HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA?

Click the header.

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Cats can be melodramatic, too. Let's hope it doesn't come to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VawHPKt2rIs

I'm out waving the flag. See y'all.

THE SCARY SIDE OF THE U. S.

Have a yummy time when you click the header.

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I get emails from many sites (have to have a program to keep track of my passwords) nad one I get is from a basically humor news letter. But here's an introduction to one of his latest emails:

I am in the neighborhood of 50-years-old (ahem), I have a 401k that I have been contributing to for 13 or 14 years, my wife has an IRA that she has been contributing to for about the same amount of time. We also have a savings account which provides us with a fund for if the engine in one of our cars blows up for an uninsured reason or if we need a few extra thousand for a vacation, etc.

We are currently in our second house since getting married but thanks to an increase in property values we have about 35 percent equity in the house. We also started college savings accounts for each of our boys when they were born, which isn't going to cover four years at university but will give us a nice head start for each of them. To listen to it you'd think we were in pretty good shape, but apparently our toes are hanging over the edge of disaster.

Until recently David Walker was comptroller general of the United States, meaning he was head auditor for the most important and powerful government in the world. In an interview last year Walker warned that there is a $43 trillion hole in America's public finances that's getting worse every day, and it is eventually going to lead to a financial collapse that will make my (and your) retirement plans disappear in a wave of recession, inflation and unemployment. It's becoming increasingly obvious that, within the next 10 years, the U.S. government will simply not be able to borrow money fast enough to keep up with its exploding expenses.

The Economic Policy Institute recently projected that under the current tax regime, by 2014 all government revenue would be consumed by four areas of spending: health care for the elderly and the poor, Social Security for retirees, national defense and interest on the debt.

Interest on the national debt would be about half of all government tax revenues by 2031. And ten years later, the cost of servicing the debt will exceed all government revenues.

History provides some harrowing examples of what happens when an economy collapses under the weight of unsustainable debt. One of the most chilling is Argentina in 2001. When the International Monetary Fund cut off its support for the country's escalating debt, the effect was catastrophic: the value of the national currency plunged, decimating the savings of millions. The resulting surge in inflation and sudden slowdown in consumer spending put thousands of businesses into bankruptcy within weeks.

That, in turn, put further millions out of work and pushed one of South America's biggest economies into a punishing recession.

As unfathomable as it may seem, most economists think something like that could happen in the United States. Doesn't sound very cheery, does it?

Imagine if the company you work for suddenly went bankrupt and the market was so bad that you couldn't find a job for more than half of what you were making (if you could find work at all). You decide to cash in all of your savings and retirement funds to make ends meet to discover that what used to be worth 30, 40 or maybe 50 thousand dollars is now worth about 15 or 20. How long do you think you would keep your house or even your car? It makes you want to start writing letters to congressmen, doesn't it?

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Now, the author is normally a cheerful, lets have a laugh, kind of guy. But I didn't find anything to laugh at in this part of his email. Like so many other Americans he is definitely worried about his and his family's future. Maybe we should be writing BO?

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I also got this in my email:

A Message from the Boss

Fellow Business Executives:

As the CEO of this business that employes 140 people, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our next President, and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way.

To compensate for these increases, I figure that the Clients will have to see an increase in our fees of about 8%, but since we cannot increase our fees right now due to the dismal state of our economy, we will have to lay off six of our employees instead.

This has really been eating at me for a while, as we believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who will have to go.

So, this is what I did. I strolled through our parking lot and found 8 Obama bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the first to be laid off.

I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. These folks wanted change; I gave it to them. If you have a better idea, let me know.

Sincerely,

The Boss

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LETTER TO THE BANK

Dear Sirs, One of my checks was returned marked "insufficient funds."

In view of current developments in the banking industry, does that refer to me or to you? Sincerely,

Your customer

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It's also time for the kind of joke I never tell. I've got too much couth for this.

It has just been reported that the head gardener at The White House has been dismissed after 28 years of loyal service to the many US presidents.

When interviewed the gardener protested his innocence and said "All I know is I was walking past the Oval Office and I asked, "Has anyone seen the spade and the hoe." The next thing I knew I was fired."

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EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA!

If you are interested in Justice Sotomeyer and her jailing and denying civil rights to a couple of Americans, click the header. **************************************** Goin' to have a smorgasbord here, now. Pay close attention as I will not be repeating any of them again. (I hope.) ***************************************** There's finally a semi serious movement afoot to totally ban texting throught the U.S. Imagine. We have to point out that you're five or six times more likely to have an accident than in any other automotive violation (except speeding, of course). How sad it is to have to create a law against this sort of thing (especially knowing how badly our lawmakers write laws). But wait. There may be still other ways, like: Perhaps a vow to cede your first born to the State if you ever violate this common sense approach would be appropriate? Perhaps a robotic control in all vehicles that, should the driver be texting, will shut down the engine, prevent restart and call the police to hand out a ticket in the range of, say $25,000 for the first offense, with geometric fines as the number of one's violations grow. For one thing, that might end the short fall some states consistently have due to their pork barreling. Or we could, for various degrees of violations, remove a lung, kidney, or other anatomical parts to be used to repair those victims who need these parts due to a texting driver causing a smashup? Just sayin'. ********************************************************************************* Social Security Hoo Haw This will come as a shock to those who don't know the history of Social Security, but it was devised by Franklin Roosevelt (a President, the only one to be elected four times) who, although from an extremely wealthy family, saw that the average man did not have the wherewithal when the time came for him to retire. And the guy might get a gold plated watch from the business where he had worked for fifty years. But no money to help him survive. He had earned enough money to raise his family in a reasonable manner, but often could not put money aside for retirement. Which meant his kids had to support him and his wife in their old age. And if the kids wouldn't, or couldn't, do that, then he and his wife would go to an "old folks home" where the remainder of their years would be dictated by rare gifts and hoping they got enough to eat while receiving virtually no medical care. Well, this ticked Franklin off and he created and got the Social Security Act passed. He thought he had written it so the greedy politicians in the Senate and House couldn't get their hands on it for pork barrel projects. And he had. He designed the bill to get money to the retirees. Their employers had no retirement or pension plans for them. The attitude among the greedy CEO's was sort of "to hell with you, I've got mine". (If that sounds familiar, so be it.) The money was to be used for no one else than retirees, for nothing else. Retirees and those injured on the job. Period. But the greedy ones figured out ways to add the needy children of fathers who couldn't care less about them and to add people who claimed to be handicapped and to add money to pay for some very phony mental problems that people claimed they had. They called that "Social Security", too. So we were screwed by the Democrats once again. And just in case you think I'm a hotheaded Republican here's a couple of facts for you: 1. I am a registered Democrat. Have been for years. 2. In my opinion, FDR and HST (this president really had no middle name. He smilingly made a word play on the phrase Harry S (Hairy Ass) and although some reporters told the whole story, it seems people weren't bright enough to understand. Truman had guts. These two are high up on my list of Presidents I feel have done most for their country. Which brings us to what needs to be done for SS. Simple. Take the phony "handicapped" off the rolls. Do not pay SS money to children. After all, they never had a job to pay into it. Social Security was not designed for them. Make funds available only for retirees. The other part is: Inaugurate new monetary bases for the handicapped (real or faked) and new bases for the children of "breeders." Leave Social Security to do its own work. Maybe if those who don't deserve to receive anything from it were removed, the seniors wouldn't have to be in the poorest grouping of Americans. Just sayin'. *********************************************************************************** Obama The Killer? Obama Kills Fly During Interview AP (June 16) Talk about flying at your own risk. President Barack Obama, nettled by a fly during a TV interview at the White House, took matters into his own hands Tuesday. Said Obama to the persistent fly: "Get out of here." But it didn't. So Obama waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked the fly dead in one try. Without missing a beat, the president said to CNBC correspondent John Harwood: "Now, where were we." Well, maybe one more second to gloat. Said Obama: "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it? I got the sucker." The camera crew was still rolling in the East Room. Obama didn't mind. He pointed to the vanquished insect on the ground and said, "You want to film that?" CNBC did. That fly is history. My goodness, will the physical prowess and intellectual capacity of our President never cease to amaze the average man(woman)? Imagine. He actually swatted and killed a fly with assault on its petty mind. Wow. WTG, Mr President. When you're good, you're good, probably went through Harwood's mind. Oh, and by the way, we've been treated to photo ops of Michelle Obama showing off some dresses she bought and seeing her kids off to school. Why, we've even got pictures of the Presidential dog on parade. Known for his photogenic qualities (as well as needing Cesar Millan to rehabilitate him) Bo the pooch made headline news: BO OBAMA HAS OFFICIAL PORTRAIT TAKEN on Paw Nation. There's even a comic book with this pooch starring in it. Ain't it a wonder? *********************************************************************************** Here's a heart warmer and a tale of a wonderfully smart lady: http://growingbolder.com/media/technology/vehicles/romancing-the-road-259598.html%C2%A0 Enjoy. *********************************************************************************** I GET NEWSLETTERS One, in particular, usually has humor running through it constantly. However, the latest email carries this: I am in the neighborhood of 50-years-old (ahem), I have a 401k that I have been contributing to for 13 or 14 years, my wife has an IRA that she has been contributing to for about the same amount of time. We also have a savings account which provides us with a fund for if the engine in one of our cars blows up for an uninsured reason or if we need a few extra thousand for a vacation, etc. We are currently in our second house since getting married but thanks to an increase in property values we have about 35 percent equity in the house. We also started college savings accounts for each of our boys when they were born, which isn't going to cover four years at university but will give us a nice head start for each of them. To listen to it you'd think we were in pretty good shape, but apparently our toes are hanging over the edge of disaster. Until recently David Walker was comptroller general of the United States, meaning he was head auditor for the most important and powerful government in the world. In an interview last year Walker warned that there is a $43-trillion hole in America's public finances that's getting worse every day, and it is eventually going to lead to a financial collapse that will make my (and your) retirement plans disappear in a wave of recession, inflation and unemployment. It's becoming increasingly obvious that, within the next 10 years, the U.S. government will simply not be able to borrow money fast enough to keep up with its exploding expenses. The Economic Policy Institute recently projected that under the current tax regime, by 2014 all government revenue would be consumed by four areas of spending: health care for the elderly and the poor, Social Security for retirees, national defense and interest on the debt. Interest on the national debt would be about half of all gov-ernment tax revenues by 2031. And ten years later, the cost of servicing the debt will exceed all government revenues. History provides some harrowing examples of what happens when an economy collapses under the weight of unsustainable debt. One of the most chilling is Argentina in 2001. When the International Monetary Fund cut off its support for the country's escalating debt, the effect was catastrophic: the value of the national currency plunged, decimating the savings of millions. The resulting surge in inflation and sudden slowdown in consumer spending put thousands of businesses into bankruptcy within weeks. That, in turn, put further millions out of work and pushed one of South America's biggest economies into a punishing recession. As unfathomable as it may seem, most economists think something like that could happen in the United States. Doesn't sound very cheery, does it? Imagine if the company you work for suddenly went bankrupt and the market was so bad that you couldn't find a job for more than half of what you were making (if you could find work at all). You decide to cash in all of your savings and retirement funds to make ends meet to discover that what used to be worth 30, 40 or maybe 50 thousand dollars is now worth about 15 or 20. How long do you think you would keep your house or even your car? It makes you want to start writing letters to congressmen, doesn't it? The only fault I find with this is that Social Security is NOT for retirees only. (See Social Security Hoo Haw above). **********************************************************************************

THE FLY, EMAIL, STRANGE FORMAT

I thought you might like to be reminded of a few months ago. So there you are, shovel and all.

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Don't forget, click the header.

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I get email. I mean lots of email. Lots and lots and lots. Some of it I have even asked to receive.

Among the requested missives are a number of highly desired communications.

(I also have an variety of names I have signed up with and an infinite number of passwords that vary from 9 to 14 keyboard clicks. (Thank heavens for Roboform.)

I get upset when I have to scroll through a drop down menu to identify which state I live in. (A simple box for me to type it into would suffice. New Mexico is way down on the list.)

I rarely use my real phone number (the Do Not Call list only works once in a while, and no, I have not insured my car against uninsured breakdowns).

The space where it asks for my phone number? Well, 505-555-1212 works in those little boxes.

Yes, I'm a bit irritable where some obscure company wants me to tell them anything about what I am or do. (I've also been a Doctor, President of a famous computer magazine, head of the English Department at an Ivy League College, an automobile mechanic with more than 86 mechanics working under me, a kid in his second year of college and on and on. I have a lot of personal fun on the internet. But none of my poses hurt anyone.

Back to what started all this: I get a regular email from a newsy sort of company and the messages are difficult to read for a couple of reasons. Some have strange or out of place characters in them and/or broken lines where there should not be broken lines. I'll try to show it here, but with the vagaries of Blogger, you never know what you'll get.

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[0]sherl0k writes "[1]Opera 10.0, dubbed Opera Unite, has been

released. Built into the Web browser is a full-fledged Web

server, complete with nifty little gadgets such

as a 'fridge' that people can post notes onto, a chat room, a widget to stream your music library anywhere, and a

built-in

file-sharing mechanism.

It also scores 100/100 on the

[2]Acid3test."

Readers [3]fud

reporter and TLS point to [4]The Register's report

on the new release and a [5] 5-minute video demo, respectively. Update:

06/16 15:18 GMT by [6]T: Roar Lauritzse

of Opera Software writes to

point out that "release" isn't quite the right word here; though you can

download it, version 10.0 is still in beta, and the version with Unite is

a labs

(experimental) release.

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Now, this only happens with their email, not the web site. Weird, huh?

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You might be interested in this news flash that was put out by the once famous AP wire service...and then reprinted in newspapers and web home pages on the internet:

Obama Kills Fly During Interview

AP

comments: 2439filed under: National News, Political NewsPrintShareText

SizeAAAWASHINGTON (June 16) -

Talk about flying at your own risk.

President Barack Obama, nettled by a fly during a TV interview at the White House, took matters into his own hands Tuesday.

Skip over this content(sic?) Said Obama to the persistent fly: "Get out of here."

But it didn't.

So Obama waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked the fly dead in one try.

Without missing a beat, the president said to CNBC correspondent John Harwood: "Now, where were we."(sic)

Well, maybe one more second to gloat.

Said Obama: "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it? I got the sucker."

The camera crew was still rolling in the East Room. Obama didn't mind. He pointed to the vanquished insect on the ground and said, "You want to film that?"

CNBC did.

That fly is history.

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I am so glad to bring that information to you, fellow Americans. Talk about BO saving the nation from that fly's offspring should warm the cockles of your hearts.

Hurrah, Mr. President.

Is there any chance of your either starting or keeping us out World War III? I know that's a petty question after the astounding news of your triumph over musca domestica.

But we'd kinda like to know.

THE JAWS ARE WAITING FOR YOU

The header needs to be clicked.

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I found a web site the other day that had me going from one thing to another. More than interesting, it had me riveted, from its quality and ease of use, to the very American messages it had on its pages. I urge you to look it over (but take your time, 'cause it's very graphics heavy). I am humbly giving you my opinion on three pages that should not be missed.

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Page 1: Wonderful World

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Page 2: http://apathetic-usa.com/

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Page 3: http://apathetic-usa.com/mission.htm

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Feel free to send any of these clips around the web, with the usual credits.