"There Seems To Be A Loon On Every Limb"

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:

"Craziness seems to be the theme of the moment. Since the election, it seems the loons have come out of the woods!"

Extreme environmentalism is no longer acceptable:

In my opinion it is time for our politicians, federal and state, to quit playing the environmental "green card" game in order to appeal to a block of single purposed voters. At this week’s meeting of the County Commission the County Engineer informed the shocked Commissioners that the state DEP had set up procedures for cleaning up the old Jackson East landfill site which would cost the county an estimated $35,000,000! They apparently want the county to fill up the old land fill with tax money.

At a time when the county officials are struggling with massive declines in revenues, trying to maintain an acceptable level of services, and trying to protect the jobs of the county work force, it is also time for the DEP to BACK OFF! I recall last year when a pompous "Environ-crat" from the DEP stomped up to the podium at a Commission meeting and ordered the commission to immediately remove a drain pipe at Compass Lake. The pipe had been installed many years earlier by the county to keep runoff from the roadway from flooding some houses. The obedient commissioners quickly removed the pipe rather than incur the "wrath of the mighty DEP". ….Well, in this current situation I would recommend the DEP be told to "Take An Environmental Hike!"

When I look at the storm retention pond fiasco at our Kindel Lanes Amusement Project, caused by the DEP regulations, the acres and acres of mosquito ponds occupying valuable properties, and listen every night to the hum of the air pumps foolishly blowing air into the land in front of our beautiful Russ House, I am sickened by the amount of unnecessary, foolish waste this uncontrolled agency is causing. If Governor Crist and our state politicians really want to save some budget money they could save millions by cutting out most of these autocratic "goons" which work for the DEP, and concurrently save the county governments, industries, and citizens of our state Billions of dollars by no longer forcing them to spend on unnecessary, mostly foolish requirements their goons dream up.

Hiding evil intentions behind nice sounding words:

This is another tried and proven technique which skilled politicians and bureaucrats often use to dupe the common citizen. A great example of this political ruse is the current legislation which the labor unions are trying to push through the existing political framework they paid for with huge political campaign donations. For years the union organizers have hated the concept of a fair, secret ballot for union election campaigns when they are trying to organize a new labor group. They want to know exactly which employees voted against unionization so they can engage in intimidation, illegal acts, and reprisals against these non supporters. They need to know which arms to break and which houses to burn with their union thugs.

Thus, they are currently sponsoring a misnamed bill called "The Employee Free Choice Act", which would do away with the secret ballot in union organizing elections. Can you believe they have the nerve to include the words "FREE CHOICE" in such a bill? This is political verbal hypocrisy at its best!

Another great example of this political sham system is using the title "Fairness Doctrine" to describe the attempt the liberals are making to change the laws so that the freedom of speech of the conservative talk shows on radio and television would be forced to provide an equal amount of air time for opposing liberal presentations. There is nothing to prevent liberal individuals, commentators (and the Lord knows there are enough liberal commentators and writers) and political figures from launching their own offerings of television and radio shows for the public to enjoy. We do have freedom of speech and freedom of choice in these matters.

However, it seems these types of shows do not entertain and capture large enough of an audience for them to be commercially viable. Just the opposite has proven to be true for the widely acclaimed conservative programming.

In order to overcome this choice which has been made by the listening public, the liberals want to enact laws which would force these conservative programs to include a proportionate amount of liberal bull crap….even though the audience doesn’t want it! And they call this law, "The Fairness Doctrine!"

These examples are about as misleading as those famous Presidential words, "It depends on what your definition of ‘is’…is".

The "Law of the Sea Treaty":
Have you ever heard anything about "The United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty"? This is a treaty sponsored by the U.N.’s inept bureaucracy as an attempt to take over all rights of the surface and bottom of the seas over international waters. An attempt was made to get the U. S. to sign this agreement while Ronald Reagan was president, but he in his wisdom refused to yield to their pressures. That might not be the case with the administration of today.

A vote is nearing in the Senate on this treaty, and it appears Obama’s peers are favoring passage. This would give the United Nations bureaucracy total rights for creating a "UN Seabed Authority which would control all commercial activities above and below the surface of international waters. They would control all shipping lanes, including permission of passage for U.S. military vessels, they would control all international fishing rights, (thus introducing licensing and favoritism on an international scale), and they would gain rights to all mining and oil exploration in these vast areas.

The real purpose is a form of international socialism which would redistribute wealth and technology from the U.S. to third world countries. I encourage you to seek out and sign the petition to "Sink the Law of the Sea Treaty". This petition is being sponsored by Freedom Alliance under the direction of Senator Mitch McConnell.

Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning –

· Have you ever wondered why some groups are pushing so hard for amnesty and full citizenship for the twelve million illegal aliens which our inept government has allowed to sneak into our struggling country? Well, it has nothing to do with what is right or wrong, human rights, or jobs that no one else would be willing to do. The only real reason is votes. In a nation where the liberals, union promoters, and social welfare advocates are equal to those who oppose those movements, the addition of another 12,000,000 voters to their side would assure they can remain in power. That is the only reason this group of politicians promote amnesty and citizenship for illegal aliens.

· When our unemployment rates approach 25% as it did during the Great Depression, our attitudes about those jobs which are now taken by the illegal aliens which no "American Worker" would ever want to do….may start to look pretty enticing. Our nation had grown too soft, too spoiled, too aloof in our approach to work by a huge percentage of our population. Before this ordeal is over, many soft hands may have their first calluses.

· I feel we are moving towards a pacifistic, appeasement approach to our relations with known areas of refuge for violent, murderous Islamic extremists who will eventually again attack our citizens and kill thousands or even hundreds of thousands. At first opportunity our investments in our military resources and strengths will be cut, cut and whittled to a minimum force……Then they will come.

· It is my understanding that several construction contractors who were bidding on stimulus funded road and bridge projects were forced to remove their low bids and recalculate them with higher bid quotations, because they were forced to use prevailing union labor rates for the work instead of what they were currently paying their non-union employees. Who will pay this extra cost designed to help the union workers?......You and Me, our Children, and our Grandchildren.

· I recently heard of an area in Oregon which has lost their livelihood, the lumber industry, because of legislation pushed by extreme environmentalists who were concerned about the spotted owl. The loss of jobs from these foolish regulations combined with the current economic downturn has pushed their unemployment rate up to over 24%! A ray of sunshine appeared through this gloom when a large wind farm project wanted to locate in the region. This would bring hundreds of new jobs for construction and then for operation of this project. However, the foolish environmentalists are again using their political clout against this new project, claiming the blades on the wind mills have been known to kill birds!

I THINK IT IS TIME FOR US ALL TO TELL OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS "IT IS TIME TO PUT A HALT TO ALL OF THIS FOOLISH THINKING AND WASTING OF NEEDED MONEY!! Do this and you will surly be "Getting It Right".

Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.

Who Makes the Nasty Phone Call?

I cannot fully understand international finance…can you?

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:

"Where will the money come from??"

I have been struggling for several weeks now trying to develop a full understanding of international finance. On a personal, more local basis, I completely understand how loans and financing works. However, I completely lose it when I try to get some basic answers related to international financing arrangements.

When I need a loan for a worthwhile purpose, I can go to a local bank and have a meeting with one of the bank’s top executives, Mr. Ira Lender. He will want me to describe the use of the funds, and will want me to show my income, my existing debts, my demonstrated credit worthiness and honesty, and will want me to put up my house, car, wife, and oldest child as security…then he will approve the loan.

After they have investigated the truthfulness of the information I provided, they will prepare a massive stack of loan documents for execution at a formal ceremony called "The Closing". After each page in the huge stack has been signed, initialed, and resigned, the ceremony comes to an end. I realize that among these documents with hundreds of words written in intelligible, small print are agreements which lets the bank do anything it wants to do, and allows me to do nothing except pay on time each month. They also have the right to sell my loan if they desire to some huge bank in some far away place which is owned and managed by people I will never see or know. My little loan might even be bundled with other, similar loans and traded as a packaged security around the world.

Finally they issue the check to me for the amount of the loan (less huge closing costs), and I can proceed with the purchase or project for which the loan was issued. The bank will draw on their deposits for the funds they give to me, and they will check to be sure I really use the money for the intended purpose.

I also know that if the loan stays with the local bank and I am late on a payment, I will receive an embarrassing call from Ima Gogetter who will inform me I have missed a payment, and she will want to know what my problem is, and when I can make the payment. I also realize that if the loan is sold to uncaring people far away, I will receive a phone call from a lady somewhere in the North, who has a monotone, unemotional, threatening voice who will inform me I have missed a payment and now owe a huge late fee penalty, and if they do not get payment by noon the next day they will come and take away my house, car, wife and oldest child. I understand all of this procedure.

However, I do not understand what happens when the United States suddenly decides it wants to borrow a trillion dollars for a stimulus program and it plans to borrow the money through international banking relationships. It is stated that U.S. Securities will be issued, and probably these will be bought and held by China. Now, this is where some of my problems begin…

How come China has so much money and we do not? Aren’t most of the people in China very poor? How can the government of China be making huge amounts of money by taxing these poor people, while the US has no money even though it has one of the highest personal and corporate tax rates in the world? Where is their money coming from? Where is ours going? Were did China get the two to three trillion they have already loaned to us? What security did we put up in order to get the loan? What is the term and interest rate on those loans? How much are our monthly payments? Who do we make the payments to? Who writes our check and puts it in the mail each month?

If China decides not to loan us the money, and we have already started thousands of earmarked special projects and have contractors working on roads, bridges, sidewalks, water systems, tattoo removal, pig stink research, Polynesian Cultural Museums’, and thousands of other expenditures occurring….and the loan doesn’t go through…what happens?

If the U.S. fails to make a payment one month, who will call us and make the nasty sounding collection phone call? Who will they call here? Where will the call come from and who will make it? How big are the late fees? What will they do to us if we default on the loan? Can they foreclose on the United States? I just don’t understand how it all works!

I can comprehend the fact that our Government owns the printing presses and master printing plates to print money. I can imagine the temptation to just go to the print shop and print out a few trillion instead of kissing Chinese rumps to borrow the funds. Who decides when and how much will be printed? How can a person monitor how much "new" money is being created? If new money is created, doesn’t that lessen the worth of the "old" money which is already in circulation. If so, isn’t all of our hard earned money which we may have saved at risk of being devalued into a state of becoming worthless? Isn’t that what happened in Germany when the Weimar Republic ran the German economy amuck after WW I? It got so bad that a German housewife had to carry a suitcase full of worthless German dollars to the grocery store just to buy milk and bread.

That condition of economic disarray and the German people’s economic plight and misery made it easy for Hitler to move in with his Nazi Party and oust the struggling, corrupt Weimar Republic which was previously in control. It took Hitler’s ruthless, dictatorial authority to restore economic sanity. In fact they had to begin to conquer neighboring nations and loot their treasuries for the benefit of Mother Germany.Anyhow, the stimulus is upon us. Our politicians now speak in terms of trillions instead of mere billions. Money is apparently about to be splashed out of the federal funding pools in unbelievable amounts. We will be wading in money. Governments at all levels will be on spending sprees. Thousands of lucrative, new government jobs will be created at the federal, state, and local levels. Don’t dare stop and worry about where it is coming from…or who and how it will be repaid…just join the party and Spend!- Spend!- Spend! The loonies in Washington tell us if we will just follow their leadership we will be "Getting It Right!"

Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning

♦ Since I wrote those articles defending our community and all of those wonderful people who worked at Dozier for their entire careers, those ‘White House Boys" who are trying to win a multi-million dollar claim of abuse from our government, have been abusing me through vicious "blogs" on our paper’s web site. Some have been too rough for publication, but we have allowed entry for several. They seem to be demonstrating those same character flaws that probably resulted in them being sent to Dozier many years ago. They really get vicious when their anticipated "prize" is threatened. To read their ranting, go to our site at www.jacksoncountytimes.net.

The 9 Principles of Citizenship as proclaimed by Glenn Beck: 1. America Is Good.2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it. 6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results. 7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with whom I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion. 9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.

Bloom and Gloom

Tis the season of rebirth and beauty…..except for the economy!

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:

"It is difficult to feel the joy of Spring during this time of economic gloom."

It is springtime in Jackson County! Azaleas and dogwoods are starting to bloom and the world is transforming into a place of breathtaking flowers and beauty. It is the time I normally feel a lifting of my spirits as I grasp for my fishing tackle and visit my favorite fishing holes, hoping that this will be the year I capture another big monster bass for my wall. It is the time where a trip to the golf course is an enriching experience…regardless of your score. It is a time of joy and amazement over this wonderful world we inhabit.

However, it seems I am having great difficulty achieving this level of exhilaration this year because of a needling feeling of impending doom which is created as I read news reports and view commentaries on television. These accounts present a never ending series of reports of layoffs, plant closings, bankrupt businesses, foreclosures, failed banks, and new lows for the stock market. These are punctuated with accounts of our elected leaders shoveling never before heard of amounts of future tax revenues at these problems as they try to save the situation by covering it up with U.S. Dollars.

I am going to begin to try to look at the bright side of things and not let this environment spoil my spring! Springtime is too precious to spoil, especially when you get to be my age.

Thus I offer the following statistics:

● 92 % of all homeowners are in good shape on their mortgages and are making payments on time to their lenders.

● 91.9% of the U.S. Labor force is working and drawing a pay check.

● The stock market still shows the Dow Jones Industrials to have an index value of $6,500

● We are about to build a bunch of new roads, bridges, sidewalks, trails, buildings, parks, water systems, and public services. What a bright, clean, new world it will be.

● We will all soon be able to get health care free! We may have to go to some quack doctor we can’t stand, and we may have to wait for months for that operation we need so badly, but everything will be free!

● Our environment will be cleaner and cleaner as we enforce more and more environmental regulations on what industry is left, and on our power plants, and ourselves in the gasoline we burn in our cars. The world will be green everywhere…except for one spot, --there will no longer be any green in our billfolds.

● With the $1.7 million in the omnibus bill we will hopefully finally solve one of the most perplexing questions to plague men’s thoughts for many, many decades. We might find the answer through the funded research…What makes pigs stink?

● Those girls in California will no longer have those ugly tattoos on selected parts of their anatomies…we are paying $200,000 for their removal.

● With the $6.6 million we are spending on termite research in Louisiana we can be sure New Orleans will not rot away.

Anyway, why should I worry about our government spending all of this money? I might as well enjoy it…perhaps even qualify for a little of it myself. It will be my great, great grandchildren who will be working to pay it back…Let them struggle with it….I’ll be long gone!

I may just quit working and try to get my earnings down just a little lower so I, too will be part of the underprivileged, low income masses. It might be a lot better than working all of the years I have left just to pay taxes. I always kind of enjoyed sleeping in a tent when I was a kid, and beans and rice is one of my favorite dishes.

If I can just get my earnings down to Medicaid qualification level I will qualify for low income housing, food stamps, free medical care, church hand outs, educational benefits, free dental clinics, a free hearing aid I can’t afford to buy right now, earned income credit on my taxes for not paying any taxes or working, a bigger stimulus check, and a whole lot more free things. Also, if I can just get a disability classification from social security I’ll qualify for a whole lot more benefits and entitlements. I might even still be able to get a mortgage on a big house somewhere.
Sounds like a plan to me…. I think I’m finally "Getting It Right"!

Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning –

● A group of liberal social progressives from Sweden have a proposed treaty before the United Nations which would make it an offense for a parent to ever spank a child, or even put the child into "time out" for punishment. The agreement would also prohibit parents from choosing which church their children will attend. The U.S. is reportedly seriously considering signing this U.N. Treaty as national policy.

● Under the stimulus bill Obama’s old employer, ACORN, will receive $7,000,000 in funding from the government. This should help them register several thousand more ineligible voters.

● Circuit City has gone bankrupt, closed their stores, and several thousand workers have lost their jobs. The government apparently decided they did not qualify for a bailout….could it be because the United Auto Workers Union, which makes huge political donations doesn’t represent their workers?

● The government continues to impregnate every piece of legislation with extra costs related to the "green" movement against global warming. All of this green is making me see red!

● Locally, lets all go to the St. Patrick’s Day festival and do some "Green"!

Getting It Right - A Career Guide for Graduating Seniors

Choosing the correct career path is a critical life decision.

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
"Helping graduates choose the correct field of study is important."
Spring is about to spring upon us. This means we are only a few weeks away from hatching this year’s crop of graduating seniors. As responsible adults who have experienced the hardships, inequities, and unfairness which life often hands us, we have a moral responsibility to help these fledgling graduates choose a career field which will maximize their life pleasures, provide the greatest job security, assure a fruitful end of career retirement, and will yield good earnings and general benefits. Making the correct choice at this juncture can mean the difference between a life of "wine and roses" and a life full of "trials and tribulations".
First, let us begin with jobs and career fields which should be avoided at all costs. Working in these occupations during the coming decades will surely lead to misery and despair. These "careers to avoid" include:
● Business Management/ Business Administration…. In the coming decades there will be no need for business managers. All business decisions will be made by some government bureaucracy and then sent via mandate to all businesses which are involved. The title Business Manager will become an oxymoron.
● Industrial Engineering…. This once needed field of engineering is now nearing obsolescence since within the United States there is almost no industry left.
● Textile Engineering – Automotive Design and Engineering- Apparel Engineering- Ceramic Engineering – Mines Engineering – Petroleum Engineering – Geology – Electrical Engineering – Mechanical Engineering – Physics – Chemical Engineering – Aeronautical Engineering…All of these engineering sciences will be unnecessary since all industry will be traded away from the United States, or will be illegal due to environmental regulations.
● Accounting – Will be a useless skill since no business other than government will exist, and everyone will be cheating on their taxes and will not want an accountant to see the form.
● Teaching – You will not want to go into this field since every subject, every lesson, every discussion, and all procedures will be dictated by the Federal Government.
● Medicine – You will not want to even think about becoming a nurse or a doctor. Under socialized medicine the government will be telling all professionals who they can treat, what treatments are allowed, how to conduct every procedure, they will be forced to encourage and perform abortions and all charges and fees will be carefully monitored and regulated.
● Newspapers and Media…This will be a closely regulated, over taxed, over controlled business where the government will have to approve anything before it can be printed or broadcast.
● Small Business – Your business will be over regulated and over taxed to the point where it is not worth the effort to try to be in business for yourself.
● Banking/Finance….These occupations will be meaningless, quasi-government jobs.
● Stock Brokers……..There may not be a stock market.
However, there are some areas of study and starting a career which will become the professions of choice. These will include:
● Lawyer….You think there are too many lawyers now? Just wait; they will be needed in order to enforce the millions of new laws and regulations which are yet to be created by our new socialistic order. Instead of living in a "sue me" society as we do today, it will become a "sue me, I’ll sue you, you re-sue me, and I’ll re-sue you" society. Also, since government positions are largely filled by lawyers, the tremendous future growth of government jobs will create a demand for hundreds of thousands of new lawyers.
● Government Administration….The hundreds of new agencies and levels of bureaucracy which will be created will simultaneously create a need for thousands and thousands of government administrators.
● City Planner/ County-City Manager…. There will be high demand for these skills.
● Architecture….The countless number of new government buildings which will be required to house all of these new "crats" will create a booming business for architects and government construction contractors. Of course they will need to specialize in government buildings.
● Civil Engineering….One of the few engineering fields of study which will continue to be much needed is road and bridge design and construction. Many, many lucrative government contracts will be granted in this field of endeavor.
● ACORN Community Organizer….You should certainly seek out studies to qualify for this wonderful type of job. The experience gained here will quickly qualify you to be President of the USA!
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-
● Speaking of the ACORN Organization, I noticed they are slated to get $7,000,000 in stimulus funding to help them solicit voter registrations in the ghettos. Now, isn’t that a good job producing expenditure!
● Over and over, promises have been made which state our new government will tax the devil out of the rich making over $250,000 per year, but the other 95% (the poor people) will get tax reductions. First, most of this 95% aren’t paying taxes anyway. However, the new plans provide for a huge new tax on the utility companies because they are burning coal. Now, who do you suppose will end up paying that new tax? Watch your utility bills to see the answer. Also, they plan to impose a new ten cents per gallon gasoline tax. They are even considering a new tax based on miles driven. Who does that impact the most….the rich?
● Also, those plastic bags the grocery store puts your groceries into will soon cost you ten cents each when you check out, due to a new environmental tax.
● Add to all of these costs the $ .40 cents per gallon Governor Crist wants to add to make gasoline wholesalers in Florida meet the California gas emissions standards and you have another huge tax increase for the struggling masses (Us!). It appears to me that we now need to push back some of this environmental, Goreism Global Warming Fear Mongering "Green", bull crap….and begin worrying about the survival of our society. If they will do this, then they will be a little closer to "Getting It Right".
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.