THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

·         Noel Jonesposted to   http://hummm-i-wonder.blogspot.com/  Democrats and Republicans unite. On Sunday, 9/11, 2011, an American flag should be displayed outside every home, apartment, and office, in the United States. We should make it our duty to display an American flag on this the tenth anniversary of one of our country's worst tragedies. We can do this to honor those who lost their lives on 9/11, and whose families, friends and loved ones who have suffered. We can do this also to show our enemies that however we individuals differ we are still…THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

respose:See:http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/01/how-the-billionaires-broke-the-system/

See:

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/01/how-the-billionaires-broke-the-system/

Mr. George Monbiot’s  first premise is in error in that there are only two ways  of cutting the deficit. It is not how you slice up the pie (or the economy in this case) but the size of the pie (the economy) that matters. If taxes and spending were frozen as they are today but our economy was to grow at the rate of China’s, the USA would not have a deficit issue. I have never worked for, or been paid by an “ordinary citizen”, it is the “banks, arms companies, oil barons, farmers” and other corporations that have always paid me. A poor person has never hired, paid me, or grown the national production of goods and services yet.

 MR. George Monbiot’s claim that “blue collar” pay has decreased by 18% is as much due to technological advances and the lack need for ‘blue collar” workers. Today’s blue collar jobs are being filled by illegal visitors that work for the best pay alternative they can get.  He fails to mention that 320,000 top 1%ers were added to the tax rolls in the last 10 years. The top 1 percent of tax returns paid 38.0 percent of all federal individual income taxes and they vote and participate in our politics regularly.. Most of the middle class do not understand or participate deeply in the political system. If there is someone richer or poorer than you are, then you are “middle class”. Republican members of Congress, supported by the Tea Party movement won’t budge nor should they.   The government should not take on the responsibilities that we, our families, neighbors, friends, churches and local organizations should be doing.

 It is unclear to me why, if we think like Richard Murdock, MR. George Monbiot   thinks that is a bad thing.  How does Murdock’s own interests differ from mine?

Our problems today will not be solved by class war fare or partisanism. We live in a government of the PEOPLE who for the most part cannot tell you who represents them, by the PEOPLE the majority of whom don’t vote, and for the people who seldom if ever write to tell their congressmen and senator what they are for.  It is time we stop rationalizing and stand strongly on our moral, economic and ethical principals we were known for as AMERICANS.

Defense Budget vs Foreign Intervention

Defense Budget   vs   Foreign Intervention

I just saw a news report that a group of reservists made up of engineers were off to Afghanistan to build roads and bridges. Why do we send young men and women abroad to be in harm’s way, when for less cost and risk they could stay at home and do the same job?  Foreign intervention in the internal affairs of other countries is not DEFENSE.  We should fully support our troops who defend our country, but get rid of those *!@#%*!  Politicians we elected but we have not supervised.  They don’t know what DEFENSE is and are safe in Washington spending YOUR money and enjoying the benefits that most citizens do not have.   WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK. HOW ELSE DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO KNOW ?

IT IS ONLY YOUR MONEY YOU ARE LETTING STRANGERS SPEND

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 09 Aug 2011 is:

14,591,503,169,855.00

The estimated population of the United States is 311,089,764

so each citizen's share of this debt is $46,904.46.

WAGE EARNERS represent apx.154, 000, 000 people to pay it off the debt or

 $93,808.92 each 

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of

$3,960,000,000 per day since September 28, 2007!

This is YOUR MONEY (or your kids and grandkids) THE POLITICIANS are spending.

 PLEASE TAKE TIME WRITE OR EMAIL YOUR SENATOR, REPRESENTITIVE, AND PRESIDENT...DAILY TO REDUCE THIS OVER SPENDING.

 IT IS OUR FAULT WE HAVE LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS IRRESPONSIBILITY.

BUDGET? SEND DEFINITION TO YOUR CONGRESSMEN

YOU AND I LET OUR GOVERNMENT REPRESENTITVES SPEND TOO MUCH, SO TAX ME NOW... IT'S OUR FAULT,WE LET IT HAPPEN ON OUR WATCH !!!

NOW LET'S STOP BORROWING, STOP OVER-SPENDING AND BALANCE FUTURE BUDGETS.

TELL YOUR REPS TO WISE UP... ELECTED OFFICIALS WON'T BE ELECTED IN THE FUTURE THAT ALLOW OVER-SPENDING. AMERICANS HAVE FINALLY HAD ENOUGH.

Is the value of gold increasing?

Is the value of gold increasing or just the price? It seems to me that VALUE of gold is intrinsic to it based on its usefulness. The PRICE is a measure of what a person is willing to trade of his currency for that item. Therefore the lower the value of the currency, the more it will take to trade for the gold. If the demand for the use of gold has not increased nor has it become more scarce, yet the price continues to rise, then that would seem to indicate the value of the currency has decreased relative to the gold.  Rising Gold prices could be the “canary in the mine” warning us of the increasing prices for ALL goods and services in the near future. The cause of the decreased value of the dollar is that the debt ratio is ever increasing. For every dollar we borrow to cover deficient spending we decrease the trading value of the dollar and prices rise. The value of the dollar is decreasing. The PRICE of gold is only increasing relative to the dollar, not the demand for  its usefulness .

Sometimes our defense dept. should just sit on de fence.

Shouldn’t the defense department of the USA  be used for the defense of the USA?. It seems unreasonable to use our military to defend other nations or semi-nations that are in civil wars; when that action leaves us vulnerable to attack at home. Vulnerable, that is to say, susceptible to attack by depleting our resources, sacrificing our young men and women’s futures and weakening our economy. Ultimately we may encourage a stronger aggressor to test our defenses at home. We need to stop intervening in the foreign affairs that do not directly involve us. We need to stop irrationalizing or falsely justifying our actions just because yesterday we were strong enough to do so.  Today most of these involvements are indefensible.

Economics 101 or stop the rationalization

                Let’s clean up our own back yard before we start on our neighbors.

How can we afford to build roads, bridges and dams in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world but not have the funds to do it in Texas, New York, Nevada and the rest of our country? Well the answer is we CAN NOT! The real cost of a project in a foreign country is far more that it appears to be. If we spend one million dollars abroad we have lost that one million dollars (plus the interest we pay China for the cash). However,  if we spend that money in the U.S.A. It cost us nothing. The logic is this; “ What happens in Vegas (or any USA city) stays in Vegas.”   That is not all. We have lost the jobs, the profits to American suppliers and the taxes that feed money back to the government. Spend it on foreign soil and our economy is bled. Spend it at home and it is nourished. We can stop this drain of our nation’s wealth (i.e. your wealth and your children’s wealth.) only If our representatives listen to our collective voice. We should write, call or visit our representatives in government so they know how to represent us.  Our own back yard needs help so let’s start at home before we work on the rest of the world.

Why are people more SEXually active....

Why are people more SEXually active today, than they are politically active?

People are dying to have _  _  _      No, I mean really dying to live in a democracy and some of America’s young men and women are still dying today. We enjoy the opportunity to provide guidance to our leaders without having to physically remove them from positions of power. Opportunity is only of value if it is used. Here are some questions I asked myself about how I am using my opportunity to exercise my freedom.    Am I politically active?

Do I make an informed vote in every election?

Do I vote at every opportunity not just for president?

Am I a party member or attend party meetings?   

Do I know who my precinct chairperson is?

Have I ever been to a precinct meeting on Election Day?

Have I ever been to a precinct meeting on any Day?

Have I ever served as a delegate or alternate at a state or national convention?

Have I ever visited my State or Federal congressman or Senators office?

Have I ever written an op-ed article or letter to the editor?

Do I belong to any group that funds lobbyist and if YES do I always agree with them?

Can I discuss issues with friends or family and recognize their right to differ without getting emotional?

Am I happy with the political decisions that I have not had a voice in?

Am I politically active?

Improving education

Just a thought: Our education system today fails to identify the passion and talent within the child. If the education system could do that early and then provide a learning road for the child’s self motivation to lead him/her on, our country would have a lot more successes. Knowledge can be acquired either inductively or deductively. Those people that tend to be Generalist (i.e. Mgr.s, Director, Supervisors etc.) learn academically, that is to say deductively, big picture first people. Some though have God given talents or interests that allow them to be Specialist; they are better served by allowing their motivation to learni to progress along the path of their interest. All knowledge is interrelated so either direction leads to the maximum information that a mind can absorb.

With the ever increasing complexity of our society we need better educated Generalist and   Specialist, but the education system we have today is short changing the future of both. To improve the system we should not ask those that have made the best out of it, as it is, but ask those that have succeeded in spite of it. We do not have to search far to find them. Drop Outs are leading successes everywhere. Here are a few with whom to start your own list:

S. Daniel Abraham, billionaire founder of Slim-Fast.

Roman Abramovich, richest man in Russia, billionaire.

Ansel Adams, photographer.

Sheldon Adelson, billionaire casino owner.

Ferran Adria, chef. Has been called the world's greatest chef

Ben Affleck, actor, screenwriter.

Miguel Adrover, fashion designer.

Andre Agassi, tennis player, winner of 8 Grand Slam titles.

Christina Aguilera, singer, songwriter

Dennis Albaugh, billionaire founder of pesticide company Albaugh Inc.

Woody Allen, screenwriter, actor, director, and producer.

Wally “Famous” Amos, multimillionaire cookie entrepreneur

Julie Andrews, Oscar-winning actress

Louis Armstrong, jazz musician

Eddy Arnold, country music singer

Cliff Arquette, aka Charlie Weaver. Comedian

John Jacob Astor, multimillionaire businessmanGene Autry, singing cowboy, actor, songwriter, producer, businessman, author, baseball team owner. High school dropout.

THESE ARE JUST A FEW DROP OUTS THAT NAMES START WITH AN “A” FOR A SLIGHTLY LONGER LIST GO TO http://www.collegedropoutshalloffame.com/