electoral college means you have to cater to many different parts of the country, not just the big cities as you would in a popular vote system.

11. Debt forgiveness to all. Do this and capitalism ends. No one will lend for a house, college education, or start up business again. This is absolutely insane. Don't borrow money to buy things you can't afford to pay the money back for, and go to college for a degree that gives you a marketable skill, not a degree that can't get you employed.

12. Outlaw credit reporting agencies. We have to have some way to determine if you are credit worthy are not. Some are not. Those that aren't worthy were a factor in the housing bubble. A bum can't borrow money if the lender is preety sure they won't pay it back.

13. Card check for union organizing. This is a big one for liberals. One of the biggest war chests for Democrat political donations is labor unions. Private sector labor union membership is around 8% (public sector labor union membership is 37%, which should be 0%, as government workers should not be allowed to unionize). This is a play to get more union members, plain and simple.

So there is the list. Mostly, this is a list of more entitlements/taxpayer burdens depending on your perogrative. Since we are at $15 trillion in debt now, we can't afford most of this, nor should we. One final comment, when the Tea Party people protest, they left the areas they protest clean, and go to work the next day. Several Occupy Wall Street protesters have been deemed public health hazards, many protesters have been arrested, and many protestors insist on blocking commerce so they can stake their claim. This group is nothing more than a burden, and we need to make them go home each night. If they want to reassamble every day, they can, but they need to go home at night for the sake of public cleanliness and decency.

Well, that is what I think, let me know if you agree, disagree, or just want to disagree with me because I am the one making the point. Until next time.

Tom

I know, I know, it is about time.

2011-09-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

Hi, everybody. I know that I have been derelict in my duties as being a faithful blogger. One post in nine months is not acceptable. I have been very slow in doing postings because I have been really frustrated with what is going on in this great country, and frankly, it just gets me angry thinking about it. So I decided now was the time to start blogging again. My plan is to do a post today, and another one right before Labor Day weekend. We will see from there how often I feel the need to post. Today's post will highlight three important matters going on in the country today.

I have decided to start with a discussion on our gloomy economy. When Barack Obama became our President in 2009, many people, including myself said "this is Jimmy Carter's second term." That statement is proving to be correct. We have unemployment at north of 9% country wide (if you include people who have left the work force, it is closer to 16-18%). We are approaching $15,000,000,000,000 of debt. Gold is at a ridiculously high price (over $1,800/ounce). No one is happy with where the country is headed, and there is just a general lack of confidence in our political class to do anything about it. I found some statistics about federal government spending that are just startling. All figures come from the website www.usgovernmentspending.com :

1999: US Government spent $1,702T

US Government surplus (spent less than brought in) $125B

US Government debt $5.606T

2003: US Government spent $2.160T

US Government deficit (spent more than brought in) $378B

US Government debt $6.760T

2007: US Government spent $2.729T

US Government deficit $161B

US Government debt $8.951T

2011: US Government spent $3.819T (projected)

US Government deficit $1645B (projected)

US Government debt $15.476T (projected)

Now, as you can see, federal spending has had a 125% increase in 12 years. That is insane. Our debt has almost tripled in the same amount of time. By doing some math, you can see federal revenues have gone from roughly $1.8T in 1999 to 2.2T (projected) in 2011. What does this show, we need to try to spend less than $2.5T per year, not the $3.8T that was spent in 2011. So the question becomes, how do we cut federal outlays by 1/3 with more people joining social security and Medicare all the time. This will be the challenge of our generation, how do we shrink government spending while not allowing the baby boom generation (born between 1945 and 1964) to become destitute. My normal response would be: cut government, if you are destitute, it is not my problem. Unfortunately, that will not get us very far, so we have to come up with solutions to solve this problem. I will delve into some solutions in future blog posts.

I also wanted to take some time to discuss the state of the GOP presidential race. Unfortunately, the man I initially supported has .001% chance of winning, that being Newt Gingrich. By my view, there are three main candidates who have the best shot at the Republican nomination for President. I am not including Sarah Palin, who I believe enjoys being a celebrity to much to run, and I am not including Ron Paul, who is a lunatic on foreign policy (yes Ron, Iran is a threat), and thinks we should go back to the gold standard (while $1,800 gold is ridiculous (gold is a bubble, reminds me of $145/barrel oil) and should be trading at under $900/oz to get our country back on sound footing). The three likely to have the best chances are former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, current Texas Governor Rick Perry, and current Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachmann. Romney appeals to the moderate wing of the party, Bachmann appeals to the socially conservative and tea party wings of the party, and Perry appeals to the all the wings of the party to varying degrees. My vote is for Rick Perry. He is the Governor of what is currently the strongest state economically in this country. Don't let the fact that his job is the same job the previous Republican President had (George W. Bush), Perry has cut government spending, and has turned Texas into an economic machine. It will be interesting to see which of these candidates can gain traction, and will get the opportunity to defeat President Obama in 2012.

Well, that is it for today, next time, we will discuss my trip to the Iowa State Fair, and a preview of the upcoming Iowa Hawkeyes football season. Until next time, safe travels.

Tom

Hawkeyes Preview

2011-09-02T19:08:00.001-07:00

Howdy, folks. As thefall gets here and we get to 2012, many more blog posts are here to come. Itried to do a blog post 12 days ago, but the website wasn't being helpful. Ityped for 45 minutes and after I was done, I tried to save it, but I lost myblog post. I was really mad. I have been busy with work and fantasy footballdrafts the last two weeks so I could not post until tonight.

This will be a brief post with two topics. The first one is related to theupcoming college football season. In a future post, I plan to discuss the stateof the game of college football as it relates to conference expansion, payingplayers, and other issues related to the game. But tonight, I want to discussmy team, the Iowa Hawkeyes. As I get ready to leave my house at 4AM (way tooearly) to go to Iowa City, I want to pontificate about the 2011 Hawkeyes. Iowacomes in to 2011 off a bowl win over a top 15 team, but still a disappointingseason when you consider Iowa was tied or ahead with five minutes remaining inthe game and went 7-5 (the Northwestern and Minnesota losses were inexcusable,the Wisconsin and Arizona losses are blamed on kicking woes, and technically,the Ohio State game never happened (although the U.S. Air Force woulddisagree)). My 2012 prediction is for Iowa to go into the "HeroesGame" against Nebraska in a "winner take all" game in theLegends division. Iowa will be 9-2 going in losing at Penn State and toMichigan. The winner of the Iowa-Nebraska game will play Wisconsin for the BigTen (I will not write B1G) title. This should make for a successful season forthe Hawkeyes. Remember, when little is expected from the Hawkeyes, they dowell. When a lot is expected, they don't.

Also starting soon is the NFL season, and nothing gets people fired up aboutthe NFL season opener (Saints-Packers Thursday night) than listening to thePresident of the United States discuss jobs, and the lack thereof. Barack Obamawill discuss another new jobs plan to try and kick start the economy andbusinesses hiring by giving another speech, this time to a joint session ofCongress (which has proven to be the opposite of progress). There are threethings that can be done to kick start the economy, tax reform, elimination ofbad regulations (like Obamacare), and government being serious about cuttingspending. As the fall rolls on, I will discuss these items at length. With thewhole debt ceiling debate the S&P debt downgrade, and the lack of jobs, thecountry is heading into a malaise, a word not discussed since Jimmy Carter'spresidency. Solutions to these problems will be discussed in future blog posts.

Well that is it for now, my goal is to do 2 more blog posts in September, andat least two a month the rest of the year, as we start to gear up for ahistoric year in 2012. Until then, Go Hawks!

Tom

Happy "keep your WaG happy day!"

2011-02-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

Hello, everybody. First of all, I would like to wish you a happy "keep your WaG happy day," also known as Valentine's Day and "lets remind Tom of his perpetual singledom day!" For those of you who don't know, WaG is a shorthand British tabloid term for "wives & girlfriends" predominately heard when discussing the "WaGs" at the Ryder Cup. As some of you know, I have a visceral hatred for Valentine's Day. Most men do, but the flower, greeting card, jewelry, and chocolate industries have banded together to force men to buy these products for their WaG's, or risk the wrath and guilt of their WaG for an indefinite period of time. Ladies, WaG is not meant to be a derogatory term, but admit it, you are jealous of your girlfriends getting more stuff than you do. Guys, try getting these trinkets for your ladies on other days of the year, like a lovely spring evening, or a cool, brisk fall day. Be more random and spontaneous, so there is less pressure on Valentine's Day.

Keep in mind, this advice come from a guy who has had one third date in his life. Now, anytime I go on a date (which is rare), I always make an effort and buy flowers for the first date, and I always pay. Unfortunately, I usually scare the girl by the second or third date that the effort goes unrewarded. Someday, that will change (I hope). The fact that Valentine's Day coincides with the end of football season, the middle of winter, and the first third of tax season makes it a depressing and frustrating time of year for your trusty blogger. It just seems like I go from one fire to another while freezing my ass off (yes it will be in the 60's Thursday, but that is an anomaly), working long hours, and hoping Iowa basketball will get better (might just be happening). I always hit a rough patch this time of year, and soon spring will be here, it will be golf season, and I will be having more time on my hands, perhaps to blog more often.

I have not written about politics in a while, so I decided to devote this part of this blog to where we are headed. Nothing substantial will get done in Washington, except way too much spending. The Republican house and Obama will be at loggerheads. A gay marriage vote will not get to the Iowa people until 2016, at which time it won't matter. It will still be nearly impossible to get a conservative on the Iowa Supreme Court. The Iowa straw poll will NOT include Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee, but it will include Donald Trump. Finally, expect people
to whine about heat assistance being cut. Pay your own bills people, if you won't, freeze, not my problem.

Speaking of things I can't figure out, I am very fascinated to see how a computer will do against the two best Jeopardy players ever. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, IBM has created a supercomputer, Watson, to compete in a two game exhibition against Ken Jennings (won 74 times in a row, and about $2.5 million) and Brad Rutter (won three different tournaments of champions and about $3.5 million). Watching the first episode today (by DVR, episodes 2 and 3 on 2/15 and 2/16, likely online later), it was fascinating to see how the computer thought, and how the humans held their own (it doesn't help that when a human says an incorrect answer and the computer says the same incorrect answer). How this plays out will be fun to watch. By the way, I did an online Jeopardy quiz to try to get on the show. I thought I did poorly, but it just might be enough to get me on the show someday. A guy can dream, can't he.

Well, that is all for today. Everybody enjoy your chocolate and other stuff you get on "keep your WaG happy day!" Until next time, root for the snow to melt, and be sure to watch the Daytona 500 on Sunday, NASCAR needs your support.

Tom

Random musings on life.

2010-11-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

Howdy, my loyal readers. Your trusty bloggist is back to discuss the world as I see it. I would like to start today with an apology. I promised an election preview at the end of the last blog. Due to the fact that I determined it would be a really dull post, I elected not to go that direction. So on that note, my musings will include a quick election recap, the state of the Iowa Hawkeye football team, and a few notes on my life, as I see it.

First, election night. I was very happy to see the Republicans get control of the House of Representatives. The election proved to be a major repudiation of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi (the real witch). The Republicans flipped 62 seats and currently hold a 241-190 advantage with 4 seats still undecided. Most of the Democrat losses were in the South (virtually no Dems are left), and the Midwest, where people saw Obama and Pelosi for who they really are. Somehow, Harry Reid survived in Nevada, and the Dems still control the Senate. Large abouts of gridlock are likely, and hopefully, less government spending.

In Iowa, most everything went as expected, except for those Supreme Court retention votes. This has really fascinated me since election night. The Judges carries 9 counties, including the most populated counties. They lost 90 counties, almost all rural, and most by at least 20 points (including a whopping 77 points in God's county, Sioux county). This issue has really turned into a rural vs. urban issue, and in some people's eyes, a "rural Bible-thumping hick" vs. a "cappuccino swilling elitist" issue. I will admit, I voted against retention of the three judges. I did it for a different reason, I always vote against them (I did vote for all the district court judges since I thought there was a small chance they might lose). The reason I did this is a philosophical difference I have between what the Supreme Court did on the gay marriage issue, the Supreme Court is to "interpret" law, not "make" law. Why do I think they made up gay marriage, because they wanted to. The commission that appoints judges to the Iowa Supreme Court is fixed to put very liberal justices on the court. Half of the commission members are from the Iowa Bar Association, which has lawyers as members, which as a majority, are liberal. The other half are appointed by the Governor, which for the last twelve years, have been Democrat, and they appoint liberals to the Board. So according to the Board, the decision is a good one, and since all the judges and the entire Board is liberal. This left no other recourse for the citizens of Iowa, since they can't get a vote until at least 2016 since State Sen. Gronstal will not let it come to a vote the next two years (or so he says), to "throw the bums out." Now legal scholars are aghast with this surprising (lawyers always protect each other, no matter what unseemly things they do) decision. Three days after the decision, Chief Justice Ternus (who was thrown out) dissented on a decision regarding parents suing schools even if a wavier is signed by saving, "the Legislature should resolve this matter, not the courts." If this decision was reached on the gay marriage matter, she would continue to be the Chief Justice. When courts make legislative decisions without the people's input (either directly or through the Legislature), huge rifts are caused. I really don't care about abortion, but Roe v Wade should absolutely be overturned since the Supreme Court "made" law. It should go back to the states. Gay marriage in Iowa should also be overturned since the Supreme Court "made" law. It cost three judges their jobs, and if they did their assigned job, they would still have them.

On to a less intense subject, sort of. I made the mistake of going to Evanston, Ill. on Saturday to watch another Iowa loss to Northwestern. Now the last FOUR times I have witnessed in person Iowa play Northwestern, Iowa has lost. By the way, Ryan Field is a glorified high school stadium with an upper deck, and more Iowa fans were there Saturday than Northwestern fans. Iowa just does lousy against the spread, and weird things always happen against Northwestern. This loss has put a huge damper on the season. I expect Iowa and their fans to get up, send their Seniors off properly, and beat Ohio State Saturday 24-20. Were the expectations too high, possibly. Three bad quarters (Q1 v. Ariz, Q4 v. NW, Q4 v. Wisc.) are all that keeps Iowa from a perfect season. In fact, it has been since 2007 that Iowa has lost a game by more than a touchdown (9 points vs Western Michigan in a still befuddling loss), but Iowa is 4-9 against BCS conference schools the last three years in games decided by 7 points or less in the last three years. On the bright side, we are a field goal (2008 vs PSU), a quick slant (2009 vs Ind), and a dropped TD (2010 vs Ind) away from being 1-12 (2008 vs Pur, which I screwed over my most successful relationship with a girl, 4 dates, I was ready for it to end away, but I still feel bad about it anyway). Iowa fans get too high and too low. Iowa will have to get every bounce to go their way and then some to play for a BCS title, so we should all cheer for Iowa to beat OSU Saturday, keep the pig next week, win a New Year's Day game in Florida (hopefully Iowa travels well), and finish in the top 12 at the end of the season. That is my prediction for the rest of the year.

I will end my blog this time with a quick discussion about me. Someone recently told me they wanted to hear more about me. I am not one to talk about myself much so this does not make me that comfortable but here we go. I am doing fine. I am a CPA living in Atlantic, Iowa doing a job I enjoy most of the time (don't we all). I still can't find the woman of my dreams. I am still a big guy (insert a euphemism here). I decided to become Treasurer at my golf course, I hope I don't regret that decision. I have become district director for the gold region for the Iowa Jaycees for 2011, and am excited about that. I still want to be a profitable poker player, a decent golfer, and maybe a politician someday (although this blog probably rules that out). Now that more people are finding this blog, especially from past points and meetings in my life (all over the state of Iowa, especially Iowa City, Atlantic, Sibley, Sidney, and Hamburg), and all over the USA and the world. I thought I would share this as my virtual Christmas card (not holiday card), and no, there will be no photos as I have no kids and I have an unattractive mug.

Well, that is all for tonight. Three thoughts to live with. I have become a twit who twitters. Just look up tomwelchans and you will find me. I don't tweet real often, but if you need more, there you are. Two, the cookie monster encouraging kids to eat carrots in Spanish is just plain wrong. Finally, I encourage everybody to check out this weeks "How I Met Your Mother" episode on cbs.com if for no other reason than to hear a song with a chorus "two beavers are better than one" sung in Canadian accent. Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving, Go Hawks, and don't let anybody from the TSA grope you when boarding a plane next week.

Tom

Food stamps, Hawkeyes, and witches.

2010-10-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Your trusty blogger has returned to pontificate about the world around us. Senate candidates declaring that they are indeed not witches (Christine O'Donnell, R-DE) makes you wonder want the world has come to.

A recent AP article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/ap_on_bi_ge/us_midnight_run) discussed how people were lining up at Wal-Mart to purchased food with there food stamp card at the literal moment the benefits went on to their debit cards. So at midnight at certain points of the month, avoid grocery stores, as food stamp people will buy the store out so they can live for another month. Thanks to the bang up job our President and his minions in Congress, our great country achieved a dubious record in 2010: a record of 41 million people on food stamps as of June, 2010. Excluding social security, 1 in 6 receives some sort of government benefit, including food stamps, Medicaid, and extended unemployment benefits. Tonight, I will discuss how to ensure you don't end up in this position, in my own compassionate way (it is not that difficult).

1. Get an education with a marketable skill. People must get out of high school and likely college with a skill that an employer will want. Many people go to high school wanting to leave as quick as possible, nearly as many go to college and major in an area that is unemployable (like art, history, art history, or anything with (fill in the blank) studies in the major. Get a skill that an employer wants and you will stay off food stamps, unless you commit error #2.

2. Having kids too early. One common theme in the story referred above is that many of the interviewed had multiple kids (all had at least 4 kids). Don't have kids outside a committed relationship. Kids are not cheap, so you need two parents to take care of them. I will once again renew my call to "temporarily fix" women who are on welfare with a child, since they seem to "pop out" more children that the taxpayers don't want to pay for. If you can avoid 1 and 2 above, you will be fine unless you do this final thing.

3. Go to jail/get drugged up. If you run a foul of the law, or you become dependent on drugs or alcohol, chances are you could well end up on food stamps. Of curse, if you are dependent on drugs or alcohol, that should disqualify you from getting government aid. Since places like California have now figured out that EBT funds are being spent in casinos and malls, the taxpayers continue to get screwed by the poor and lazy and incompetent.

We need more jobs in this country. Government should not spend more than 15% on GDP (currently 24%), and should balance the budget (currently $1.2 trillion deficit). Government should cut taxes, regulations, entitlements, and focus on two things, security and infrastructure.
Hopefully, the mid-term elections will slow down the socialism of America and bring back capitalism to the USA.

Tonight, I will end on a happier note. Kudos to the Iowa Hawkeye fans and the football team. When I first heard about the alternating black and gold sections for the game Saturday night against Penn State ("WE OWN PENN STATE"), I thought this could look ugly. Instead, it looked fantastic. Congrats to the football team also on a 4-1 start. I think Iowa will go undefeated through October and set up a showdown with Ohio State for the Big Ten title in November. It was fun to see long lost friends at one of the most fun environments in the country (inspite of the Politically Correct fun haters in Iowa City, and you know who you are), tailgating at on Iowa football game.

Well, that is all for tonight. In the final week of October, I will do a full-scale election preview to highlight the most important and interesting races heading to election day. Echoing Newt Gingrich's recent comments, "Republicans are the party of paychecks, Democrats are the party of food stamps (especially since the real witch, Nancy Pelosi, believes food stamps create the biggest bang for the economic buck)."

Vote early and vote often!?!

Tom

I'm Back!!!

2010-09-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody. After a six-month self imposed hiatus, I have decided to make a return to my blogging ways. It is my intention to make a new post to this blog at least one every two weeks or as events warrant. I am reenergized and ready to go to put some new and exciting work out there.

First of all, let me explain why I took my hiatus. As of Februarym 2010, I had been doing blog posts for about a year and a half. Frankly, I got a little bored, and I felt I had said my piece. This combined with being in the middle of tax season, and the height of the Democrats power (they were in the process of ramrodding Obamacare through), I decided I needed to take a step back for a while. But now I am back, and hopefully better than ever.

In my time away, I made a few discoveries. The biggest one being the buyers remorse people were having over Obama. I have talked to many people my age (25-35ish) whom voted for Obama manily because they hated Bush, and because they bought into the whole "hope and change" mantra. Many of those same people have told me that they don't like Obama's policies, primarily health care reform. Obama has also done something no politician can do consisitently and survive. He wanted his health care bill, which 55-60% still oppose. He is going after a state (Arizona) for trying to enforce immigration law. Around 60% support the state of Arizona going after illegals. Finally, Obama has not done anything to prevent the "Ground Zero Mosque" being built, nor has he said he opposes it, despite 2/3 of people disagreeing. This combined with a stagnant economy, high unemployment, insistance on raising taxes on the "achievers" of society, and trying to force the "lack of hope and will" of the bottom 20% that support him wholeheartedly onto everybody else has put him and his Democrat counterparts in big trouble with the electroate.

We are roughly seven weeks from the November mid-term election, and few people are happy with the way the country is going. In all likelihood, the Republicans will gain the House, and could gain the Senate (although getting to 52-48 is more likely, currently 59-41). The Republicans have to come out with something concrete. Repealing Obamacare, while noble, won't happen until at least 2013, if ever. The reason the Republicans were thrown out in 2006 had to do primarily with overspending, too much war, and having few new ideas. Unfortunately, the Republicans really haven't come up with new transformational ideas that the public can latch on to. Tonight, I will present two ideas that the public could rally around.

The first idea might sound crazy at first, but it would save a lot of money. A public sector (government) worker makes 25-75% more than a private sector worker doing the same job. I would propose a 10% pay cut for state and federal workers making >$75,000/year and a 5% pay cut for state and federal workers making <$75,000 a year. The biggest cost to government is labor, so a good way to get control of government spending is to put a squeeze on workers. I believe the elimination of a government job is a good thing, because government is inherently inefficient. Also, I would make it illegal for a government worker to be in a union. You know my slogan, "unions encourage mediocrity." Part of the reason labor (including benefits/pensions) cost so much is collective bargaining. A government worker should not be allowed in a union because they are in essence negotiating with themselves and a third party (taxpayers) foots the bill. Combine these two proposals with turning all government pension plan into defined contributions plans (i.e. 401K plans), and you could same a lot of government dollars. This will make my second proposal much easier to achieve.

The second proposal is passing two simple rules for state and federal governments. 1, You MUST balance the budget. 2, You may not expend more than 15% of Gross Domestic Product. Gross Domestic Product measures the economic output produced by our country as a whole. If this number shrinks two consecutive quarters, we are deemed to be in a recession. We are not out of the recession officially until our GDP reaches the level it was at before the recession started. According to that definition, we have been in recession for over 2 1/2 years. The last year, our federal government has spent at 24% of GDP. Taxes are a drag on economic output, which is why raising taxes in a recession makes no sense. If government followed these two rules, people would be much less outraged than they are now. Unfortunately, Democrats like to spend, and enough Republicans do too.

Well, that is enough for tonight. I will leave you with a funny story to read about two people who WILL be going to hell. Good night.

Tom

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/09/couple-siphoning-gas-salvation-army-van-catch-tacoma-church-parking-lot/

It is February, now what?

2010-02-09T19:07:00.001-08:00

Hello, my friends. Your trusty blogger is back to share his views on the world. If this winter doesn't prove global warming is made up, nothing will.

Since it has been a couple of months since my last blog post, this will be an extra long post. I owe my followers some wisdom, carnal knowledge, or maybe just a laugh or two. So here goes nothing.

Lets start with the Super Bowl. My beloved Indianapolis Colts got upset by America's new team, the New Orleans Saints. I think this will go down as the game that injuries finally caught up with the Colts, and that the Saints get all of the credit for making a very ballsy call. If Dwight Freeney is healthy, the Saints have much less time to operate. The Colts finally missed Bob Sanders, who if available, would have provided a different result. Sean Payton gets a ton of credit for trying an onside kick at the start of the second half. The best way to beat the Colts, keep Peyton Manning off the field. Drew Brees and Pierre Thomas did a fantastic job of this. The interception return for a touchdown put the Saints season into a nutshell. Congrats to the Saints on winning the Super Bowl (I did pick the Saints to get there). As far as the Colts, get healthy of defense, resign Gary Brackett, find some new blood in the draft, and they could easily be back next year.

Speaking of football, since I last wrote, the Iowa Hawkeyes won their first BCS caliber bowl game in 50 years. The Orange Bowl victory over Georgia Tech proved Iowa belongs with the nations elite. They have a schedule next year that is conducive to another good season. A Big Ten title is a good possibility, provided they can beat Ohio State (which will be the toughest ticket to get ever). Because of Iowa's home schedule (Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Iowa State, and 2 other games), I predict that Iowa will sell at least 60,000 season tickets in 2010. If you want to go and see an Iowa game, I would strongly encourage you to get season tickets.

On to the world of politics. It is very clear that the federal government has no desire to do what it needs to do, SHRINK!!! Because of that, even Teddy Kennedy's seat proved vulnerable. It is looking like November could be a bloodbath for Democrats since they will not do the two things they need to do, shrink the deficit/debt, and create jobs. People are fed up with government spending. If a politician ran on a platform that said the government would spend less than what they take in, they would get landslide victories. As far as jobs go, cut tax burdens, regulatory burdens, and quit spending so much and you would get job growth. I think health care is basically dead (unless the Dems go reconciliation, then all hell will break loose). But, it is clear that we need policies that shrink the government. Government employment has grown 10% in the last two years (even bigger federal increases have been offset by some state job cuts, since most state have to balance a budget (and can't print money)). Most of these jobs are unnecessary and non-productive. Combine that with the elimination of most entitlement programs, and suddenly, our budget issues could be helped considerably. Unfortunately, this will not happen. The last month has marked two unfortunate events. Between Medicare and Medicaid, almost 50% of health care costs are covered by the government (taxpayers). Also, the Social Security program will pay out more than it takes in, thanks to fewer people paying in, and more retirements due to a lack of jobs. We are in for a train wreck. Find people who will spend less, and cut the size of government to vote for.

As everybody knows, my least favorite day in the year is this Sunday, Valentine's Day. Or as I like to call it, my annual reminder that I am perpetually single. This year does have a twist, it is also the same day as this years Daytona 500. The last time this happened was in 1999. I was in college, and decided to put a sign on my dorm room in pink that said "Happy Daytona 500 Day," nobody was amused. This combined with too much snow on the ground, many tax returns to do, and a Daytona 500 that with my luck will be called short due to rain, will make for a frustrating day all around. By the way, I want either Mark Martin or Tony Stewart to win Sunday, and I definitely don't want to see Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, or Dale Earnhardt Jr. win.

To put a capper on this round of my blog, I have decided to discuss a recent trip I took to Dubuque to the Iowa Jaycees state convention. It was a good time, and good to get away from Atlantic. I have come to a conclusion that I need to be a more positive person. It would make me a happier person. I will admit, I have always been a pessimist by nature. After some reflection after a session in Dubuque this week, I have started to look at the world with a more positive attitude. I find that I am more relaxed, and happier too. We will see how long this last, but having a positive attitude can really make your life simpler and more fun. One minor point, if your combine your name and a word and create another word, it makes you look a little arrogant in my book.

Well, after my novel I just wrote. I am all out of things to say for tonight. I plan to do another blog post at the end of this month, or if events warrant. Until then, pray for no more snow, we have had enough for several winters.

Tom

Men, the women they love, and the women they sleep with.

2009-12-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome back. Let me be the first to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas (and anybody (including commercials) who says "Happy Holidays" should be told to say "Merry Christmas," unless they are Jewish. If they say "we celebrate Kwanzaa", tell them that holiday was made up.) this festive time of year. Bacon flavored envelopes to send your Christmas cards in available here: http://www.jdfoods.net/products/mmmvelopes.php

In the last twelve months, I can think of at least six famous figures who have cheated on their wives. With the revelations of golfer Tiger Woods getting it on with at least three women not married to him, he joins a long list of men in the public spotlight who have cheated on their wives. Just this year, Woods joins baseball MVP Alex Rodriguez, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Nevada Senator John Ensign, former Presidential candidate John Edwards, and Late Show host David Letterman as men who have admitted to infidelity with their marriage. Some of the jilted wives have "stood by their men" (Ensign, Letterman), others just left (Edwards, Rodriguez), and one stood by her man and then left (Sanford, whose husband famously disappeared for several days to meet his mistress in Argentina, where she was from). Tiger Woods is trying to force his wife to have it both ways. He is doing this by essentially bribing her (I have heard $20 million, and I have heard the potentially absurd amount of $80 million) to remain his wife. If Tiger had his way, he would remain married, have the mother of his children help raise them, and have other women "stashed away" for his pleasure. If this were another country, Tiger might have multiple wives (he may be the only man who could afford it, just kidding). This is nothing new in our society. John Kennedy had a rumored affair in the White House. Bill Clinton taught America many sexual terms through the evening news. Wilt Chamberlin claimed to sleep with 10,000 women (even if he inflated this by a factor of 10, I still don't see how this was possible). Unfortunately, infidelity is a problem in our society. As many of you know, I have never been married, but I believe very strongly in NOT being a "homewrecker" when it comes to my seemingly endless pursuit of a significant other. I believe in respecting other peoples relationships, even if I felt I could be better for certain women that have crossed my path. The rash of famous men stepping out of their wives is great for tabloid fodder, but not a good thing for society. If men want to sleep with multiple women, fine, then don't get married. This will cause everyone to view Tiger Woods in a different light for a long time. He will lose few if any sponsors, and he will win several golf tournaments next year. But pay attention in September, 2010, at the Ryder Cup. When the WAG's get together (that is short for "wives and girlfriends,") who will be Tiger's escort, his bribed wife, one of his mistresses, or will he go alone. American Ryder Cup teams Tiger has been on are 1-4.

Today, President Obama held a "Jobs Summit." The President's hand picked people to get together to discuss how to create jobs to try to lower the unemployment rate. The rate of unemployment is the highest it has been in this country in a quarter century. There were many things discussed, but there are four things that would get jobs going that will not happen because liberals run this country for now and want all these things to happen, no matter what it does to the USA. The four things are as follows: 1, stop all debate on health care reform, 2, stop all debate on cap and trade legislation (since it has been proven that global warming is a hoax), 3, make the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts permanent, and 4, balance the federal budget and strengthen the dollar. Unfortunately, none of these things will happen. Liberals have wanted single payer public option health care for generations, they won't stop now even of 60% of the public opposes it. Environmentalists (who are just displaced socialists and communists) don't care if global warming is a hoax, they believe, and that is all that matters. Liberals believe in "soak the rich," and make the poor pay nothing at all, or less. Finally, liberals have not met a government project they don't like, even if we have to print more money, blow the debt and deficit sky high, and make our dollar look like Zimbabwe's (OK not that bad, 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars is about $2.50). Lord knows I can't stop this, so maybe some of you who voted for Obama can.

We that is it. Between now and the end of the year, I will post my 2009 year in review. Until then, Merry Christmas, and don't fall on your ass when you see ice.

Tom

What to write about on Friday the 13th?

2009-11-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hello, all. I was motivated to write tonight, even though it is Friday the 13th. No Jason or Freddy sightings tonight (thankfully no Chucky either, he really scares me). I have to warn all of you, this blog is being written after I consumed an entire bottle on wine (3 glasses) in a 1/2 hour. Probably not good for me, but it is done now.

We will keep it short and sweet for tonight, maybe. Iowa's dream football season has hit a huge road bump. Losing our starting QB does not help. We lost to Northwestern again (third time in four years). The losses to Northwestern have caused me to consider a petition to have them thrown out of the conference. They are a non-public school (strike 1), in a Chicago suburb (strike 2), who scare the hell out of me (strike 3, their out). Besides that, we have our biggest game of the decade Saturday against Ohio State. I think Iowa will absolutely cover (a 17.5 point spread is absurd). Will they win, I hope so, since they have to win to get to the Rose Bowl. If they do lose, tune in next week and I will dissect the BCS at-large possibilities for our beloved Hawkeyes.

Unfortunately, Saturday might be remembered for something even worse the Iowa losing to Northwestern, and that is the evil witch Nancy Pelosi getting her health care bill through the House. It was passed 220-215. No, one Republican vote does NOT make it bipartisan. Now the Senate will take it up. I still do not think the public option will get through the Senate, so I am not worried, yet. We will see what happens.

Speaking of politics, the tragic events at Ft. Hood are TERRORISM. If the guy that did this should have been thrown out of the Army earlier but wasn't because he was Muslim and that would be POLITICALLY INCORRECT, than many heads need to roll. They won't because the Obama administration values political correctness and diversity over security. Many career military members are scared to speak up against this, so I will. Political correctness and diversity should be of no concern in our military, only providing the best fighting force should be. Now they are go to try 9/11 mastermind Khalik Sheik Muhammad in a CIVILIAN COURT, not in military court. Nor will we EXECUTE him since he and 4 others have admitted to doing it and have asked for their martyrdom. Combine this with Obama hesitating on sending more troops to Afghanistan, it has been proven that National Security means little to Obama, passing Health Care reform and Cap and Trade are far more important in their eyes than keeping this country safe. This is absolutely repulsive. Hopefully all of you that voted for Barack Hussein Obama have finally realized your mistake.

One provision of Pelosi's health care bill includes a surtax on wealthy people of 5.4% (>$500K single, >$1M joint). Combine this with the end of the Bush tax cuts in 2010 will make the richest among us have their tax rate go from 35% to 45% (35% to 39.6% + 5.4%). People wonder why the unemployment keeps going up, this has a lot to do with it. Most jobs are provided by small businesses. Most small business are taxed at the personal level. This tax increase will eat at the profits of small businesses, disincentivizing expansion, and adding more workers. Combine this with the health care reform penalties for not giving health insurance to employees, and nobody will hire anybody. Tonight, I present my plan. It has three components. One, only income counts, no deductions (unless you have a business), two, all income is taxed at the same rate. This is similar to Steve Forbes tax plan, which is a flat tax. My addition to that is the American Minimum Tax. Currently, around 40% of households pay ZERO income tax. This is wrong, evil, and disgusting. All this does is encourage more people to get into the cart, and fewer people to pull it. My American Minimum Tax will solve this. If my flat tax passes, fewer people will NOT pay income tax. In the event that the flat tax never passes, my American Minimum Tax will get them to pay. Every adult 18 and over MUST pay $500, and every child under 18 must pay $200. If you are a family of four and have a $2,000 tax bill, you owe $2,000. If you are a family of four, and you owe $0, you must pay $1,400. This makes sure everybody pays SOME tax. In the event that you CAN'T pay (not WON'T pay), the debt to society can be worked off at $10/hour doing community service projects (we don't really want debtor's prisons). This plan is fair to the taxpayers of this country, and make the deadbeats, lazy, and welfare queens actually have to pay or do something productive.

Well, that is it for now, I find I type much faster if I am sauced. Anyway, we will talk again.

Tom

College football is a wonderful sport.

2009-10-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hello, all. It has been a while since I have posted a new blog post. With all of the goings on, I thought the time had come to go another round with my blog (the space bar on my new laptop needs to be more helpful).

If you are a fan of college football in the state of Iowa, Saturday was a day to rejoice (unless you only root for UNI, which lost to a bunch of Jackrabbits). Our beloved Iowa Hawkeyes waited until the final play to rescue the game from the fire against Michigan State (sorry to a certain MSU alum, OK, not really). Iowa is in uncharted territory at 8-0. They have 4 games left, 3 at home, all should be winable. They still have to go to Ohio State, but that will be a challenge. Iowa has not won in Columbus since Kirk Herbstreit was QB (1991). Assuming Iowa wins their 3 home games (Northwestern will scare me until the game is over), the worst they should do is 11-1 which should get them no worse than an at-large BCS spot. Iowa is currently #4 in the BCS, thanks to the fact that computers compute and the BCS folks made the computers not consider margin of victory. Iowa is #1 in the computers and #7 or #8 according to the humans. Here is some information to help you follow the rest of the college football season. Realistically, there are 9 teams left in the national championship race. Iowa will only play for the national championship if they are undefeated. If Iowa is 11-1 (assuming loss to OSU), they will play in the Rose Bowl if Penn State beats Ohio State on Nov. 6, if OSU beats PSU and wins out, Iowa would almost certainly get into another BCS game. For Iowa to get into the national championship game, several things need to happen. Of the 9 teams left, Cincinnati and LSU will lose again, and Boise State will not pass Iowa, so that leaves 6 teams. This weekend may dictate Iowa's BCS hopes. The best chances for Texas and USC to lose are this weekend (Texas @ Oklahoma State, USC @ Oregon). It is likely that either Florida or Alabama will get one spot, and the other one will go to Texas if it wins out. If two of the top 3 lose, a crapshoot will ensue between those two teams, as well as USC, Iowa, & TCU (assuming the last three win out). It will be an interesting few weeks. If Iowa is 12-0, I will detail the scenarios at that point to get Iowa to the title game (I can't believe I just put those in the same sentence).

I decide I would finish tonight like I normally do, with some political ranting. Lets start in Iowa. Our current governor has decided to take a machete to the state budget, cutting it 10% effective immediately. Good for the governor in cutting government, but it is bad form to do it "across the board" instead of using a scalpel to eliminate unnecessary government (like most of DHS, multiple school districts in counties of less than 7,000, Public Health, and any funding for non-residents (read illegal immigrants)). Terry Branstad has decided to run for his old job again. For those of you who do not know, Branstad was governor from 1982-1998. He has decided to run. The party elite will likely get behind him, the social conservative wingnuts will get behind Bob Vander Platts, since he will strike down gay marriage with a pen. I will be supporting Christopher Rants, the former Iowa House Leader from Sioux City. The primary is next June, and the winner has a good chance to be governor, since people are starting to grow weary of Culver in particular and Democrats in general. Speaking of our friends in Washington, they still want cap & trade and the public option. Be aware, if either of these pass, your taxes will go up and your freedom will go down. I will elaborate more soon.

Well, that is all for tonight. I will do another post in a couple of weeks, hopefully, when the Hawks are 10-0. Before I go, I want to congratulate Iowa State for beating Nebraska. When a team gets 8 turnovers and allows 7 points, they deserve to win. Anytime Nebraska loses, I enjoy it. When they lose this way, I really enjoy it. Until next time, travel safe, don't eat to much candy, and if anybody wears a catholic schoolgirl costume, send it to me.

Tom

America's National Pastimes, Football, and the Public Option.

2009-09-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

Hello, all. I am back with another round of my insights on the world, good, bad, and otherwise.

As fall approaches, it is time for me to blog about America's two fall pastimes, one relatively new, and one that could be the end of America as we know it. Lets start with the more positive point. Football is back. The six and half month void of no football has ended (no exhibitions games nor arena football2, while fun, don't count). I was smart to sell my tickets to Iowa-UNI game because if I had gone, I would have been swearing and really angry. The Hawkeyes escaped by blocking two field goals in the last 10 seconds, something that never happens. They did survive, and now get to go to another place of horrors, Ames. I will make no public prediction because when I do, it bites me in the ass. As far as the season goes, I will still take 9-3 and run (losing at PSU, MSU, & OSU). The schedule is tough, and if Iowa plays like this, 9-3 could turn into 7-5 or worse.

As far as the NFL goes, it starts this week. A couple of observations, I like my fantasy football team, but I think I screwed up by taking 2 Carolina Panthers in Rounds 1 & 2 (D. Williams & S. Smith). The other observation is, Brett Favre mania has gone so over the top. The Vikings are a nice team, and will probably win the NFC North, but I don't think Favre lasts the season, and the Vikings will blow a game somewhere. I think the NFC is wide open. If you realistically think the Cardinals will repeat as NFC Champs, I have a bridge to sell you. The McNabb-Vick situation will doom the Eagles, Eli Manning still has no receivers, and the moment something goes wrong in Dallas, the Cowboys will be done. I am going to go off the board and pick another franchise that has been the butt of jokes for many years to represent the NFC, the New Orleans Saints. The defense is better, and the offense is dynamic. As far as the AFC goes, all the usual suspects will be there. The Chargers are already in the playoffs, because no other team will be better than 6-10 in that division. New England will win the AFC East, almost by default. The AFC North will be a war between the Steelers, the Ravens, and maybe the Bengals. The AFC South will also be a war between the Titans, the Colts, and maybe the Texans. In the end, I think New England nips Pittsburgh to get back to the Super Bowl, and then destroys New Orleans to win it all. Take these predictions with a grain on salt, as two years ago, when the Giants won the Super Bowl, I predicted Eli Manning would be pulled due to ineffectiveness in favor of Jared Lorenzen (aka the fat Kentucky quarterback).

As far as the other pastime goes, the Masters of the Universe, aka Democrats on Capitol Hill will return to try to once again convince America that 1/6 of our economy should be under control of the government. Mr. Obama will do a major speech to congress on Wednesday, where he will try and do a major sales pitch of his own. Clearly, as the town halls have shown over the past month, the average American does not want the public option. If the Democrats took the public option off of the table, I think health care/health insurance reform could happen. The problem with the public option is that the government can undercut insurers by charging less since the government has no profit motive nor has to pay taxes, they will drive insurers out of business and leave the government as the only option. The language in the house bill basically make catastrophic coverage illegal. If I had my way, this would be the only kind of insurance available. As I have discussed earlier, if people had to pay for more of their own everyday health care needs, and have insurance cover major medical expenses, there would be more shopping for care, and costs would come down. There is a lot of fear out there, and if Liberals ram this down our throat, like I think they will try to do, especially with the recent death of "Old Man" Kennedy (his words, not mine), they will get their hat handed to them in 2010. Unfortunately, it may be too late by then if they get this implemented. Democrats will push other legislation that will be deemed crazy, and we will point that out on this blog as time goes. Hopefully, we will still be a capitalist country this time next year, but who knows?

Well, that is another blog post. Until next time, hope all things are well, Go Hawks, and maybe Barack Obama and his henchpeople will find brains (although I doubt it).

Tom

By the way, please vote in my new poll.

I am now a middle aged man?

2009-08-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody. You loyal blogger back again. I have decided to call an audible. The tax discussion will come up on my next post. Today, I would like to talk about a more important event.

I have been 30 years old for a little more than 8 hours as of this blog post. I am going to celebrate in style, taking a day off from work, going golfing, dinner with friends, lots of adult beverages, and who knows what else. For a few months, I have been dreading turning 30. I don't know why. I have accomplished a lot in my life so far. I am a college graduate, I have my CPA license and a good job, I am financially secure, and I have wonderful family and friends. All of the goals that are in my control, I have basically accomplished. Two goals I have yet to accomplish, and likely will strive to accomplish until the day I die (and probably never will, lets be realistic): becoming a golfer who can shoot in the upper 70's or lower 80's consistently, and becoming a thin person (I have been overweight since I was 5 years old, maybe earlier), two things that are very unlikely to happen.

All this leads me to two interesting questions, am I now a middle aged man, and if so, does this give me a new angle to play in the ongoing quest to find a significant other. Now that I am 30, I feel no different than I was 29, but according to demographers, I am now middle aged. I have noticed more of my scalp recently, does this mean I am balding, I hope not. I still like to eat, and hate cardiovascular activity, so I am still out of shape. This will not get any easier as I enter middle age, I just have to live with it. The other question becomes, will it be easier or harder to find a significant other. As I get older, theoretically, I should get more wisdom (some would say I never had any wisdom to start with). I am more likely to be more resistant to change (I am very resistant now), and more set in my ways. Does this change in the war against my singledom, I don't know. A couple months ago, I broke down and got involved with another dating website. We will see how that goes. I get along great with many women, but they are taken. I don't get along well with single women. Maybe that will change as I get older, who knows. Anyway, hopefully my 30's will be as fun and exciting as my 20's.

Well, that is all for today. I will enjoy my birthday, and we will take it from there. I will add a link a the bottom of this blog of an article from The New Yorker that you might find interesting. Until next time, have a drink in my honor today, and we will talk again.

Tom

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/58195/

How we SHOULD fix health care in the United States.

2009-07-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

After a four month hiatus, and some prodding. I have decided to return to the world of blogging. The format for the foreseeable future will be single issue posts. Hopefully, I will do this on a fairly regular basis. Tonight we tackle how I think we should fix health care.

As you all know, Maybe people of the little persuasion are trying to ramrod health care reform down our throats. Let by President UGH-bama, Witch Pelosi, Old Man Kennedy, "THE UGLIEST MAN IN AMERICA" Waxman, and many other liberal politicians want to send the United States the way of Britain and Canada, and go to socialized medicine. The fear of socialized medicine is that you will NOT be allowed to go to a doctor of your choosing and get a procedure done when you need it. Instead, the "system" will tell you when you when you will get your procedure done (even if you have to put up with pain for 6 months, a year, or more), or even IF you will get you procedure done (if you are deemed to old or to sick or to unproductive, the "system" will not give you care. America has the greatest and most free health care system in the world. Tonight, I will tell you 6 things that can be done to improve our system (i.e. make it cheaper and better) that will be cheaper and better than "the public option" and socialized medicine could ever be.

1. Mandate all people have only CATASTROPHIC health insurance. This means all policies must have at least a $5,000 deductible. Where things get more expensive is when large bills must be covered. This will also force people to be more diligent with their use of simpler procedures that don't cost much. This will make people shop around for less expensive stuff while backstopping them for bigger claims. Partner this with health savings accounts that you can keep forever, and the money save will be large.

2. Allow emergency rooms discretion. This would prevent the same people from continuously showing up and getting care that could be used on more needy patients. Most of the people that use the emergency room don't have emergencies, and many won't end up paying for it, or know someone else will (i.e. Medicaid). If the emergency room turns some people away, and sends them to a clinic, where the cost of care is cheaper, money will be saved, and I think this will improve quality.

3. Make it tougher for malpractice suits to be successful. Most insanely large malpractice awards are done by over sympathetic juries that don't understand the complexity of the procedures that are done. All malpractice suits should be heard by three judge panels that are less likely to award large damage awards. Also, plaintiffs shall not be allowed to go "jury shopping" by going to certain locations (even across state lines) that are more likely to award larger damage awards.

4. Have doctors and hospitals tell you the price up front, or put it on a menu. In every other line of business, you know what things cost before you buy something (at the very least, you have an idea), except medical care. This, combined with high deductible health plans mentioned in point one, should make it cheaper for everybody.

5. Have specialized clinics where the poor can go. Similar to our legal system, where firms do pro bono work, and where public defenders are available. If we can get these people into these clinics instead of the emergency room, they would be in better shape, and so would taxpayers. Doctors could work one day a month in the clinic for the poor, and can make their normal rates the rest of the time. If we go to a socialized system, good doctors will leave, and ony mediocre (and many poor English speaking) doctors will remain.

6. If a woman has a baby and goes on welfare, we temporary fix her so she can't have any more kids. The mother and her first child are already on welfare, so why is she having more babies that the taxpayers not ony have to pay for medical care of having the kid, but then also paying to take care of the kid (or kid 3, 4, or in the case of "Octomom," 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14).

These are my thoughts, I am sick and tired of the poor getting everything for doing nothing while the taxpayer only gets the bill. 43% of American households do not pay income tax. My next post will explain how I would fix the tax code so EVERYBODY pays their fair share. Until then, do everything in your power to prevent health care reform with a public option that will lead to socialized medicine from passing.

Good night.
Tom

P.S. Henry Waxman really is ugly.

It is time for Madness???

2009-03-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody. I am glad this is a long month, so I can get two blog posts in. Here is the first one:

#1. Today, the bracket was unveiled for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. I went through the process along with a friend of trying to predict the field. For the third year in a row, we predicted all but one team correctly. While that sounds great, I consider it average. 15 minutes of research should help you get 58-60 of the 65 teams. Understanding college basketball should get to 62. Then it is a crapshoot. This year, 33 of the 34 at-large bids were easy. The 34th was a challenge. We went with Creighton, instead Arizona got in. This brings up the classic debate, should the last teams in be 2nd or 3rd place teams from smaller conferences or 6th-8th place teams from major (BCS) conferences. This year, Arizona (6th in Pac-10) was picked over Creighton (co-1st in Missouri Valley, 11-1 in last 12 games), San Diego State, (4th in Mountain West, and got to tournament final), and St. Mary's (2nd in West Coast, lost in tournament final). Many pundits are inclined to go with the major conference team because they get more exposure, play a tougher schedule, and use this argument, "if we put (mid-major team) into (BCS conference), they wouldn't have any chance at the tournament." My retort is simple, until major conference teams are more willing to play mid-major teams at the mid-major team, the mid-major will get some slack in my book. It is almost impossible to get a BCS team to travel to a non-BCS team's gym and play a road game, unless it is in the same state. Many good quality mid-major schools (Gonzaga, Creighton, Utah, Butler, etc.) won't play mercenary games (where you play a big school on the road without a return game), and even trying to get two-for-one's is a challenge. Here is my solution: every team must play three TRUE road games out of conference, including a least one in a non-BCS conference gym. Will this happen, I doubt it, but I think it might help to get more comparable schedules to give a fair judgement to non-BCS conference schools, since getting only 4 at-large bids is a travesty.

#2. Speaking of big institutions running over smaller ones, the tax code is getting more progressive (booooo!!!). I have spend many a blog post bitching and moaning about the UGH-bama agenda. Tonight, I would like to unveil how if I ruled the country with an iron fist (I hear people running for Canada now) how the income tax code would work. Every dollar that is earned by either individuals or businesses should be taxed at the same rate. I would set that rate between 15 and 20%. Currently, we have a progressive tax system (soon to be even more progressive) of rates between 10 and 35% for individuals/couples and 15-35% for businesses. This is an incentive to earn more and work harder, since every dollar of earnings would have the same percentage taken out of it for taxes. Dividends and capital gains would be taxed at 5% to encourage investment. Deductions would be eliminated, and exemptions would be $10,000 per person with $2,000 per dependent. I would also add the "everybody pays" tax. This is to assure that every household in the country contributes something to the government, has skin in the game. Every adult between 18 and 70 would be required to pay at least $500 in tax plus $200 for every dependent (including those under 18). If you make enough income so your tax bill is greater than $500, you will pay your wages times the effective rate (i.e. $35,000 wages-$10,000 exemption * 17% = $4,250). If you tax bill is under $500, or higher with kids, you will have to pay the difference. If you don't have the money, you can do community service at a rate of $10/hour to eliminate your "debt to society." The reason this "everybody pays" tax is vital is that around 1/3 of households pay ZERO income tax, many of those pay LESS THAN ZERO tax thanks to the worst law of all time, the "earned income tax credit" which gives welfare queens the money to go buy actual crowns while they birth kids they can't afford to raise (the "Octomom" would be a good example of this). In New York City, where around 10 million people live, about 40,000 households pay HALF of the income tax. This is where we are headed in the country at large if we continue along the path we are going, the tax recipients will tell the taxpayers how much and on what tax dollars get spent, and liberals who crave power will go along for the ride. Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity, and socialism is inherently evil. Keep saying that, and you will eventually see things my way, I hope.

#3. I have had a few people tell me that I am at times very negative and very pessimistic about the world, and things going on in my life. I know that is one thing I must work on, constantly. The two biggest reasons for this are that not enough people agree with me (if they did, we would have different leaders and I would be less pessimistic), and that I tend to overthink and overplan things. The biggest problem I have is usually when I try to be spontaneous, it usually blows up in my face, especially with women. I also feel like that if I don't plan, I get out of my "comfort zone" and when that happens, I lose control, and I am not comfortable. I know that I have enjoyed some of my best moments when I let go and go with the flow. I have also done some of the worst things I have ever done when I go with the flow. The fear of doing the latter makes it really hard to go with the flow. I also really like structure. I am probably the only person who faked sick to get out of school when a substitute teacher was there (in Kindergarten no less). Most kids loved having subs, I dreaded it, since it completely ruined the structure. I know that as I have gotten older, I have only gotten more rigid in my structure and my lack of spontaneity. As, I approach my 30th birthday, I wonder what I need to do to break out of this, but since that makes me uncomfortable, I may never break out of it. Oh, well. We will just keep plugging along, and see what happens. I will try and do it with a smile on my face, while being more spontaneous, less rigid, and hopefully, more enjoyable to be around.

Well that is the end of another exciting adventure in my world. And remember, you heard it hear first, North Dakota State 76, Kansas 74 (and if I am wrong, remember, I picked Mississippi to win it all only to have Bryce Drew and Valparaiso break my heart and my bracket 11 years ago, and I will never live it down).

Tom

P.S. Guys, wearing a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" button will NOT get a girl to kiss you, it is more likely to get you slapped Trust me, I know.

The most frustrating month of my life.

2009-02-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

Hello, everybody. I am back to enlighten the world once again on the ways of the world. At least from my eyes.

#1. February 2009 will go down as officially the most frustrating month of my life. It started with an entertaining Super Bowl, and has gone significantly downhill from there. The transformation of the United States of America into the United SOCIALIST States of America is alive and well. The President, Mr. UGH-Bama has gotten practically everything he wants. With the Wicked Witch if the West, Nancy Pelosi, the Banking Queen Barney Frank, Monorail Harry Reid, and Joe "we have website numbers and I encourage wheelchair bound people to stand up" Biden running the country, we will be going through absolute governmental and budgetary hell for the foreseeable future. Combine that with cold weather, spending around 225 hours at work in 4 weeks, the stock market at lows not seen since I was in high school, the Daytona 500 getting called due to rain, my annual reminder that I am still alone, and the general doom and gloom everywhere, and I along with everybody else will be happy to say goodbye to February, 2009. Fortunately, March will be here in a couple of days. Unfortunately, UGH-Bama, the Witch, the Queen, the Monorail Salesman, and Joe "who apparently no one messes with" will still be there. So will the long hours at work, but at least we are on the downhill side, thankfully. The weather is getting warmer, hopefully golf will happen soon. The NCAA Basketball tournament is coming up, so that will help. The stock market probably won't go up, mainly thanks to the crew mentioned above, along with the general doom and gloom. We will lose an hour of sleep, which is just what I need since getting sleep is hard to come by anyway. So hopefully, March is better than February, since it could be much worse, could it?

#2. One of my pet peeves was reignited this week with the news that the University of Northern Iowa will be cutting baseball after this season unless it raises over $1,000,000. The pet peeve I am referring to is Title IX. For those of you who do not know, Title IX was legislation passed in the 70's mandating that public schools (including colleges & universities) must offer extra-curricular activities in roughly the same amount to women as to men. This misguided law is being applied in a manner that forces schools to cut men's non-revenue sports while sparring women's equally non-revenue sports (more likely, even less non-revenue than men's). The numbers of men's gymnastics, wrestling, golf, and baseball teams around the country have shrunk significantly, while the numbers of women's soccer, and especially rowing teams have expanded greatly. Now, before the ladies get their panties in a bunch and call me a chauvinist, hear me out. The main reason that athletic departments make money is due primarily to two sports, football, and to a lesser extent, men's basketball. Football is the cash cow that the non-revenue sports suckle on to survive. Most men's basketball programs do well, too. Virtually all other college athletics lose money at every school in the country. Title IX mandates that scholarships must be awarded based on the proportion of the student body male to female. Most major universities are roughly 55% female and 45% male, since colleges are very feminized, but that is another issue for another post. When you throw football's 85 scholarships into the equation, and you see that there have to be a lot of women's sports added to make this all work. Two things to keep in mind, fewer women are interested than men in playing sports, and fewer people want to watch women play sports, especially in stand alone events. This has gotten so desperate that women's beach volleyball is being seriously discussed as a new sport mandated by the NCAA. Finally, they have hit upon a solution! In reality, if football's scholarships were not included in the equation, I would have no problem with Title IX. It is still not right that men are losing scholarships because of women, but that is the way it is, and with the Witch running things, don't look for it to change anytime soon.

#3. Finally tonight, I would like to discuss another pet peeve of mine, bicyclists. This is one group of people I have never understood. First of all, let me get my bias out of the way. I never learned how to ride a bike. I lived on a farm as a kid, so where was I going to bike too? My other bias is that a bicyclist ran into my car in college and I got a ticket. Anyway, my big issue is our wonderful state senate passing a law ramping up fines for not giving bicyclists 5 feet of clearance with a car, and abolishing laws forcing bicycles onto the sidewalk, which in my opinion, where they belong. Throw on top on that this state's desire to build more "bike trails" and "bike lanes." Bicyclists have rights, but they need to stay the hell out of the way of cars. In Iowa, people get around in cars, not bicycles. This is not New York City or China, we uses cars. I am not advocating intentionally giving bicyclists grief, but they do deserve scorn, and I will gladly provide it.

Well that is it. Maybe I will be in a better mood in time for my next blog post. I highly doubt it, though. Anyway, until next time.

Tom

Socialists and valentines.

2009-02-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

Howdy, all. Your blogger is back again to discuss whatever I think is interesting. Here we go.

#1. We are all screwed. Thanks to all of you people who elected Barack "the Messiah" UGH-Bama as our 44th President of the United States, and the most evil person in the United States, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, we are all screwed. Since Democrats run everything, and three RINO (Republicans in Name Only) Republicans capitulated to the Dems, the Stimulus Package (aka, the Porkulous Bill) is very likely to become law. This includes a lot of spending, wealth redistribution, and an increase of centralization of power in Washington. Unfortunately, the things that are needed to get this economy righted (tax rate reductions, not spending like drunken sailors, letting free markets do their thing), are not going to happen anytime soon. As a country, we have given many BILLIONS of dollars to help the poor, guess what, THEY ARE STILL POOR, AND IT IS NEVER ENOUGH!!! 2009 will go down as "the war on achievement." The masses have gotten people elected who believe it is OK to take large sums of money from people who take advantage of the greatness of this country and achieve success and give it to people who are lazy, stupid, and have only one great skill, the ability to WHINE. This was on display at a town hall meeting our President had today in Ft. Myers, FL. One woman asked Obama why he can't "give" her a new car, a new kitchen, and a new bathroom. A man asked why his unemployment benefits ($1,100/month) were not equal to his salary he used to get at his job ($3,000/month), and another man asked Obama to get him a different job since he has been working at McDonald's for four years. This proves one thing, the average person in this country is a lazy idiot who wants everything given to them. What has our country become. Democrats like this because they know that if they give these people some of what they want,t hey will keep voting for them. Combine that with a President a lot of people put in the same category as Jesus, and you get sheer lunacy, and an insanely large government Porkulous bill that will give a net result of tens of thousands of debt for each man, woman, and child in this country, and either a stagnant or shrinking Gross Domestic Product. This will be a rough ride.

#2. February is about my least favorite month on the calendar. Not only am I buried up to my neck in tax returns, football has ended for six plus months, and I am sick of winter (although it has been around 60 degrees the last four days). I also have to put of with the dumbest day of the year: Valentine's Day. Or as I like to call it, "a holiday invented by the flower, candy, greeting card, teddy bear, and pajamagram industry." Or alternately, "Let's remind Tom that he will be spending another February 14th single and alone just like every year before this one." One year when I was in college, Valentine's Day fell on the same day as the Daytona 500. So, being clever, I put a sign on my door saying, "Happy Daytona 500 Day" in pink. I was the only one who thought it was funny. I have basically given up on finding a woman to share my life with. There are ZERO quality single women in Atlantic, and I don't have the ability to charm any women that I might be able to import. So, I have resigned myself to singledom, which is not all bad. People have told me that I shouldn't try so hard, or to just "let it happen." Unfortunately, I have always lived by the motto, "if you want it badly enough, you will make it happen." I can't do that with dating, which is hard to accept. Maybe someday, it will happen, and if not, I can save my money on Valentine's Day.

#3. Speaking of the Daytona 500, it is this Sunday. It is either the biggest or second biggest race of the year (the Indianapolis 500 is up there, too). NASCAR has grown a wave of popularity, even if most of my friends make fun of me for liking it. However, the last few years, the sport has kind of hit a wall. The economy is making finding companies willing to pay $10-$20 million a year to sponsor a car difficult to find. This combined with the average NASCAR fan being on a lower socio-economic scale than other sports fans, and that many of the drivers have become very bland, has caused NASCAR to have problems. It is still the second most popular sport in the country (based on ratings), but that popularity is waning. Many races are long and kind of dull. Anytime something exciting happens, usually NASCAR fines the driver for "actions detrimental to stock car racing." The cars have little engineering room, based on tight rules. Also, there might be races without full fields (this will certainly be true at lower levels). NASCAR is good sport, I still enjoy it, and the Daytona 500 will be exciting. But, if NASCAR is not careful, fan support could fall off a cliff.

Well, that is all. There will be another blog post soon. Until then, good night.

Tom

Welcome to 2009.

2009-01-19T18:38:00.001-08:00

Hello, everybody. I FINALLY got around to writing my first blog post of the new year. It has been three weeks since the last one, hopefully I will do another post next week.

1. Tomorrow is a very historic day in the United States of America. The Inauguration of Barack Obama as the President of the United States. Having a black man being sworn in as President will be a very inspirational moment for many people in this country. I will respect the moment and the $150,000,000 parties that will follow, but it will be a very tough road for Mr. Obama to be successful. On the foreign policy front, look for little noticeable change early. Troops will stay in Iraq for the foreseeable future (eventually, a base will be installed). We will add more troops in Afghanistan to try and damage Al-Qaeda to a greater extent (it isn't in good shape now). Guantanamo Bay will remain open since we don't want to bring these terrorists to U.S. soil. However, some issues will arise, will the "wall" between the FBI and the CIA return as was prevalent during the Clinton years, and contributed to the 9/11 attacks? Also, will other countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Russia try to take advantage on our new administration to try some funny business. With low oil prices, it is less likely, but who knows. Domestically, the economy sucks, and likely will not improve soon. It will take more than words and government spending to drastically change things. As a country, we need to feel more economic pain to clean out the dead wood. Marginal tax rate cuts are the medicine the economy needs, but the people running the show (DEMOCRATS!!!) will NEVER do that. Tax cuts to Democrats are like a juicy steak to a vegetarian, it looks like a good idea, but their religion/belief system will not allow them to act on it. Instead, government spending will accelerate (instead of shrink, like it should do (if Republicans would have SHRANK government spending when they ran things, they likely would still be running things)), and Democrats will give "tax cuts" in the form of refunding FICA taxes on a temporary basis (in reality, it is more wealth redistribution, which is the altar for which Democrat politicians bow to). 2009 will be a year of survival, but little else. By the way, from now on, the Obama administration will be referred to as the UGH-Bama administration.

2. The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl. If I would have uttered that sentence anytime in the last 42 1/2 years, I would have been looked at as just plain kooky. This has been the worst franchise in the NFL in the Super Bowl era. They have won one playoff game before this year since 1947. They have been consistently bad, but a former Iowa Barnstormer turned NFL MVP turned washed-up-has-been has led the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl. Kurt Warner has cemented himself as a Hall of Famer, and they might actually win the Super Bowl. They will play one of the most successful teams in the Super Bowl era. The Pittsburgh Steelers will attempt to be the first team to win 6 Super Bowls and their 2nd in 4 years, with two different coaches. It will be an interesting Super Bowl, and I will be rooting for the Cardinals, but the Steelers will win 27-17.

3. I am sick of winter. I knew when I was sick of winter and winter hadn't even started yet, I knew we were in trouble. We are about halfway done, and hopefully, the weather prognosticators are right, and the second half will be better. With winter being my busy season doing taxes, it makes things more complicated. Anyway, I need to figure out how to make my life more lively. I am bored. I realized this weekend I have "cabin fever." I am trying to think of ways to help this, but when you work 8-6 or 7 (sometimes later), it is hard to find time and energy to do much. I will get out of town for a couple of days at the end of the month, but in February and March, I have no good ideas. Going to watch average or worse college basketball teams doesn't do much for me, and it is too early for golf. I will think of something, maybe? After reading what I just wrote, I realized that I sounded whiny and depressed. I am neither of those, just in need on excitement and enthusiasm. By April, I will have both of those.

Well, that is the end of another round of my blog. Hope your enjoyed it, or at least got some amusement out of it. See you next time.

Best regards.
Tom

2008-The Year That Was.

2008-12-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my 2008 Year in Review. As your faithful blogger, I will try and encapsulate the entire year of things I see as important. Here we go.

#1. Obviously the top story of 2008 was the election of Barack Obama as the new President of the United States. At the beginning of the year, I was afraid that Hillary Clinton would be President, and I would have to consider following through on my threat of many years ago of having to find a new country if she became President. January 3 was the night of the Iowa Caucuses, and on that night, I should have known the trouble that lie ahead for Republicans in 2008. The guy that won the Republican Caucus that night (Mike Huckabee), and the guy who later won the Republican nomination (John McCain) received fewer votes at my Caucus site in Atlantic than what I felt were three much better candidates (Fred Thompson (my vote), Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani), and as many votes as Ron Paul (who economically we might want to listen to). Of the 6 candidates, my 6th choice won in Iowa that night, while my 5th choice won the Republican nomination. The bigger problem lies in the fact that for every person at a Republican Caucus site, 2 1/2 people were at a Democrat Caucus site. Most of those voted for Barack Obama. As the months went buy, John McCain made a bold selection for VP by picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Barack Obama selected Joe Biden, who made the gaffe of 2008 by asking a Missouri state representative to stand up and be recognized, however the representative was wheelchair bound. Oops. Anyway, when the economy cratered in the fall, which will be discussed later, that doomed McCain. Eventually, Obama won by flipping several states (OH, FL, IA, IN, VA, NC, CO, NM) while McCain couldn't flip any states out of the Obama column. The media loved the fact that Obama won, so did the people who thought Bush was a 4-letter word. I didn't realize the visceral hatred and anger toward Bush, which in the end left McCain and Republicans with no chance. Democrats consolidated their majorities on the US House and Senate (hopefully Minnesota gets some sense and figures out a way so Al Franken doesn't steal an election (ballot interpretation is equivalent to stealing, crediting votes based on "intent" does not fly in my book. Al Gore would have been President if his voters could have just properly read the ballot in Florida in 2000) for US Senate). We will see how the Democrats lead in 2009, but I will almost guarantee it will be more expensive, involve larger government, and be inefficient.

#2. The collapse of the global economy will no doubt be the second biggest story of 2008. US Markets will wind up losing between 40-45% of their value from the beginning of the year. Global markets are down more. Oil ran up to $147/barrel around July 4th, and have dropped all the way to below $40/barrel at Christmas. House prices went down anywhere between 10 and 30% around the country. Banks and investment firms either received government funds, got bought at fire sale prices, or went bankrupt. The big three American automakers are virtually broke. Easy credit taken out by consumers has turned into an anvil around their necks. What should be done and what will be done are likely to be two different things. Marginal income tax and capital gains rates should come down to spur investment by the private sector. Instead, wealthy Americans will be asked to pay more so income can be redistributed to the "poor." We will give more stimulus checks to consumers, who will do what they did with previous stimulus checks, save it or pay off debt. The fact that our government so blatantly encourages people to spend money is wrong (Bush did this after 9/11, and I didn't like it then either). The national savings rate went from 9% in the mid-1980's to virtually 0% or less 20+ years later. We could have a $1,500,000,000,000 federal budget deficit in FY 2009. With the increase in spending and the decrease in wealth, the total federal debt (including unfunded social security, medicare, and medicaid liabilities) is close to our national wealth (both around $67 trillion). This is a scary time. I think eventually the stock market will go back up, and eventually house prices will bottom and turn. Government will not likely do their part and curtail spending. When eventually is, I do not know. I will be within the next 10 years, beyond that, I make no guarantee. Unfortunately, we will have to deal with a nasty bout with inflation once things start churning again. With all the money the US Treasury is printing to expand their balance sheet, this can only lead to inflation in the future. Hopefully, it will not lead to 70's style stagflation. Things should be better economically in 2009. At least, I hope so. Otherwise, it will be a long and depressing year.

#3. 2008 was a remarkable year in sports. It started with the march to perfection by the New England Patriots, only to be derailed by a 6-loss New York Giants team. The Patriots went to a coronation, and ended up at a massacre. It ended with the march of antiperfection by the Detroit Lions. I could never fathom an NFL team going 0-16. It happened. Some Detroit fans are proud of it and buying t-shirts commemorating the achievement, or lack thereof. But in reality, 2008 will be remembered for two men, Tiger Woods, and Michael Phelps. Tiger Woods won the US Open golf tournament basically on one leg. Tiger Woods played (and walked) 91 holes of golf in 5 days with a torn ACL and a double stress fracture in his tibia. Tiger Woods defeated journeyman (and good guy) Rocco Mediate in an 18-hole playoff which became 19-holes since they were tied after 18 holes. Tiger did what he always does, make clutch putts, and play better than everybody else. But the fact that he did it on one good leg is even more amazing. The scary thing is Tiger could be even better in 2009 with two working legs. Most years, this would easy win athletic feat of the year, but not in a year where one man wins eight gold medals in the Olympics. Michael Phelps captivated Americans with all of his races. I can always say I saw Michael Phelps swim, since I attended a day of the US Swim Trials in Omaha in July, and he swam a qualifying race that night. Also, NBC deserves credit (which is rare, especially when it involves Olympic coverage) for getting the swimming finals to be held in the morning in China (which happened to be prime time in the US). Phelps won 8 gold medals in 9 days (3 in relays), and took America on a wild ride. In race two, the 4x100m free relay, Phelps lead off, and the final leg started with the Americans behind, but Jason Lezak made up a body length in the last 50 meters and caught the French swimmer to win by .08 of a second. In race seven, the 100m butterfly, Phelps trailed Croatian Milorad Cavic all the way, only to catch him with a final half stroke to win by .01 of a second. All of the races, especially those two got people excited about the Olympics, and yelling at their TV's, rooting, USA, USA.

#4. Finally, tonight (I decided to condense the year in review into four points), I will discuss my year. It was a good year. I drove to San Antonio, TX, and saw a part of the world I have never seen before. Driving through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas was interesting. I saw several historical and interesting sights, including the Alamo, the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas Motor Speedway, the National Cowboy and Western Museum, and a memorial to the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. My vacation was very enjoyable. I also went to my 10 year high school class reunion in Sibley, Iowa. It was great to see friends I haven't seen in along time. I also took a trip to Chicago for a wedding that was actually done in Greek. I can now say I have actually experienced a Greek wedding. On a personal note, I shot 81 (+12 over par) at my local golf course, which is far and away my best round ever. Hopefully in 2009 I can break 80. I am also still single, with the usual dating misadventures I seem to have every year. Maybe 2009 will be my year. Although in 2009, I will turn 30 (Gasp!). Hopefully, that will give me wisdom, although I doubt it.

That is it. I hope your 2009 is a good year (from a national perspective, 2008 can't end soon enough), so do I. Happy New Year.

Tom

IX

2008-12-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all of my loyal readers. Hope you all have a good holiday season. This will be my second to last post of the year. The week of Christmas, I will do a Year in Review blog. Happy reading.

#1. The college football bowl games have been announced, and overall, this could be the best overall slate of bowl games in many years. I will rundown what I think will be the 10 most interesting matchups this bowl season with predictions (all rankings based on final AP poll):

1. BCS National Championship Game: #1 Florida vs. #2 Oklahoma. This one has to be first since it will decide the national championship. Oklahoma scores lots of points. Florida has looked unstoppable since the loss to Mississippi. Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford both play well. In the end, Florida's defense will do enough to win: Florida 38, Oklahoma 28.

2. Rose Bowl: #5 USC vs. #6 Penn State. USC does not have a very good offense, but they have a really good defense. Penn State needs to win this game to give the Big Ten some credibility back. This could be Coach Paterno's last game. USC will do just enough to win: USC 17, Penn State 13.

3. Fiesta Bowl: #3 Texas vs. #10 Ohio State. Texas still believes it should be playing in the National Championship game (probably should be). Ohio State makes their 5th trip to Arizona for a bowl game in 7 seasons. Ohio State needs to win this game to give the Big Ten some credibility also. Texas offense too much: Texas 31, Ohio State 24.

4. Sugar Bowl: #4 Alabama vs. #7 Utah. David vs. Goliath. Alabama is one of the most successful programs in history, and Coach Saban has brought them back. Utah gets their BCS shot by going 12-0 through an underrated Mountain West Conference. Utah shows well, but Alabama gets it done: Alabama 24, Utah 20.

5. Cotton Bowl: #8 Texas Tech vs. #20 Mississippi. Texas Tech believes the got jobbed by going 11-1 and not getting in the BCS. Mississippi has played really well the second half of the season. This is the upset special: Mississippi 34, Texas Tech 31.

6. Poinsettia Bowl: #9 Boise State vs. #11 TCU. Boise State has a really good offense. TCU has a really good defense. This game will show why we need a college football playoff. Absolutely the best pre-Christmas bowl game I can remember: TCU 35, Boise State 31.

7. Holiday Bowl: #13 Oklahoma State vs. #15 Oregon. Oh, to be a college football fan in San Diego, both teams have a lot of offensive firepower. Oregon has recovered from losing multiple quarterbacks to injury. Oklahoma State took Oklahoma and Texas to the wall. This game may last 4 hours: Oklahoma State 52, Oregon 45.

8. Capital One Bowl: #16 Georgia vs. #19 Michigan State. Georgia was preseason #1 and ended up out of the BCS. Michigan State goes as far as Javon Ringer goes. Michigan State needs to win this game to give the Big Ten some credibility: Georgia 34, Michigan State 24.

9. Outback Bowl: Iowa vs. South Carolina. This will not be one of the best bowl games, but I am biased. South Carolina has no offense. Iowa gets Shonn Greene rolling in second half: Iowa 27, South Carolina 10.

10. Sun Bowl: #18 Pittsburgh vs. #24 Oregon State. Always have to root for the Beavers, and root against Dave Wannstedt: Oregon State 34, Pittsburgh 17.

10a. Hawaii Bowl: Notre Dame vs. Hawaii. The low point of the Charlie Weis era and Notre Dame football history. Ha, Ha, Ha: Hawaii 38, Notre Dame 14.

#2. Finally, the Republicans got some backbone. Too bad it was a month AFTER the election. The Republicans in the Senate would not go along with a handout to the Big Three Automakers (GM, Ford, Chrysler) to give them money, or in actuality, to give the UAW money. This is the first salvo in a war that will be fought in Washington in 2009. Democrats and their Union thug backers want to change the rules on how unions are organized. They want to change from the secret ballot, which has been a fair way to determine whether unions should organize, to card check, where if a majority of workers signs cards saying they want to organize, they can do so. This will lead to many issues, including intimidation by union organizers of people who want nothing to do with a union. It will also make it more difficult to remove bad workers. As I have always said, "UNIONS ENCOURAGE MEDIOCRITY!!!" Another area of this war is how to balance Iowa's budget. The easiest way is to furlough state workers for one day or more a month, since we have to many state workers, and we can't fire people since they are in a union. Government employees, including teachers, should not be allowed to unionize by law, since they should be accountable to taxpayers. Unfortunately, most government workers belong to AFSCME, and most teachers belong to a union also. Unions had their place 100 years ago, but have outlived their usefulness in a globalized society. Capitalism works best when unions are reasonable, and bad workers can be chased out. Unfortunately, we are turning into socialists, which is a bad thing for this country.

#3. I have become a member of the Atlantic Jaycees. We are going to be doing our annual adopt-a-family project this coming week. It consists of giving food to needy families in the town of Atlantic. As many of you know, I have been critical of the government giving taxpayer money to the poor by redistributing wealth. But any organization that wants to do things for the poor is a great thing (especially by giving them things to help them, NOT MONEY!!!). I need to be a more charitable person. This is my attempt at doing that. Another area of helping the poor is the promotion of giving a little extra of your money to help pay other people's heating bills. In my opinion, this is nothing more than a ponzi scheme. Here is how it works: 1. Poor people whine about the fact that they can't pay their bills (they owe the electric/gas company). 2. A charity organized by said electric/gas company encourages people to help the poor pay their bills. 3. The citizenry gives their hard earned money to the charity organized by the electric/gas company. 4. The charity organized by the electric/gas company takes the money and adds it to their bottom line by covering some on the debt the poor have to the electric/gas company. This to me just sounds like more subsidizing the poor. We do that enough, it is called paying taxes. I am not a heartless person, but I get tired of the poor whining they have no money. If you don't have any money, work harder. When companies use people's giving instincts to fatten their bottom line since their deadbeat customers won't pay, that is disgusting and un-American.

That is it for now. Remember, I will post my year in review the week of Christmas. Until then, I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Tom

Blog the Ocho.

2008-12-04T18:52:00.001-08:00

Hello, everybody. Hopefully everybody enjoyed Turkey day festivities. After a Thanksgiving sabbatical, and a knockdown drag out fight with my network card, we are off and running again.

#1. An annual rite of passage this time of year is bashing of the BCS. The big issue this year will not be who plays in the National Championship game, but in the Big XII championship, which uses the BCS standings as a tiebreaker. It is pretty clear that Texas and Oklahoma are better than Texas Tech. It is also clear that had this been any other conference with a championship game, Texas would have gone because they defeated Oklahoma. But according to the Big XII rules, Oklahoma gets to go to the Big XII title game against Missouri. Unless they lay an egg (see 2003, Kansas State 35, Oklahoma 7), they will play the winner of Alabama-Florida for the national championship. As BCS outrages go, this is not as big as some, and in reality, it is a Big XII issue, not a BCS issue. I could devote an entire blog to BCS outrages over the years, but I would bore people to tears. I will limit it to the top 3: #1 2003: USC, LSU, and Oklahoma all end season with one loss, Oklahoma losses Big XII championship game (see above), and still goes to National Championship game despite USC being ranked #1 in both major polls. LSU beat Oklahoma 14-7 in a really dull game (played immediately after two NFL wild-card games which added to the dullness). #2 2001: With the following #2 (or in line to be #2) teams losing in this order in 2001 in a 3 week span after Thanksgiving (the schedule was all screwed up due to the rescheduling of games due to the 9/11 attacks): Nebraska, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, it came down to the result of a rescheduled game between TCU and Southern Mississippi to determine if a 2 loss Colorado team, or a 1 loss Nebraska team who lost their last game to Colorado 62-36, would play in the title game. The team that should have played Miami was the 1 loss Pac-10 Champs Oregon. Miami ended up killing Nebraska so it in reality was a moot point. #3 1998: Kansas State blowing a large 4th quarter lead costing them a shot at the National Championship game, and despite finishing #3 in the BCS, they did NOT get one of the then two BCS at-large spots (Florida, at 9-2 did). A rule was later added that if you finished in the top 4 in the final BCS standings, you were guaranteed a spot. There are many more BCS outrages, and in a slow week in the future, I will tell you more.

#2. It Christmas time in this great country. One issue always come up this time of year. The battle of a small minority of the population trying to ruin Christmas for the large majority. The atheists who don't recognize Christmas believe it should not be in the public square vs. the rest of us, who wish these people would find something better to do. This years example takes us to the Washington State Capitol in Olympia. A sign put up by Atheists saying there is no God is being allowed in the Capitol building (3rd floor) next to a traditional Christmas display. Now this is nothing new. Every year, some bureaucrat decides political correctness MUST trump everything else. The classic battle is the Nativity scene on city property (or at the county courthouse). Some retail businesses have ordered their employees not to say "Merry Christmas" to customers, but instead say "Happy Holidays" in order not to offend. There has been blowback of recent, and the pendulum is swinging back the other way, but this is another thing to pay attention to as the Christmas season continues.

#3. I have had a request from a blog reader to discuss the sport of hockey. I will consider any reasonable request for any topic, as long as I want to talk about it. Anyway, hockey players are tremendous athletes. First of all, they can skate. I can't skate. I got around a hockey rink once with much help, and was so petrified at the end, that I have vowed not to get on ice skates again. Hockey players in the NHL lose up to 10 pounds of weight in a game. There is nothing more suspenseful than playoff overtime hockey, where it is sudden death, and can go on forever (I remember staying up until 1:30 AM watching a 5OT hockey game). I like to go to a game or two a year. I am going to a Des Moines Buccaneers game this weekend. Unfortunately, hockey does not translate well to TV (better in HD), and when in the fall of 1994, the NHL it could have taken 3rd away from MLB in sports popularity, now struggles to hang on to 8th, behind NFL, college football (lower in 1994), MLB, NBA, college basketball, NASCAR, and PGA Golf. The Stanley Cup is the greatest trophy in sports. It is the same trophy that they have used for over 100 years. Every member of the winning team is engraved on it. Jello molds have been made in it, babies have bathed in it, and in 1907, it was used as a flower pot (I did research that, the other two examples were from ESPN commercials). Hockey is a great sport, and I encourage you to go check out a hockey game as a good use of you entertainment dollar.

That is all for this week. I will have a new blog post next Thursday.

Merry Christmas (or Baa Humbug)
Tom

Lucky number seven.

2008-11-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the seventh post on my blog. My apologies for the tardiness. We had our first snow of the year this morning. Fortunately, it shouldn't stay too long.

#1. I am going to give a lengthy discussion on the state of college football on my next post (Wednesday, since Thursday is Turkey Day, and I will be with family). So today, I will give my predictions for the rest of the NFL season. There are six games to go (five for Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, who played Thursday). This season, there appears to be a lot of bad NFL teams, and I feel I can eliminate many teams from playoff discussion. Many more than years past. My predictions for the AFC are as follows: Division winners: N.Y. Jets, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, San Diego (could be 8-8), Wild Cards: New England & Indianapolis. NFC predictions: Division Winners: NY Giants, Green Bay (could be 8-8), Tampa Bay, Arizona. Wild Cards: Carolina and remarkably Dallas. Once the playoffs hit, it is completely wide open in both conferences. Wild Cards could easily make the Super Bowl in both leagues. On the worst team in the NFL watch, the Lions are 0-10, the Chiefs are 1-9, and the Bengals are 1-9-1. My prediction a few weeks ago was a combined six wins for these teams. They are at 2 wins (I could put 2 1/2, but a tie is NOT 1/2 a win). My prediction of six looks pretty good. Finally, Donovan McNabb has proven how overrated and dumb he is by stating he didn't know NFL games can end in a tie. His whining and complaining and being put of a pedestal for ten years has worn thin. Since Eagles fans cheer when guys get hurt, I will cheer when that crybaby idiot McNabb get his.

#2. The big three domestic automakers (GM, Ford, Chrysler) went to Washington, DC this week to try and get a bailout from the federal government. Combined, they want $25,000,000,000 to help with a cash flow crunch because nobody wants to buy any cars. These three companies are the epitome of my mantra "unions encourage mediocrity." Workers for these three companies get paid two to three times as much as workers doing the same job at Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. The three Japanese companies that build cars in the United States. Between $1,000 and $1,500 on the cost of a car for the big three goes to pay for benefits for workers no longer working there (many of them retired since 55). Hopefully, these companies are put into bankruptcy so these ridiculous contracts can be reworked so these pillars of American strength can return to their past glory. The quality of the cars the big three make have vastly improved over the last ten years. I purchased a Dodge Intrepid in 2003 with 24,000 miles on it. The car now has 102,000 miles on it and has had zero mechanical problems (I am hard on brakes and tires, but that is a driving style issue). These companies need to get control of their costs, and the only way they can do it is to challenge the United Auto Workers to a showdown over labor contracts. It is easier to do that in bankruptcy. I want the big three to succeed, but it is likely my next car will be a Nissan Altima (with a V-6 engine, I don't want a pissy 4-banger).

#3. I am going to share an excerpt from the Rush Limbaugh program from Friday November 21, 2008 sharing the real story of Thanksgiving (skip the first paragraph if you are not into politics):

Here's the basic true story of Thanksgiving. First, here's what we're all taught. We're all taught that the hapless Pilgrims arrived here quite by accident and by luck. They landed at Plymouth Rock and they found this barren place, and they had no clue how to feed themselves. They had no clue how to survive. Basically the first white settlers, they brought with them syphilis and gonorrhea and environmental destruction, racism, sexism, all that. They had such trouble that the wonderful Native Americans -- the Indians, who (unbeknownst to them) were about to be conquered and put into revelations and made into alcoholics by the Pilgrims -- were so overcome with compassion and love for the arrival of these new, weird-looking people that they showed them how to grow food and corn and maize and even told them how to do popcorn. They told them how to slaughter turkeys long before Sarah Palin learned how to do it, and fixed this big feast to share the bounty of the Indians with these stragglers who had shown up and not known where they were -- and that's the "true" story of Thanksgiving as taught in schools.

It's not at all what happened. The Pilgrims arrived, and it was barren, and it was challenging, and there was disease -- pestilence -- as you can imagine. This is hundreds of years ago. William Bradford writes about this. He was the original governor of the colony. They decided to set up a system whereby everybody would be given a plot of land, and then whatever they produced would go into a common store. It was one of the first known experiments with socialism and it was based in all the great compassion and fairness that you would think. "Put in what you do and take out only what you need," and the whole point was that this common store is going to have the fruits of everybody's labor. Everybody is going to go in there and take out only what they need. Well, the problem was human nature reared its head, and a bunch of slackers amongst the Pilgrims realized they didn't have to do anything in order to go get what they wanted from the common store, because other people were carrying the weight, pulling the wagon. Bradford realized after awhile this did not work. Resentment was cropping up amongst the producers for the non-producers. The non-producers were taking everything more than they needed. They just took what they wanted. They said, "Well, we're entitled to it! I mean, these are the rules." They said, "Yeah, but you're not producing anything." "Well, nothing says I have to. It just says that whatever is produced is going to go to the common store." Some of them weren't good at farming. They weren't allowed to specialize. They were just given a plot of land and told, "Here, do what you want." Some, all they could do is clean up the manure and others were able to turn the manure into fertilized land and grow things.

So Bradford finally figured out this wasn't going to work and they reassigned everybody a plot of land and then they said, "Whatever you do with this, you keep. It is yours. And if there's a surplus, you can sell it." That's what ultimately happened, and that's when the Pilgrims began to prosper, and it was at that point that they shared their bounty with the Indians. It was sort of a joint sharing of things. The Indians already knew about popcorn and that stuff, but they shared it. The true story of Thanksgiving, as Bradford writes it, is thanks to God. It was thanks to God for helping them learn the way to survive and prosper when they arrived in this new barren, forsaken, unknown place. Remember, now, this is Massachusetts in the wintertime. There was no Mass Turnpike, and there weren't any department stores and food stores. We can't relate to it. We cannot understand it. So the first experiment in capitalism in the new world, bammo! It went like gangbusters, and that's what Jennifer writes about -- Jennifer James is her name, writes about -- in the Los Angeles Times in the kids' section this weekend.

There is a companion story that you should read by Jennifer James of the Los Angeles Times. Here is a link to it: http://www.latimes.com/features/kids/readingroom/la-et-story23-2008nov23,0,7094177.story . I put this here so you will think about how Thanksgiving came about (as opposed to the version in our and our kids textbooks), and to contrast the success of capitalism versus the failure of socialism. With Obama and the Democrats running everything, we will be on a more socialist slant the next few years. Keep this in mind when the Dems pass a law you don't like.

Well, that is it for this week. I will have a new post right before Thanksgiving. Enjoy some football this weekend, and good day.

Tom

Post six.

2008-11-13T17:30:00.000-08:00

Howdy everybody. With winter coming and the holiday season upon us, here is the sixth post on my blog.

#1. Iowa 24, #3 Penn State 23. I thought the Iowa football team could beat Penn State. I didn't think Iowa would beat Penn State. It is nice to be heroes of the college football world for one week. This goes at the top of the list of best Iowa football games I have seen in person (2002 vs. Purdue, Brad Banks TD pass on 4th down to Dallas Clark (the ball is still hanging in the air), 2004 vs. Wisconsin, clinching a share of the Big Ten title with virtually no running game. Now, Iowa needs to win the last two games (vs Purdue, at Minnesota) to help bolster its case for a New Year's Day bowl game. For Iowa to get to the Outback Bowl, they need for the Big Ten to get two team into the BCS (plus it means more money for the football team). There are four at-large spots available to go with the winners of the six BCS conferences. No conference can get more than two teams into the BCS. With that said, two of the four at-larges will go to an SEC team, and a Big XII team. The third at large will go to a non-BCS team (likely Utah, maybe Boise State). That leave one at large. No Pac-10 team is in the top 25 in the BCS other than USC. USC could get the at-large, because if Oregon State wins out, they go to the Rose Bowl as Pac-10 Champion. This is not likely as Oregon State will lose one game, and USC will not. The Big East will only get one team, as no team is ranked in the top 20 (you must be in the top 14 to be eligible for a BCS at large). The ACC could get a second team, but I don't think two ACC teams will win enough to get to the top 14. That leaves a second Big Ten team, and a non-BCS conference team. Big Ten should win. As long as Oregon State loses a game, and Penn State and Ohio State win out (sorry, Sparty, Capital One Bowl for you), a New Year's Day bowl game looks likely for Iowa. Win the last two, and the Bowl Game, and a 9-4 season with a full trophy case (all 3 rivalry trophies and an Outback Bowl trophy) will be considered a success.

#2. Since we are all sick of talking about politics, I will back it down slightly until 2009. I just want to have a quick discussion on the national debt. One issue I hear about more from people my age than the average person is "How can we cut taxes, the debt keeps going up?" We as a country have to force government to spend less and spend more responsibly. In my opinion, government has two roles, security and infrastructure. If the government is paying for items that do NOT fit into one of the aforementioned categories, it shouldn't be doing it. The vast majority of spending outside of those two areas is in entitlements, and pork barrel/lobbied for projects. If those two areas of spending were eliminated, or at least vastly reduced, the debt would go down significantly. Unfortunately, in the era of bailouts, stimulus packages, and direct payments (ahem, bribes) disguised as tax cuts, don't expect many politicians in the near future to mention the burgeoning national debt, which is now greater than $10,000,000,000,000.

#3. Now that winter is here, our thoughts turn to a dirty four letter word, snow. Snow leads to ice and ice leads to me falling down. Winter is always interesting for me for several reasons, one of which is messing with my main driveway. Most people have driveways that are flat or at a slight incline. My driveway is at such an incline that if your car was perpendicular to my driveway, you would feel like you were at Daytona or Talladega (those are racetracks for the uninformed). The two good things that I have a south facing driveway and no sidewalks. I have decided not to scoop unless I can't drive up the driveway, hoping my tracks and the sun can keep the driveway melted. It worked last winter, but not two winters ago (with ice storms and 18 inch snow storms). We will see how it goes this winter.

That is it for another week. If anybody was offended by the previous week's blog, talk to the hand.

Until we meet again.
Tom

Blogger Post #5

2008-11-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

Hello, everybody. As the world turns and the snow flies (At least I don't live in the Dakotas where blizzard warnings are out), the world has changed greatly this week, as I will explain.

#1. Barack Obama will be the President of the United States. If you would have told me that one year ago, I would have said you were crazy. He has sold the American people on his idea of the country. Hopefully, he has not sold the country up a river. I am not going to bash Obama much tonight, I will have at least four years (likely eight unless the Republicans can get their act together) to do that. I will take a more analytical view on the election tonight. Obama flipped several states that Bush carried in 2004. I will try to explain why each of these happened. Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Florida flipped because of Hispanic population increases and their dislike of the Republican stance on immigration (despite McCain supporting comprehensive immigration reform (as a side note, I support building a large wall, the rest is negotiable, as long as illegals can't vote and don't get government benefits)). Iowa flipped because the Iowa Caucuses launched Obama and Iowans generally disliked McCain's position on ethanol subsidies. Indiana flipped mainly due to its proximity to Chicago. Ohio flipped due to the poor economy (which was also an overarching factor in all races throughout the USA) and past corruption in the Ohio Republican party. Virginia flipped due to its proximity to Washington, DC and the fact that Democrat popularity has just plain grown (last two governors and senators were Democrats, which were flips). Also, there is some historical significance that Virginia was home to the capital of the Confederate States of America (Richmond) voted for Obama. North Carolina flipped due to increased black participation, and population growth, mainly from the northeast. As of this blog posting, Missouri has let to be decided, but McCain was leading. Obama won mainly because he was a popular figure, the media loved him, and people wanted Republicans gone. Hopefully, folks don't have buyers remorse in six months.

#2. Obama mentioned he wanted a playoff in college football Monday. He might be the only one that can make it happen. I have added a new poll (since so many participated in the first poll) on which team will be the national champion. The championship race visits Iowa City, as the Hawkeyes play #3 Penn State. It has been a really long time since Iowa defeated a top five team, but if their offense plays well, I could happen. As long as USC and Florida don't play each other, I will be happy. If they do, I will have no rooting interest and may boycott. I am rooting for Texas Tech to win it all. Another issue I would like to discuss is the annual issue of NFL games on the NFL network. Cable companies are still balking at carrying NFL Network on basic. The cable companies want to carry it on a sports package. Mediacom was in the same boat with the Big Ten network. They knew that if they didn't capitulate, they would lose tons of subscribers. They finally broke two days before the college football season started. I stick with Mediacom because I get local channels from both Omaha and Des Moines. If I switched to satellite, I would only get locals from Omaha. I live in Iowa, I want Iowa news, not Nebraska news. FCC laws prevent me from getting Des Moines local channels on satellite, but if I lived 8 miles north or 15 miles east, I could. This issue with the NFL Network will linger with the losers being cable customers who are stuck in the middle (unless congress intervenes, like they did with last years New England-NY Giants game).

#3. Since I have run long with my first two discussion points, I will finish with this. I have copied a story from the PETA web site that might make you scratch your head, or gag:

Burlington, Vt. - This morning, PETA dispatched a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of ice cream icon Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace the cow's milk in their products with human breast milk. PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves. PETA points out to Cohen and Greenfield that such a move on their part would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health at the same time.
"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."

I do not want to eat a woman's breast milk in my food!!! Women's breasts are for looking at, ogling over, and occasionally fondling, not eating from (unless you are less than one year old). I want my milk from a COW!!! By the way, PETA really stands for "People for the Eating of Tasty Animals!!!"

Well, that is it for tonight, now that I have offended 3/4 of the reading audience, come back next week to see what I will come up with next. I have laundry to deal with. Good night.

Go Hawks!!!
Tom

Post #4.

2008-10-30T18:09:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the fourth post of this blog. Eggs, toilet paper, and pumpkins sold seperately.

#1. The Phillies won the World Series. Did anybody watch it? Thankfully, MLB got fortunate that Tampa Bay scored in the top of the 6th on Monday, or embarrasement would have followed had the Phillies won without getting all 27 outs on the Rays. Also, Philadelphia fans showed their usual class (the same city that CHEERED when Michael Irvin was carted off with a possible spinal injury) by having 76 people arrested in celebration of a championship. The Iowa football team has a big game against Illinois. If they win, New Year's Day might await even without a victory over #3 Penn State. Lose, and you might have to beat a ranked Minnesota team to finish above .500. Also, ABC did the inexplicable thing and put BOTH Iowa and Iowa State on the same channel. The Iowa game will be available on your local ABC affiliate, and the Iowa State game on the .2 channel on your DTV setup, or on some cable systems (channel 22 on Mediacom in Western & Central Iowa). This is the first time ABC has done this, and with all the scrambling, and how truly bad Iowa State is this year, it might be the last.

#2. We are five days away from the end of this election cycle (admit it, you are SICK AND TIRED of campaign commercials). I still feel it is likely that Obama (aka Senator Government) will be our next president. Wealth redistribution is evil, and calling direct payments tax cuts is just plain lying. But I heard a movement afoot by the Democrat congress that should scare us all, and that is eliminating the deductibility of retirement contributions. This will be a bit of a boring discussion, but bear with me. On Box 1 of you W-2 is the amount of wages you must report on your 1040 when you file your taxes. Box 3 is the amount of your wages subject to FICA taxes. The difference between Box 1 and Box 3 (or Box 5 if above the FICA base) is your retirement plan contributions. Some Democrats want to make taxable those retirement contributions that are currently not taxed upon putting them in your account. The entire amount is taxable when you take it out. Presumably, it grows tax free (if the market ever goes up again). What this will do is make it less attractive for people to save for retirement. It will also make people more DEPENDENT on GOVERNMENT, which is what this blogger believes Democrats secretly want.

#3. Tomorrow is Halloween, or as I like to call it, a dentist's dream. I have only been in a costume once since I was 10 (some of you know who I was, but I will spare the readers of that scary image). I think it is a silly holiday. I am a Halloween scrooge. I will NOT be handing out candy to kids, nor anything else. Kids will find enough candy elsewhere. Some people will use eggs, toilet paper, or pumpkins as minor weapons of vandilism. Hopefully, all who do that will be fully prosecuted by the law. By the way, the best costumes are anything with a mask for guys, and anything with a skirt (especially Catholic school wear) for girls.

Well that is it. It is likely that my next post will rue Senator Government's election to the Presidency, but by all means go vote. It is you patriotic duty. I do have one request, please do NOT vote a straight ticket. It is lazy voting. At least vote in each race you have an interest in. Also, remember one thing, full Democrat control (both Federal and Iowa) WILL mean more taxes!!!

Good night all.
Tom

Round three.

2008-10-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

I will make this shorter and perhaps sweeter. I am frantically cleaning my house.

#1. Big win for Iowa football over Wisconsin. I will go more in depth on the Iowa football team in the coming weeks. I wanted to touch upon a couple of other issues. The World Series is ongoing. The folks at FOX are thrilled with the sexy matchup Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia (not really). Could lose out in ratings to several football games including such matchups as Auburn @ West Virginia, Penn State @ Ohio State and others on Saturday, Central Florida @ Tulsa, Colts @ Titans, and in a Game 7, South Florida @ Cincinnati. To baseball fans, this may sound preposterous, and a couple of those games might be slight exaggerations, but the ratings could be ugly. With that said, Tampa Bay will win, in either 6 or 7. Another issue for tonight, the worst team in the NFL in a decade could be a race between 3 teams. This does NOT include the most dysfunctional team of all time, the Raiders. The Lions, Bengals, and Chiefs have combined for 1 win and 18 losses. The Bengals and Chiefs play Week 17. If these three teams win combined more than 6 games this year, I will be surprised.

#2. The inevitable march to Obama and Pelosi ruling the world continues. Sort of like Pinky and the Brain, but I digress. Maybe they won't be as bad as I think. There are two acts with very misleading names that the liberals WILL push for. One of which is called the "employee free choice act." This REMOVES the secret ballot from determining whether workers at business become unionized. I will say it again: "Unions encourage mediocrity." Also, it is un-American to coerce people to join unions for which they do not want to for fear of recrimination. The other is called the "fairness doctrine." Sounds harmless, right. This would FORCE over the air radio stations (not XM or Sirius) to provide people who oppose ANYTHING said on the airwaves response time on any issue. Effectively, any nut job can stiffle quality programming by forcing themselves onto the air. This will effectively kill talk radio, including sports talk radio. Liberals don't like that liberal talk radio has not worked in the marketplace while conservative talk radio has. So they want to use the government as a sledge hammer by threatning to have licenses revoked to broadcast. This is also wrong and anti-American. The free market needs to work, and no bureaucrat or union boss should have their thumbs on the scale.

#3. I have had a request by one of my maybe dozen readers (that might be optimistic) to discuss an issue near and dear to my heart, cars. Specifically, how well I drive cars. I believe I am an average driver. Some people believe I am a below average driver or worse. I will admit that I take corners a bit fast, don't always drive straight, am hard on brakes, and sometimes drive too slow. This does not make me a bad driver. Sometimes, I take my cues from watching auto racing. Something I enjoy that many of my friends find boring. If I could find a cheap racing series where the race car had an automatic transmission, I would love to race cars. Unfortunately, it is a really expensive hobby, and I probably really would be called a bad driver. Regardless, I drive a car fine. If you don't like the way I drive, then walk.

Well that is it. Back to cleaning I go. Readership is appreciated. Let me know what you think, good or bad, but preferably good.

Until next week.
Tom

The second post.

2008-10-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends (yes John McCain does say this too much), welcome to the second post of my blog. Hopefully it will be as interesting and entertaining as the first. If not, I shall try and do better next time.

#1 The Iowa football team beat Indiana last Saturday, that is good, but expected. If Iowa beats a Wisconsin team that has fallen flat on its face, Iowa will be 5-3. Folks, be honest, if I said at the beginning of the season that we would be 5-3 heading into the bye week (the first bye week for Iowa since Division IA (I would say FBS, but people would be like "???") football permanently expanded to 12 games regular season in 2006), we would be OK with it, not thrilled. Now, if Iowa loses and goes to 4-4, bowl eligilbity becomes a question, and calls for heads to roll will renew. A win makes 8-4 very plausable, and I will be there to cheer on the Hawkeyes to victory over the Badgers on Saturday.

#2 We are at 19 days and counting from the 2008 Presidential Election, and I would like to pose a question to all of you people especially ones close to my age (under 35) who plan to go in droves to vote for Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States: Do you believe in WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION? I bring this up because this is that is what you get with Obama as president. He wants to take income and wealth from the hard working people of this country and give it in the form of government handouts to the dumb and lazy people of this country. Obama claims "95% of people will get a tax cut." That is an impossible thing to do since about 1/3 pay ZERO income tax, and many of those pay "less than zero" income tax due to refundable tax credits (read: welfare) if the form of the earned income tax credit. I prepare taxes as part of my living, so I know. Obama's tax cuts are not changes in marginal tax rates, nor expansions of tax brackets, but handouts (read: bribes) to lower and middle class people as a way to make them both vote for him and that government is sticking it to the rich guy. This topic will come up again and again in this blog. The results of Obama policies will result in fewer people paying more taxes. I am a huge proponent of the flat income tax, champoined by Steve Forbes, these policies make the tax curve more progressive, not flatter. I also believe very much in the credo spoken by former Reagan adminstration official and CNBC host Larry Kudlow who says "free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity." Obama's polices will turn the United States of America (USA) in the "United Socialist States of America (USSA)."

#3 I will keep point three brief as point two ran long. Fall is here, the first freeze was last night, and I am come to the sad realization that golf season is almost over. I love golf, it is the most enjoyingly frustrating game you will ever play (if you play golf, you know what I mean). I have become a more consistent golfer this year, averaging low 90's on the 5,600 yard Nishna Hills course in Atlantic. I have big goals for next year at my home course, to get my average down to 87, birdie every hole at least once (only 7 holes this year), and break 80 (I shot 82 in July). Doing all this while keeping one tradition alive, not spending more than $30 average on any golf club in my bag. For an out of shape guy like me, this proves two things: spending $500 on ANY golf club is idiotic, and anybody can be a decent golfer with practice and the desire to get better.

That is all for the second blog post. Remember, if you like what you read, let me know. If you don't, quit reading.

Goodbye for now,
Tom

The first blog.

2008-10-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone. I have decided that I need something new to do with my life. I have many random thoughts go through my head. Some of them are interesting, others may be boring, and some may make you think I am completely nuts. Whichever is the case, I think it is time to put some of my thoughts on paper, or more 21st century like, blogging. Tonight will hopefully be the first of many posts. My goal is to do this on a weekly basis, but we will see how succesful I am at that. With that, here are my thoughts:

#1 I am a graduate of the University of Iowa, and a proud fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes football team. Tommorow may be the most important football game in a long time. Iowa is 3-3. The three losses have been by 9 points. Iowa plays Indiana tomorrow. Iowa has lost the last two years to the Hoosiers, who have been recently a bottom feeder in the Big Ten. If Iowa makes it three years of losing to Indiana, the pressure will ratchet up considerably on all parties involved. With the next three games against upper level conference foes, this is a must-win. Otherwise a non-winning regular season likely awaits, and much finger pointing and whining will ensue.

#2 The stock market has been historically ugly this week. Major indicies have fallen around 20%, and are now off around 45% from all-time highs made one year ago Thursday. This is not the time to sell everything and go to cash. In the long run, you will lose out. I remember back in the last bear market (2002) working for a company who handled pensions for people, and they put their money in cash where they couldn't move it out for five years at the bottom. The market will go up eventually. If that is wrong, we are all screwed anyway. Don't panic. If you are going to work for many more years (at least 35-40 for me), let it ride, you will be ahead. If you are going to retire soon, consider bonds. I know they are boring, but you would be in much less pain now if you had some.

#3 I am single, maybe hopelessly single. I live in a smaller town, where there just aren't many women available to date. I get along very well with women my age. Unfortunately, they are all with someone else, and I do not believe in rocking the boat under any circumstances. I figured my best chance to find a women was in college, but now I have been out of college for 6 1/2 years. I decide to be crazy last night and try something new, speed dating. Maybe I am completely nuts, but I kind of enjoyed it. By the end, I was ready for it to be over, but it was fun to meet new people. Hopefully, it goes somewhere. If it doesn't, we will try something else. I spent over 3 years with a dating site with marginal success, so I am looking for new avenues to try and meet women. I'm sure if I quit trying so hard, it might just happen. Who knows?

Well, that is it for my first blog post. The second post will be done (I hope) in the latter part of next week. If you like what you hear, let me know. If you don't like what you hear, quit reading.

Until next time.
Tom