HAPPY ANNIVERSARY - HAPPY TO BE ALIVE AND WELL! (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2011)

Sally and I were having dinner with a wealthy acquaintance of mine and was astounded when he proclaimed that "I don't support medical causes, they already get too much money." He knew I had leukemia. What he didn't know was that cancer would soon strike his immediate family. Does he still feel the same way?
I have now had cancer for ten years. It's called CLL, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. It is an incurable disease. Many people die from it and some people live a long time with it. Your prognosis is based to a great extent on the makeup of your DNA and the quality of medical care you can get.
If I would have listened to my original hematology oncologists, when first diagnosed, I would have been gone from this earth a long time ago. I was fortunate enough to seek out one of the very best physicians in this field, Dr. Michael J. Keating of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. After about four years the cancer advanced to the point where I needed treatment. It was through Dr. Keating and his wonderful staff (especially Alice Lynn) that I received the state of the art chemotherapy treatment, long before it was recognized as the "gold standard treatment" for this disease. Simply put, there was all sorts of recommended treatments across the country, most of which have since been dropped and many of which were being recommended on the Internet.
My knowledge of this disease is extensive and modestly I have been able to point more than a few people in the right direction in order to help them with this disease, CLL.
During my extremely difficult chemotherapy treatments, I was thankful for the medicine created by the biotech industry, without which many cancer deaths would come much sooner.
If I have one piece of advice for dealing with this disease it would be to seek out the best possible medical advice, have a complete modern diagnosis of your blood and make sure you get the latest treatment protocol. Unfortunately there are only about ten world class leukemia treatment centers in our country. Many are really good but only a few are great. Another piece of advice, don't listen and believe too much of what you read on the Internet, much of which is confusing, misleading and written by the wrong people. You only have one chance to fight this, so make it your best chance.
I have been lucky, I'm still alive after ten years, still in great shape and look forward to a long life. It turns out I fought this disease correctly and reaped the benefits. You can live with cancer if you fight it correctly and if you're lucky. You can help others if you learn through the process of taking care of yourself. You can never let the word cancer prevent you from having a positive outlook.
"Money Cures."
http://www.cllglobal.org/

OBAMA'S PREPARED...BUT WILL THE REPUBLICANS BE IN 2012 (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 12/7/11)

On December 6, 2011 President Obama gave a brilliant speech in Kansas. He covers alot of territory, mostly economic. Between the lines you can read that the country has not increased the standard of living in a long time. He calls it the problem of the middle class and obviously those below the middle class. He seems to really understand that a combination of factors, from unions, geopolitical forces, greed, over emphasis on financial activities, entitlements and advanced technology have contributed to the lack of increasing living standards. He couches his speech in populist rhetoric but certainly comprehends the big picture better than any other politician I have heard speak on these issues. This makes him tough to beat in the upcoming election.

The magnificent Lincoln/Douglas debates of the 1850s centered on different views about the cohesiveness of the Union and issues pertaining to slavery.

Now we are faced with the Republican Presidential candidates arguing their view of how to get America's economic prosperity returning to preeminence.

Lincoln/Douglas versus Obama and the Republicans. Obama is prepared for the equivalent of the 1850s debate. Let's hope the Republicans can put forth a candidate with the clarity and vision expressed in Obama's Kansas speech.

Here is the link to President Obama's speech. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/06/remarks-president-economy-osawatomie-kansas

ROMNEY TOLD THE TRUTH...

Although truth is complicated, it is the essence of our legal system.  You raise your hand and take an oath to tell the truth. 

It takes absolutely no courage on the part of politicians to be pro-abortion.  There are millions of votes involved.  The same is true for a long list of other specialized interest groups.  Certain religious groups vote almost exclusively left or right.  Certain racial groups vote almost exclusively left or right.  The same is true of unions, gun owners and a whole long list of interest groups.  This interest group voting is the way it works in the real world and is very hard to overcome.

Without going into Candidate Romney's motives, it seems to take a certain moral conviction to stand up for what you believe in, rather than what will help you get elected.  The fact is that he spoke the truth when he indicated that a large percentage of the tax payer population do not pay federal income taxes. 

That happens to be true. The question then becomes is this a situation that will, in time, work towards the detriment or the improvement in this close to 50% of the population's standard of life?

In any case, Romney was probably right, a significant portion of those people vote democratic under all conditions.  Such was the stance of my Mother, who I loved dearly...Democrat - 100% of the time.

THE RIOTS HAD NOTHING TO WITH THE FILM...

This is the real story on the Middle East.  The riots from the Middle East are nothing more than a staged operetta. 

They have only one purpose.  The purpose is to take our eye off Iran and their march towards nuclear arms. 

The riots are meant to scare so that no one will dare deal with Iran, since the Middle East and other places will erupt into chaos. 

A RESPONSE TO A THINKER...(Originally Published May 2011)

Thank you for the extremely insightful comments on my recent blog pertaining to oil. Please bear with me as I attempt to frame my answer within the historical context of our nation's history. Bizarre as this may seem, I believe that it is within this story the answer to your questions lie.

After the Revolutionary War a disparate group of states with a very minimal and primitive central government existed. At the constitutional convention there were two primary government theories, that of the Federalists who wanted a strong central government and that of the Anti-Federalists who wanted most powers to lie in the states.

The Anti-Federalists, which enjoyed the oratory excellence of Patrick Henry and George Mason, believed in small changes and that "tweaking" the articles of confederation was all that was needed. It was pretty clear that the general populous of the time, about three million strong, as a majority, felt the same way.

Madison, Hamilton and Washington, a formidable group if there ever was one, believed in a very centralized sovereign government. Anti-Federalist argued that the sovereign central government sounded liked a re-creation of living under the aegis of King George the Third and the British Parliament.

In essence, Madisonian Hamiltonian position was that the articles had to be completely redone. The upcoming constitution could not create a strong nation with just a little fixing here and there of the articles. For whatever reasons, that 1870's period of time had attracted a set of delegates, probably never since duplicated in intellectual content.

When all was said and done, a convoluted constitutional government of Congressional, Senatorial, Judicial, Executive, Electoral and state's rights was embedded in our constitution. It seemed anything but kingly, and in fact was a vast sharing of overlapping powers.

Many, including Madison, came to believe that the great strength of our Republic was set in place by the seeming dilution of powers among many.

I tell you the story for two reasons, one; our response to the oil situation requires the same type of "do over" as our response to the articles of confederation, namely the courage for a new plan . Two; the answers will lie in a series of responses, rather than in one overall response.

A little more necessary review of history is needed before drawing conclusions. Since the birth of the nation, there has been almost two hundred fifty years of all kinds of things occurring. It's everything from the Industrial Revolution, Scientific Revolution, Agricultural Revolution to dealing with foreign powers and everything else. We have progressed, we have had ups and downs, we have brought more to the world than probably any country before us in the shortest possible period of time. For example, we dealt with WWII, in spite of a questionable response to our use of atomic bomb and a questionable response to the Holocaust problem. But even the Founders did not deal with all the issues. It put some aside such as slavery, women's rights, and Indians for another day but it dealt with things. It faced big recalcitrant issues and moved forward.

Along the way this nation has been built by oil. We are a large place, three thousand miles wide and we developed processes that involve the integration and use of this large space by the many. Cars and trucks use most of the oil.

Furthermore, deep in the bowels of the State Department, the CIA and our security apparatus lies a vast network of people and machines dedicated to a world view and hopefully peace.

Besides the potentially millions of people employed in this country at oil related jobs and infrastructure, there are hundreds of millions of Muslims, who one way or another, rely on their future well being from a steady stream of oil income. The shutting down or diminishment of the oil recovery domestically, or the oil power base around the world, would be potentially too catastrophic to face up to.

So what to do......
1. We have to let it be known that we consider the overall oil dilemma, not just the price, to be a crisis at least equal to any other crisis this country has faced.
2. We have to let it be known that all arguments and discussions to alleviate this problem on a permanent basis will be undertaken under all levels of government and society until a constitutional blueprint for the oil crisis has been submitted and accepted.
3. We have to let it be known that all points of view should be put forward during the development of the energy constitution, argued and decided upon and accepted by a majority of the people.
4. We have to let it be known that we will be willing to speak with anyone but will not allow ourselves to live under the constant threat of oil embargoes and constant price threats.
5. We have to let it be known that all hedge funds and speculators should be excluded from this market and no professorial economic or private property arguments will override the need from energy related threats.
6. We have to let it be known that oil producing countries shall not be able to provide gasoline in their nations at close to zero cost while selling oil at many multiples of actual production cost.
7. We have to let it be known that if this is to continue we will begin to demand exorbitant prices for necessary items from oil producing countries and at the same time selling those items in the normal domestic market at normal domestic prices.
8. We have to let it be known that every car in this country will be replaced by at least a one hundred mile per gallon car within at least a five year period whatever the resulting problems bring.
9. We have to let it be known that since cars and trucks are the primary users of oil that all this talk about alternative sources continues to be a deception from current scientific reality. Under existing circumstances oil producing countries will always reduce the price of oil below the cost of developing alternative energy sources whenever they reach a point of real competition.
10. We have to let it be known that we have the back bone to face the dislocations that these steps will cause because not facing them is not an alternative.
11. We have to let it be known that we do whatever it takes to stand up to special interest groups because the national problem requires solving this problem once and for all.
12. We have to let it be known any arguments about the undemocratic nature of the pursuit to solve our energy problems have to be put aside.

GOOD FAIRIES OF CORPORATE PROFIT ELIMINATION...

This will almost sound like a fairy tale.  The good fairies, the group of democrats who recently proposed that profits should be eliminated from corporations, stand with their magic wands waving to a drum beat.

For those inclined to left-wing wand waving here are some simple facts...you take them to whatever drum beating march you choose.

In the fairy tale land of no profit this is what would happen:

1. There would not be any corporate profit left to buy plant and equipment.
2. The millions of workers that work in those industries wouldn't have any jobs.
3. The fairy tale land wouldn't have any money left over to pay dividends to your mutual funds, your IRAs or investments in IBM or anything else.
4. The few dollars that are left from these "wicked" profits couldn't be retained in the companies to pay off debts and provide a financially strong environment to maintain employment.

The good fairies of profit elimination must want to live in another world called Obama, Saul Alinsky, Communism and Failure.  Who are these good fairies?

NANCY PELOSI - PARAGON OF DECEPTION?

The following is a quote from page 193 of the book called "Reckless Endangerment".

"Paul Pelosi, Jr., the son of Nancy Pelosi the former speaker of the House, worked as a mortgage broker and sales manager at a Countrywide office in California." The book further states; "When the company was beginning mass layoffs, Pelosi's name was on the list of those to be cut. According to a former executive with knowledge of the situation, Mozilo (the head of the company) personally removed Pelosi's name from the list."

Barney Frank, President Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Andrew Cuomo, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, along with many other influential Democrats were all major perpetrators of the financial crisis. 

Isn't it time to check how Nancy Pelosi's son got involved in the mortgage brokerage business and what, if any, connection did Nancy Pelosi have in her son's employment at Countrywide. 

THE ANSWER IS NOT SIMPLE...

I received tons of controversy on my abortion comments. Maybe I shouldn't have even gone there.

Even though I still come down on the side of pro choice with "tons of reservations", I leave this subject with one final question for now.

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE BEEN THE ONE ABORTED?  

LIES OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CONTINUE...

As a general rule, the tax returns of Candidate Romney should be considered as private as anyone else's.

Some people get cancer, they need a top cancer oncologist.  Should they ask the Doctor for his tax returns?  They might be indicative of a fraudulent mentality.  Would that even affect their surgical ability?

There are three main things to consider:

1. It is highly likely that Candidate Romney's returns have been prepared by a certified public accountant and possibly even a major accounting firm.  Is Obama saying that the accounting firm has participated in illegal activities and certified Romney's tax return in spite of the fact that there is an indication by Obama of a tax impropriety?

2. The government runs the IRS.  It is likely that Candidate Romney's tax returns have been audited by the IRS if not once, many times.  If they haven't been it might indicate a possible significant oversight by the government or after years of auditing the Romney returns, they hardly ever found anything that would suggest malfeasance. 

3. To make the Obama attacks on Romney's privacy being invaded without claiming that his returns are in someway fraudulent sounds like nothing more than negative, outrageous and unnecessary politics. 

A person and his church are also a private matter.  Since President Obama attended Reverend Wright's sermons for many years, why not have all of them released to the public?  The moral and social ethics of this President might become much clearer even as he attempts to indite the morals of Romney.

If the Democrats want Romney's returns for more years let them state that they expect to find tax fraud.  Otherwise, let the IRS and the CPA's do their jobs.  Stop attempting to mislead the American public. 

P.S. IF ROMNEY HAS A LOW TAX RATE, I AM SURE HE IS FOLLOWING THE RULES OF TAX CODE.  HE MAY EVEN OWN MUNICIPAL BONDS WHICH ARE TAX FREE TO EVERYONE, ETC. ETC.

ABORTION - CHOICE HAS TO WIN... (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED DECEMBER 2010)

I thought I understood the abortion issue. Aborting babies, in effect killing them, didn't seem like a good idea. Neither did not giving people choice over there own bodies or bringing babies into the world that the mothers didn't want, seem like a good idea.

I have become more knowledgeable where our medical dollars are spent. It seems we spend by far the largest percentage of our medical dollars on people 70 and older.
Why would we make such an effort to keep people who are not likely to live much longer alive and yet kill people that may have a hundred years to live?

A society that doesn't protect people on both ends of the scale is still a bit primitive. I'm rethinking my position on abortion but I'm pretty sure I'm Pro-Choice.  I would like to hear your thoughts. Stay tuned...

Reckless Endangerment - A Great Book

In an exhaustive piece of research Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner wrote a book about the housing fiasco called "Reckless Endangerment".

This is by far the most insightful book I have read on this subject.  You only have to read the first 75 pages to unfortunately understand that the primary perpetrators of the catastrophe were Fannie Mae, Barney Frank, William Clinton and an extraordinarily corrupt, primarily Democratic group of Senators.

If Candidate Romney could give one copy of this book to everyone, the lies of the current President and Vice President would be exposed.

Freedom is not "I'll give you a dollar and then you owe me your vote and loyalty".  If you care to read our blog titled "CHAINS OF MANY KINDS...HOUSING, HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND FREEDOM" which we recently reposted, you will know what it's like to not be free. 

WHAT NEXT- THE POST OFFICE?

ON 7/25/11 WE RAN THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY ON THE POST OFFICE AS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF UNION LABORS UNWILLINGNESS TO ADJUST TO COMPETITIVE FORCES. THE PERFECT STORM...WATCH IT UNFOLD.

It may seem like an unimportant event, but the US Post Office, which is a unionized workforce, for all intents and purposes is in bankruptcy. This is another example of the effect of significantly inelastic unions making the Post Office join the long list of failed unionized industries. The general rule is in order for unionized workforces to grow and prosper, wages and benefits must be elastic to competitive forces.

BLOG OF THE DAY...

According to Boeing's own website they recently had 22,000 global suppliers.  It is well known that somewhere around 25 to 30% of General Motors parts are outsourced.

Every time you see Obama running an ad blaming Romney for outsourcing, try to remember that this President doesn't want you to know the facts.  He just wants power anyway he can get it including deception. 

BLOG OF THE DAY...

Maybe he gets away with it because he's black. Maybe he gets away with it because he's the President.

Obama is a purveyor of falsehoods and outrageous incomplete thoughts that in many respects border on verbal treason. 

Obama has been running deceptive political ads on Candidate Romney's outsourcing of jobs. 

We all know Warren Buffet has been a big time supporter of President Obama. One of the major divisions of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet's company, is called Fruit of the Loom.

According to the Fruit of the Loom website "more than 90% of our products are made in the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Salvador and Morocco.  The backbone of our production is sourced from suppliers located in 33 countries including China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam."

The absurdity and the out of context nature of Obama's ads should make even the most liberal democrats realize what a deceptive and miserable character our President is. 

ANOTHER BLOG FOR TODAY...

In another one of its absurd articles, that New York newspaper that pays its executives millions and is a miserably ran company, published a story today about how several JP Morgan brokers pushed sales of their own funds even at their client's expense.

There are two very simple points that need to be made about this story:

1. Does it mean that if Consumer Reports concludes that Toyotas perform better than General Motor cars that all the GM salesman should stop selling GMs and start pushing Toyota?

2. The current performance of the JP Morgan funds has nothing to do with how it will be in the future.

The article is another destructive example of thoughtless reporting. 

BLOG OF THE DAY...

Aspen Colorado voted to ban plastic bags from the town's grocery stores and enacted a 20 cent fee on paper bags.

MY WIFE WENT INTO THE GROCERY STORE AND INSTEAD OF THE PAPER BAGS SHE BOUGHT TWO CLOTH BAGS RECOMMENDED BY THE STORE AS TO THEIR PERMANENCE.

NOW GET THIS REALLY WELL.  THE BAGS SHE PURCHASED FROM BOTH FOOD STORES, MADE BY DIFFERENT COMPANIES, WERE BOTH MADE IN CHINA.

How many people  working in the plastic and paper industry will now lose jobs.  As Jack Nicholson said in a famous movie, "You don't want to hear the truth, you can't take it".

The environmentally powerful lobbyists outsourced more jobs. We are a democracy therefore we get what the people want, in this case less jobs.  

RHETORIC VS. RESUME - OBAMA VS. ROMNEY

A major New York newspaper and their Economist wrote an editorial today about Mitt Romney titled "Off and Out with Romney". 

In summary, the editorial claims that Mr. Romney's "career wouldn't have prepared him to manage the economy."  The editorial goes on in detail about Bain Capital, outsourcing, offshoring, health care, etc. The editorial is basically a political advertisement distorting facts to support the Obama campaign.

Here is the bottom line on both candidates:

President Obama was a short term United States Senator and to my knowledge never ran a business, never ran a city or state prior to his election.

Mr. Romney was a successful businessman, saved the Olympics and was the Governor of Massachusetts.

Where have we gotten with President Obama - what has he really done to help our economy grow? What experience did he have when we elected him to the highest office in our country?  In the words of this Editorial writer what in Obama's past "prepared him to manage the economy"? I say nothing much and that's one of the reasons we are where we are at now, no job growth and a business community afraid of what Obama may do next....

The fact is Mr. Romney is much more qualified to be President based upon his career than Obama was four years ago.  That's a fact.  Possibly if Mr. Romney was a minority he would have a better chance of winning the election  even if he was less qualified.

This failing newspaper needs to stop editorializing with malicious and inaccurate commentary.

JP MORGAN - IT MAY NOT BE THEIR FAULT...THAT'S HOW DESPERATE THE FIRMS ARE TO ACHIEVE RETURN.

What happened at JP Morgan is not even the tip of the iceberg.  Capital markets cannot be traded successfully using huge leverage without catastrophic breakdowns.

The Background:
1. Wall Street firms were allowed to go public.  Allegiance was no longer to clients and partners but to public shareholders.
2. The fixed commission structure of the industry was gotten rid of and in its place was put a negotiated commission structure.
3. The money management industry, aside from the brokerage industry, developed control of commission generating assets.
4. As the profitability of the historic Wall Street model deteriorated, greater risks had to be taken in order to achieve increasing shareholder profits and for brokerage executives to earn high compensation (financial dangers were somebody else's problem).
5. It didn't matter how much risk the firms, took the money no longer belonged to them.
6. Shareholder profits overrode fiduciary responsibility.
7. Most Wall Street fortunes have been made on fees from other people money.  Very few Wall Street employees have made their fortunes investing in the markets they recommend to their own clients.
8. Large financial  organizations all hire public relations firms.  Its hard to separate fact from fiction or where the PR takes over from the reality of the controlling people in management.
9. Jimmy Dimon should have to produce his investment portfolio to see if the methods the bank was using with other people's money was being used in the same manner in his own portfolio.
10. We already know that Warren Buffett only wants to buy back Berkshire shares near book value, but he buys publicly traded companies that trade many times above book value which makes no sense whatsoever.
11. The very survival of our Capitalist structure depends on a slow unwinding of the gambling in trillions within our savings institutions.
12. Even if a half dozen people at JP Morgan can understand what was going on, what would happen if God forbid,  these half dozen people had an accident in a plane or car...no one could ever pick up the pieces.
13. Lastly, Congress is elected for only two years and 98% of the Congressman know absolutely nothing about the banking system.

We should stop worrying about the sexuality of people and begin the arduous task that lies ahead. If we try to escape from this we will fail.

ROOSEVELT DID IT...I GUESS OBAMA DOES TOO...

The Obama Presidential campaign continues to disrespect the intelligence of the average American.

An Obama advertisement currently running states that women are discriminated against in the workplace. According to Obama's political ad, women receive 70% of the pay that men do for the same job. Clearly if that was true, it would be wrong.

These ads are information that is out of context and not true.

1. How long has the woman been doing the job compared the man?

2. How well does the woman do the job and on what criteria compared to the man?

3. What is the average age of the woman compared to the man?

4. What is the level of education of the woman compared to the man?

5. How effective is the woman doing her job compared to the man?

It is highly misleading to just state on public TV that women are discriminated against.

Did this misleading President mean to say that the government pays women less money than men for the same job with the same experience? Did he mean to say that the people that flip hamburgers in a food chain are paid differently based on gender?

I don't think so. If we can run ads based on gender we can run ads based on religion, color and everything else.

What companies is he talking about, etc? By the way, President Roosevelt's secretary, Missy, was paid $5,000 dollars per year in the 1940s, while men with the same job were paid twice as much. If it's true Mr. President, is it still true in your administration? Is that what you are really talking about?

We need a more educated nation so politicians like yourself can't run these kinds of distorted advertisements.

If this was really true Mr. President what have you done in the last four years to correct this so-called injustice?

BLOG OF THE DAY

Unfortunately Obama is such a leftist, probably a socialist deep in his mind, that he wants to raise taxes as the economy weakens.

What a sad story...