I can’t believe how fast time flies.

Seems like just yesterday MEG came down with a cold and passed it to us. Now, she has an ear infection. She is being treated for that, and hopefully we can stop passing this germ back and forth. My nose is stuffed right now.

The business is moving slowly – because I am moving slowly.

I’ve added two more blog rolls – in the left margin, page down to see them – Gunz’ Blog Roll and American Truckers At War. Check ’em out.

Blog Radio update – my interview with Doug Gibbs on Political Pistachio Radio is being rescheduled – at my request, this time – due to a family event that I was reminded of just last night. So – I have been penciled in on October 6, 2007, at 4:00 pm Pacific.

Here in Phoenix, there is a week-long “walk-out/protest” by supporters of the illegal immigrants/invaders, to show that they have an economic force. Well, duh. That’s not the issue. The issue is that they are here illegally. I saw some protesters at Arrowhead Town Center in Peoria last night – their signs (in Spanish, of course!) said “We are workers/We are buyers/Don’t shop this week.” The supporters are also staying away from their places of employment. I have no problem with this protest. Makes it much easier to know who to question for deportation.

And, if you are a supporter of these illegals? Yeah, you can leave, too – and take your philosophy with you. Maybe another country wants an underground, illegal force to usurp their authority, but the United States does not. Try Mexico. Calderon seems to think we’re doing it wrong, maybe you can take lessons from him and do it in his country.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

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Well, I was paging through the paper over lunch (fresh-baked cinnamon bread, and a glass of cold whole milk) and noticed two news items that I just had to talk about.

The first is the blurb about Leona Helmsley’s will. She left two grandchildren in the cold, for “reasons that are known to them” and favored her brother and two other grandchildren with tidy sums of money – in the millions.

To add insult to injury, she left a twelve million dollar trust for her dog. $12,000,000.00. To take care of a dog. At the outside, the dog will live about fifteen years, if it’s not too old or too big now. That’s well over a million a year, considering she probably left the trust with a method of generating interest as it went.

So, she who has all this money and a really sour disposition from what I’ve seen, can’t find it in her heart to forgive her own children but will take care of a dog for more than it’s natural lifespan. Lovely.

A house without the Lord is a cold place indeed.

The second item reveals that a panel of professional second-guessers (my guess is that they hired the 9-11 panel, since they weren’t doing anything) says that the officials at Virginia Tech didn’t do enough to warn the students of the shooting by Seung-Hui Cho, and that the university did not intervene in Cho’s mental health issues.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the “police state” that the libs would have us all believe the current administration is trying to force on us all?

Isn’t knocking on dorm room doors, or calling the dorm phones, the kind of intrusion that these college students are protesting against, at the behest of their oh-so-enlightened professors?

Isn’t stepping in and intervening on someone’s behalf the sort of “draconian measures” that the feel-goods would have us think is the aim of the Christian right?

The liberals cannot have it both ways – they have to choose.

Choose either total interference by a big-brother like entity, or accept that life has many twist and turns and no one, except the Good Lord above, knows when you will be leaving this earth.

Choose either knowing one another well enough to be able to pass on information quickly and efficiently or be surprised by the occurrences that develop.

One thing you don’t have a choice about – time travel is not possible, so going back to “fix” a blown call, or “do-over” a missed sign, is not possible.

However, to mitigate most of these issues, we all have to take a very important step – the one that a lot of us “Right Wing Christian Conservatives” have already taken – act responsibly, and take responsibility for your actions.

I know, it’s a radical and, to most liberals, FOREIGN concept, but one that is imperative if this country wishes to remain at the forefront of civilization.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

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Last week, I promised I would talk about (read: make fun of) economists in the hopes of getting a rise out of a book-bound non-realist.

This morning’s paper brought the easiest target to me.

There is an article (I don’t know how long the link will be good; azcentral seems to not like being linked) that talks about the length a particular zinc-supply company has gone to ensure a couple of things: that the penny is still used, and that the mint continues to use zinc as the core for the pennies.

The company, Jarden Zinc Products, has paid lobbyists to kill bills relevant to their industry – one, in 2006, that would have made the penny extinct (legislation that would have rounded transactions to the nearest nickel) and now they are lobbying against the ability of the United States Mint itself to decide what materials to use in the minting of coins, in order to best keep costs down (it currently costs 1.7 cents to make a brand new penny, and nearly 10 cents to make a nickel). This would, in effect, cause Jarden to lose their number one customer. According to the article, Jarden has been paid more than $170 million dollars between 2004 and 2006 under a contract with the United States Mint. Also according to the article, the change in legislation would save the American taxpayer $100 million annually.

This is, in my opinion, a clear case of the greater good being usurped for a special interest. Going back to a pure supply-an-demand model, a single zinc supplier is being kept alive (or at least highly profitable) by law, rather than by market forces. If the legislation passes, and the Mint is allowed to choose the materials, then the free market would drive the costs, not an ironclad contract.

This is an example of Common Sense being allowed to drive a need instead of a network of backroom deals. This is, in the end, how I would urge the entire government to do business – by best price, not best friends.

In other news, papers have been filed for the creation of casework by cary, inc., a custom-woodworks firm. Finally, a boss I can’t disagree with and that I can have a reasoned discussion with when he makes a boneheaded mistake.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

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Should we raise the minimum wage?

Legislation has been passed here in the state of Arizona to raise the state minimum wage.

Federally, they are considering the same thing.

I am not in favor of raising the minimum wage. People say that by raising the minimum wage, we are giving a “raise” to people who are working for minimum wage. I say we are enabling the people who are working for minimum wage to stay working for minimum wage.

Minimum wage, or entry level, positions are just that – entry level. If you are still working for minimum wage six months after you have started a job, then something needs to change. Your job, your employer, your drive – something.

Liberals are all for raising the minimum wage – it allows their main allies and bestest of friends, the illegal immigrants (invaders) to keep a low profile. If the minimum wage is not raised, and border laws are enforced, then perhaps the youth of the United States would be empowered to get that entry level position that an illegal has been camping in for the last five years. A combination of no increase and enforcement would drive the illegal invaders back where they came from, opening up a whole need for fresh recruits to fill the positions that “No American will do.” This vacuum of people to fill these positions would (gasp!) force some liberals to actually work hard labor for the first time in their lives, since they would no longer be needed to extol the virtues of having illegals do these jobs, and besides, how many doom-saying economists does this country need, anyway?

Once a young person of United States citizenry is hired at a minimum wage job, then reality kicks in rather quickly and they develop the motivation needed to further their station in life – which is, after all, the basis for fulfilling the American Dream.

Next week – I’ll chat about economics again – see if I can get another rise out of some book-bound economist who has never held a real job in their life.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

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Today in History:

1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower effectively placed the words “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the National Ensign, making today Flag Day. (settle down, rosie, I said “flag”…)

Today could also end up being the day Bush twists the arms of the final GOP senators to force his twisted amnesty bill through. GOP senators who voted against cloture, and for the economy of the United States, have been told that they will need to vote for cloture if they want to be “relevant” in the final drafting of this bill.

Couple of points:
1) If the measure is defeated, there will be no need to draw up a final draft.
2) If the measure passes, you won’t be relevant at all after the following election.
3) If this country is sold up the river, We the People have no one to blame but ourselves. Call your GOP senators today, folks. Convince them that they need to keep this country sovereign, and granting amnesty to 12-20 million lawbreakers is not the path to follow. Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121. Go. Call. Take back this country from the power-hungry elitists who have their hand in your pocket!

In other areas:
The “Big Three” automakers are trying to back down the union. Good luck – that tiger was uncaged the first time you let THEM dictate the pay rates.

I have a little story for you. Once upon a time, a man named Fred discovered that he could build a pretty mean widget. He sold his widgets, and made a decent profit. He made more widgets, and sold more widgets, making more decent profit. One day, Fred figured that if he could train someone to make a widget as well as he could, then his output could double, allowing him to make more money. Fred trained a helper.

Life was good. Fred trained more helpers, and expanded his business to meet the growing demand for his widgets. Pretty soon, he had a formidable workforce. Fred took care of his employees, and made sure to increase the companies goodwill bottom line by spreading the wealth that the entire workforce was generating.

One day, Tom, a representative of the Brotherhood of Widgetmakers, visited Fred’s widget factory. Tom talked to the widget makers in Fred’s factory, and told them of the wondrous benefits of belonging to the union. Tom convinced the workers in Fred’s factory to vote for joining the union, making Fred’s widget factory a union shop.

The union, after gaining the upper hand, started making demands of Fred. First, the union demanded more pay for the widget makers. Fred was already paying his widget makers pretty good money, but to keep the peace he agreed to an increase in pay. In order to make up the difference, Fred raised the price of the widgets he was making. Fred’s customers weren’t real happy about the increase, but since Fred was the closest supplier of quality widgets, they went along with the price increase. Since the customers needed to increase the cost of their goods to accommodate the more expensive widget, the cost of living in the area rose.

The union, seeing the cost of living in the area go up, demanded another raise for the workers – this one to compensate for the rise in the cost of living. Fred agreed, and raised the price of the widgets once again.

This went on for a while, each time the increase in wages was accompanied by an increase in the cost of the widgets, which caused other goods to increase in price, which increased the cost of living – which caused the union to negotiate another COL raise.

Finally, Fred’s customers could not absorb the increased cost anymore, and stopped buying Fred’s widgets. They started buying widgets from overseas, where the quality was almost as good and the cost was much lower. Fred, having no customers left, closed his shop. The unemployment rate in his area went through the roof, since Fred’s factory was the only one around that had provided steady employment. The cost of living went way down. The union, no longer having any workers to band together, left town.

The moral of the story is: Let the free market work. If Fred hadn’t been paying a decent wage, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his workers. If Fred had charged too much for his widgets, he would have lost his factory. Oh, wait – that happened anyway. If the union had kept it’s nose out of Fred’s factory, everyone would still have their jobs.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

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