Potpourri

Isn't It Ironic?
 
The food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture, is pleased to announce that it is distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever. 

Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, posts signs in all our national parks requesting us "Please do not feed the animals because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves. " 

Isn’t there an equal danger that the humans on food stamps might also grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves?

Let’s see if I have this right…

·        J. P. Morgan lost $2-billion for its clients, but it reported an overall profit.  And this requires a taxpayer-paid Congressional investigation?

·        Bain Capital closed the doors of some of its takeover companies while laying off several thousand employees, but it also salvaged far more of its takeover targets and saved or created thousands more jobs. And this requires a taxpayer-paid Congressional investigation?

·        Facebook (FB) went public with an IPO based at $38/share, but in the first few days of trading the price dropped by about 18-percent. And this requires a taxpayer-paid Congressional investigation?

·        Our federal government has lost up to $1.5-trillion of taxpayer-financed stimulus money. And this doesn’t require a taxpayer-paid Congressional investigation?

Well, at least they’re saving some of our taxpayer dollars.  Yeah, that’s about right.

 

I keep hearing talk show finance gurus talk about how to get “the cheapest cell hone service”.  Well, I stumbled upon one that I believe is cheaper than theirs.

When I went on my Portland trip in the fall of 2010 I needed a cell phone that I could use just for that trip and then dispose of it.  Consequently, I bought a little cell phone from my friendly Kroger store. It had no contract, cost only $30 and came with 100 free minutes.  The provider was I-Wireless, a company that doesn’t have its own towers, but uses whatever tower is available.  Therefore, the coverage is pretty much nationwide.

After I completed the trip I still had lots of minutes left, so I held on to the phone.  And then the next time we went shopping at Kroger I received a text message that my recent purchase had gained me 20 free minutes.  That gave me the idea that I might as well keep the phone.

Future trips to the Kroger earned me more and more minutes until I now have over 160 of them, and they never expire. When I buy a phone card (at Kroger) to pay the monthly $5 service fee I get additional points as well.

The long and short of it is that I have a cell phone with non-expiring minutes for the ridiculous price of $5 per month.  And so far I’ve never had to pay for a single minute of usage even though the rate is supposed to be $.10/minute.

If you can find a less expensive cell phone service than that let me know.

I’ve been wondering lately why we make such a fuss over pregnant women drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes.  I read a novel recently where the heroine was preggers, and she kept facing a moral dilemma where she wanted a drink or a smoke, but she was conflicted and never did either. It really irritated me!

Women gained status in the Twentieth Century that they had never enjoyed before, and many of them celebrated their newfound freedom by taking up habits of smoking and drinking along with the men. (Not that they hadn’t ever done it before, but unless they wanted a bad reputation they usually did those things in private)

I have no medical training and certainly don’t consider myself qualified to make medical prognoses. However, I do know that for most of our history pregnant women have done things that, in excess, could harm the fetus.  In moderation those same actions are likely totally harmless to the fetus.

How many of us, born during the middle of the last century, are perfectly normal even though our mothers may have had the occasional glass of wine or beer or even, God forbid, a mixed drink?  How many had mothers who smoked? Were you born with a predilection for drinking or smoking because of it?

You would think that with all of the feminist organizations in just this country alone, we would not have such a huge stigmatism on drinking and smoking during pregnancy.

I have an endorsement for a product I used last week. 

I’ve had a sore on my right earlobe for over two years. It just wouldn’t heal, and it kept scabbing or bleeding.  It itched and caused me to worry it frequently, which I know was counterproductive to healing. I tried all kinds of salves and lotions, bandages, and plain old air-drying.  Nothing worked!

When we get a sore like that we tend to think “skin cancer” or some other deadly malady, but I was reluctant to seek treatment from my doctor, even though he knew about it and would ask about it on my office visits.

Last week my wife bought a small tube of Eucerin skin cream and started swabbing it on the sore 2-3 times a day. We started with a small bandage to cover it, but graduated to just coating it and leaving the covering off.

In less than five days the scab was gone and by the end of the week you couldn’t tell there had ever been any problem.  The skin was a little red, but even that is fading now.

If you ever have the same problem, be sure to try Eucerin. It is amazing stuff!

Modern Conservation

I was in a public restroom in one of those interstate rest areas recently with a busload of teenagers and I overheard one boy say to another, “Shun the paper towels and save a tree.”

My first reaction was, how thoughtful of him.  But then I reconsidered, because that cliché is being drilled into our kids’ thinking, and it is not necessarily accurate.  I wasn’t quick enough to speak my second thought, but it did get me to thinking about it in light of our present economy and the overall indoctrination of today’s youth.

The paper industry, and the lumbering industry that supports it are both very earth-friendly.  Big companies like Weyerhauser and International paper employ methods to recycle and to replenish the forests.  Why wouldn’t they? Lumber is a crop, and just like any other crop, it has to be planted, nurtured and harvested with a future crop replacing the one we use.

The myth that our forests are clear-cut is just that, a myth. At least in this country it is. For every tree that is cut down, another two or three are planted in the same land, and they are cared for to ensure that there will be a future crop, albeit the cycle is not an annual one like there is with the food crops.

The fact that new forests are being planted to renew the product cycle is evident to anyone who takes the time to travel to the places in America where the lumber industry practices.  And those replanted forests provide jobs for many more people than those who harvest the trees.

For every lumberjack, the brawny brute we picture as the “culprit” in killing our forests, there are probably three others whose work is to develop new breeds of fast-growing trees, planting and inspecting the new growth, and determining where more trees can be planted and harvested to keep the soil and the ecosystem healthy.

Here is another example of Weyerhauser’s earth-friendly stance.  When Mount St Helens erupted in May of 1980 it completely destroyed every tree within 17-miles of the volcano.  You can still drive up to the viewpoint to the east of the mountain and see some of the fallen trees.  You know they were blown over by the volcanic explosion because the trunks all face away from Mount St Helens.

Driving up to the Johnston memorial viewing overlook from the west you won’t see as much of the fallen timber until you get to the parking lot. The rangers left some of those fallen trees so that visitors could see how devastating the volcano was.  However, most of the trees have long since been cleared and the ground replanted with a forest of noble fir trees.  That extensive forest was planted by Weyerhauser, and most of it was done free of charge. There are signs all along the highway stating the year each stand was planted.

Have you ever seen or heard a news report about a forest fire on the property of the large lumber companies like Weyerhauser or Georgia Pacific?  I haven’t, and do you know why it is unlikely that you ever will see such a report?  Because those companies not only plant the huge forests, but they also keep any undergrowth cleared so that there isn’t any kindling for a fire to start and spread. The big fires you read about in Arizona, California and yes, even in Yellowstone and Mesa Verde National Parks were started on the ground and fed by that undergrowth that builds when the environmentalist activists prohibit any clearing.

The next time you have occasion to blame the lumber industry for clear-cutting our precious forests, remember this column.  Better yet. Plan a trip to Washington State and see for yourself the wonderful work that those “mean lumber companies” really do.

The New Green Technology - Part 1

If you don’t follow business news like I do, then you might not have heard that T Boone Pickens is once again dabbling in alternative energy.  This time he’s tuned in and turned on to natural gas.

Mr. Pickens, who made most of his vast fortune in oil, is a convert to green technology.  He has invested big time in wind power, and at one time had plans to build a humongous wind-generating farm in the Texas Panhandle.  He had some setbacks, so those plans have since been put on hold, although they aren’t exactly dead.

CNBC had Pickens on as a guest recently, and he was waxing large on the benefits of converting our huge trucking industry from diesel, a high pollutant fuel, to natural gas, or more specifically liquid propane gas (LPG).

At one point in the interview, Mr. Pickens proclaimed that one unit of LPG – I believe he referred to it as a cubic foot, but I may be wrong in that – would have the same cost as seven gallons of diesel fuel, but would produce practically zero greenhouse gas.  He also stated that the power and efficiency of an 18-wheeler powered by LPG would be equal to that of the current diesel powered vehicles.

Aside from the lower pollution and the lower cost of LPG compared to diesel, the real benefit would be that we have a huge amount of natural gas under our own soil, so we could quit importing so much petroleum from the Middle East, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Venezuela and Brazil.

As to the cost of conversion from diesel power plants to LPG engines, there are two ways to do this.  The existing diesel engines could be converted, but it would be at the cost of down time for the vehicle, possibly up to ten days, during which time the driver would be off the road and out of work.  Alternately, the engine could be removed and replaced with a new one. That would likely take two days, but the cost would obviously be greater than the cost of conversion.

For once in my life, I’m in favor of green technology.  Not because it will prevent global warming or cause less pollution, though I must admit that I hate driving behind a semi and getting the fumes from the exhaust.  No, the reason I favor the conversion process is that at least we would be using our own resources and lessening our dependence on those foreign sources from people who hate us. Well, maybe Canadians don’t hate us, but the rest all seem to.

Remember way back in the 1970s when the Department of Energy was first formed?  Our goal was to “lessen our dependence on foreign sources of energy.”  A couple of trillion dollars and forty years later we are more dependent on foreign energy than we were back then. This despite the fact that we probably have more petroleum here in the United States than there is in the rest of the world combined.  We just cannot drill for it due to all the regulations and environmental prohibitions.

I certainly hope that we can get the natural gas we hold without interference.  Maybe T. Boone Pickens has the right idea this time.  He certainly wasted a lot of tome and money on the wind power. I’m for anything that will keep OPEC out of our pockets.

While we’re at it, I also hope we can quit subsidizing and using that foul additive in our gasoline, ethanol.  There used to be a message on the email circuit about the effects of hot-burning ethanol on our engines, but that has been pulled, since virtually all gasoline today has at least 10% ethanol in it.  I suspect the same ill effects on engine wear and engine life is there, but we just can’t talk about it anymore.

Was the original message incorrect, did the auto industry somehow solve the problem, or did we just stop worrying about the wear and tear on engines?  I don’t know, but I cannot locate anything on it even at Snopes.  That is interesting in itself.

I did hear something on the Kudlow Report on CNBC recently that referred to the new 15% mandate for ethanol content in our gasoline.  It seems that most all of the auto manufacturers objected to it, stating almost universally that it would harm engines, burn too hot and wear out engine parts too rapidly.  It seems that the one-and-only supporter of the 15% ethanol mix was General Motors.  Does it strike you as it does me that General Motors is also given the pseudonym, “Government Motors”?

Part 2 on this topic will be coming soon, so watch for it.  If my test next month turns up what I think it will, you might have a new way to save on fuel and it doesn’t involve LPG or engine conversions.

On the Road Again

I am planning another of my lengthy trips for this summer. One of the benefits of retirement is that I have no obligation to be at any place at a given time, and I love to travel, especially out in the American West and Southwest.

Due to the price of gasoline a lot of people are canceling or at least postponing plans for summer vacations.  That is sad because there are several ways to offset the rising prices of fuel.  I hope to show you how that can be done.

I first have to set the conditions, so let’s assume a trip of 100 miles in a vehicle that averages 25 miles-per-gallon (mpg).  If the cost of gasoline is $4-per-gallon, here is how much you would spend on fuel for the trip. 100(miles) divided by 25(mpg) = 4 gallons. 4(gallons) times $4 = $16.   Follow me so far?

Now let’s see what happens if gas goes up to $5.  Now we divide 25 into 100 and arrive at the same 4 gallons of gas.  However, multiplying 4 gallons times $5 = $20.

Wow, it costs $4 more due to that huge increase!  I don’t know about you, but that wouldn’t keep me at home. As long as you drive that vehicle, every dollar increase in the price of a gallon of gas will equate to $4 per 100 miles. Every 100 miles more that you travel will add $4 (less than the cost of one gallon of gas) to your expenses.

Okay, suppose you did decide that the increase was too much.  There are other ways you can save money so that the trip is still feasible. 

If you stay at motels, join one of the motel chain’s preferred guest programs (or join two like I did if you want more choices). You can earn points to use for reward nights and save $100 or more per night. Hotel chains are getting so desperate for guests that they are offering one free night for every two paid nights. That’s a very good deal.

Managers at some of the hotels I use tell me that booking online isn’t always the best way to reserve.  If you call the hotel direct they can sometimes offer better rates, and you don’t lose any points for booking that way.

Another way to save is to book at hotels that provide free breakfasts. Some even have free cocktails and light dinners as well.  Those savings can pay for a lot of gasoline and even some of the hotel cost.

One more possible way for you to save is to purchase discount tickets or passes to any attractions you plan to visit.  I have a Golden Age pass issued by the National Park Service to seniors that entitles me to free admission to any national park or monument plus some discounted fees for tours or rides. I’ve had that pass for over ten years and I figure I’ve saved hundreds of dollars with it.

I am a member of AAA, so I go to the local office when I plan a trip to find out about any AAA discounts on my planned attractions.  You can save on tickets to Disneyland, Busch Gardens and many other theme parks, plus attractions like Biltmore Estate. You also get discounts at hotels with AAA membership.

On our trip this summer I have estimated pretty closely that we will travel 5,700 miles. I also priced in $4/gallon for gas, though the price might be higher by then.  If gas were to jump to $5 it will cost me $228 more for fuel.  However, using my rewards points we will stay four nights for free, saving me $282.  The complimentary breakfasts will save $150. The Golden Age pass will save another $100, so I don’t think the added fuel cost will keep me at home.

I’ve also been actively searching online for gas-saving tips, and there are lots of sites with some fairly easy ways to save. Here are a few:

• Keep tires inflated to manufacturer’s specifications.
• Use the Internet to find the cheapest gas with a site like Gasbuddy.com.
• Always fill up before your gas gauge gets below the ¼ level.
• Make sure routine maintenance is always up-to-date.
• Use cruise control whenever possible, but never on wet or icy roads.

I’ll be testing a theory on my trips this summer that might prove to be even more helpful in saving on fuel costs, but I won’t tell you about it until I’ve got the evidence to back it up. In the meantime, if you’re planning a trip of your own this summer, don’t let the cost of fuel, whatever it is at that time, put a crimp in your plans. Get out there and see the world!

Our Changing Times

If you’ve ever read my columns, you’ll know that my favorite poet is a dead poet by the name of Strickland W. Gillilan.  I’ve posted some of his work in my weekly columns.

This past week I learned of a new website, www.loc.gov, where one can peruse the content of any book in the Library of Congress in Washington.  I used the occasion to look up the book of poems by Gillilan titled Including Finnigin.  In it I ran across a poem I had never read before which reminded me of some of the email messages that circulate today. And for that reason I decided to share this column with some of you who do not usually see it.

The poem I am going to share was written over 100 years ago.  It might surprise you to learn that we were fighting the same battles over politics and religion that long ago. I know it surprised me. Nevertheless, here we have a prime example in a book published circa 1908 of the same questions that trouble us today.

Read the poem first and then I’ll have some summary comments about it.

So the controversy goes on, and though the subject changes ever so slightly, the battle continues unabated.  And yet… and yet, we still have mothers who teach “Now I Lay Me” even after all these years.

I have a verse to add to that of the late Mr. Gillilan, and I hope his soul will forgive me for my brash intrusion upon his genius. I only want to bring his thoughts and words up to date in the Twenty-first Century.

Now the words are “under God” in the pledge we often say.

They were added many years ago, our reverence God to pay.

We may wipe the slate; remove the words to take away His name,

But within the hearts of those of faith God stays there all the same.

For the words are just the language to express what’s in the heart,

And we need not write or say His name to implore God not depart.

Though the critics seek to banish God through time—and time again,

You cannot erase the spirit that lives on in righteous men.

(My apologies to the women. You are included in the last line, but it didn’t fit poetically)

Footnote: Is it any coincidence that the poem was inspired by the actions of a group from Chicago? – Just musing here…

Everybody Out of The Pool

Well, it finally happened…

I was actually thinking about voting for Obama, but then the ADA, with the full support of the Obama administration and the Department of Justice, passed a new regulation that mandates that public-access pools and spas must all have permanent pool lifts installed to give access to our disabled citizens. That includes hotel and Motel pools and spas.

I don’t give a rat’s rear end for pools, but one of my few remaining pleasures in life is to climb into a hot tub at my motel at the end of a travel day.  I soak for about half an hour and that is as good as… well, I’ll let you supply the rest. (My wife never reads my columns, so I can take a lot of liberties with what gives me pleasure.)

Now every single pool and hot tub in America that is not somebody’s private paradise must have a lift installed to enable the handicapped to enter and exit whenever they want to.  These are estimated to cost between $3,000 and $5,000 per lift, plus another $5,000 to $10,000 for installation,  They cannot be portable, so a pool area with hot tub/Jacuzzi will need at least two of them.  And hotels that have a suite with Jacuzzi inside will have to install a lift there as well.

The new design standard was passed down by the Department of Justice on July 26, 2010.  On September 15, 2010, the Final Rule for the Accessible Design for Recreational Facilities, including public pools and spas, was published in the Federal Register. These standards became the law of the land on March 15, 2011, and compliance was required by March 15, 2012 until that deadline was extended to May 21, 2012. 

Since my wife and I have planned a trip for June of this year we will be just in time to enjoy all the “benefits” of this new mandate.  Since it is anticipated that most franchised properties will opt to close their pools rather than try to comply with the new law to the tune of thousands of dollars, I suspect that I will most likely not partake of any hot tub soaks on my trip. 

Thank you, President Obama and Attorney General Holder. I have shared hot tubs with the disabled in the past, and the ones I sat with did just fine with human assistance, which included mine at times.  They got along okay without your stupid and ignorant rules, but now we can all forget about future forays to the pool.

Regarding that opening statement, the one about “…thinking about voting for Obama,”

I don’t want to mislead you there. I was thinking about how anyone not on food stamps, SSI, Medicaid, extended unemployment benefits, welfare or any other form of government aid and dependency—in other words almost anyone with an ounce of intelligence or self-motivation—can vote for this unknown entity whose only revealed philosophy seems to be counter to our culture and law. But then, those groups I listed above are fast approaching, or might have already exceeded 50-percent of the population.  I guess that if they can be dragged to the polls on Election Day, we’ll have four more years of this-if we live that long.  I’m anticipating that the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) authorized in the new Healthcare Law will disapprove my next coronary procedure as being “not cost effective”.

Welcome to 1984

Don’t let the title fool you; we’re not going back in time. The reference is, of course, to the book by George Orwell.  It was written and published in 1948, and the back-story is that Orwell was playing with titles for his work. He decided that since it was about the future of mankind he could invert the last two numbers of the present year and come up with a probable time when it would become fact instead of fiction.

Now some people believe that Orwell hit the nail on the head and got the right year, but others, like myself, who liked what Ronald Reagan accomplished while president are not so sure.

There was one aspect of the novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which has really blossomed in recent months and years.  It was Orwell’s fictional language, the new way of speaking called, “Newspeak.”  He even included an essay in the book to explain how the language was constructed to eliminate certain words and augment and glorify others. One of the aims of Newspeak was to put a positive spin on any news that would otherwise reflect negatively on the regime.

In regards to Newspeak in our present world, there are several economic reports that are released weekly.  These show the current status of the American economy as to consumer sentiment, unemployment, business activity and inventory and other measurements to show the current weekly activity of our economy. 

Lately the reports have been made to look positive even when they are negative. You may ask, “How is that done?”  Well, if a number goes up, it usually is a positive sign, but if that number is a measurement of a negative trend, like the price of a barrel of oil, then a positive number is bad news. If you report that negative trend in words that are thought of as positive, then it can be made to look good instead of bad.

An example of the above is the weekly Unemployment Report that measures new claims for unemployment insurance payments for recently laid off workers.  The number has been increasing slightly every week for about a month.  That isn’t good, but when the prior week’s numbers are revised upward as they have been repeatedly, the new total appears to be lower.

On April 19, 2012, the unemployment claims for the past week were announced. The number was 386,000 new claims for jobless benefits, a decrease of 2,000 from the adjusted number from the prior week of 388,000.  However, the reported number of that previous week, 'unadjusted', was 380,000, so instead of a decrease of 2,000, the number actually went up by 6,000.

Hint: If you research the numbers for past weeks you will find that in every instance the number from the previous week is ‘adjusted’ just enough to make this week’s number a decrease.  That is, it as always adjusted upward from the prior week’s ‘reported’ number. That enables the reporters to proclaim that the economy is improving, even when the new number is ‘unexpectedly higher’ than was predicted, another catchphrase that has found its way into the economic jargon.

I can’t resist the opportunity to input the Jobless Claims numbers for the week of April 26^th as another example of the ‘apples to oranges’ comparisons detailed above.  The number of new claims was ‘reported’ as 388,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the ‘adjusted’ number from April 19^th of 389,00. The ‘reported’ number for both dates would yield a 2,000 increase, but nobody ever goes back to examine equivalent numbers. Are you seeing how the game is played and the numbers manipulated?

Another example of putting a positive spin on a negative trend: The Consumer Confidence Index recently dropped from 71.6 to 70.2 (1.4-percent of those surveyed were less confident in the economic recovery), but the news report said that, “…consumer confidence eased.”  Now doesn’t that sound like it got better?

In case you’re a skeptic, I read the other day that the department of Homeland Security has a list of “offensive” words that might appear in e-mail messages.  They trigger some action that could put you on a terror list if you use them in your communications.  I won’t list them here—why put myself on that list—but you can probably figure out some of them.

Yes, Winston Smith is alive and well in 2012.  In case you haven’t read the book, he is the protagonist in Nineteen Eighty-Four.