One last outfit from my NYFW series! ...of course that I couldn't miss the chance to wear my Fall- Favorite- Color: Burgundy!!! (and this time I added some fuchsia instead of light pink) at NYFW. When I found this pleated Zara skirt ( on sale)...Oh!.. I found the staple season piece! More outfits with this skirt will be shown here on my blog this season!
Shirt: vintage/ option Here Skirt: Zara/ similar Here and Here Bag: Reed Krakoff/ Here Shoes: c/o Sam Edelman/ Here Necklace: c/o Polyvore/ similar Here Sunglasses: Ralph Lauren
The Greatest Generation Shows The Way -- AGAIN! A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet *************
The government had not been shut down for an entire day and already I was enjoying the feeling of, shall we say, a certain lightness in the yoke around my neck.
Allow me to ask, please, why do we have non-essential workers and non-essential departments within the federal government in the first place? I mean, with the national economy in the godawful shape it is in, and with the knowledge that every dollar the US government spends since last week is borrowed from some other country, not necessarily friendly to the US, why the dickens does the government have ANYTHING that is non-essential?
Come on folks, this NOT a shutdown. As someone has rightly noted it is only a slowdown -- if that.
The "government shutdown" terror has been invented by the democrats and the Mainstream Media (But I repeat myself!) We have had almost 20 "shutdowns" since the late 1970's. What? You didn't know that? Well then. There must not have been much to them, huh?
It's all Bovine Scatology! Horse hockey! Malarkey! Baloney!
Stop moaning and groaning for a moment and think back, and/or ask yourself what we Americans did before all these government departments and government programs.
Well?
The answer is: we did pretty durn good, that's what. (Forgive the grammar!) Heck, we actually became a world superpower without them. WITH all that government our world superpower status is, as they say, "ebbing away."
We have become conditioned to believe all that government is necessary, when, in fact, IT ISN'T.
Heck, I'm so old I can remember that ancient time when there was no air conditioning. Here in the Southland, where the humidity was 95% at 7 o'clock this morning, I must tell you -- it was a different world back then. In summer, even sundown brought little relief. Trying to sleep in a bed upon which the bed linens were damp with moisture wicked from the air around you was uncomfortable in the extreme. But -- we managed.
These days we can't imagine living without air conditioning. Consider the number of generations who have never known a time in their lives when there WAS no air conditioning.
Now apply this little journey down Memory Lane to our bloated government today. The moral of the story is -- we have become conditioned to both. Air conditioning is very nice, indeed. But -- if we had to live without it we could. Heck. We DID! The same applies to big government. We can live, and some say -- live better, without it. Heck! We DID!
Look around you. Are YOU better off today than you were , oh, say -- five years ago? If so, then you must be a federal employee!
We've been suckered. We've been had. And we did it to ourselves. I actually don't know if there is such a psychological disorder as "self-delusional." If there is, there is an epidemic of it in America.
You know, I believe you could take a couple of kids from a 1950's high school "Economics" class, give them the task of balancing the federal budget -- and they could do it.
That's the easy part. What's hard is mollifying the public, which has been conditioned to believe they cannot get along without a particular government program(s) and/or government department(s).
The point of all this rambling is simply this: We have a chance, during this so-called government shutdown, to reevaluate our enormous, bloated, over-reaching, meddling, near tyrannical government. If we are smart we'll take advantage of this opportunity. In the meantime, be prepared for all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by millions of Americans who are simply unable to take care of themselves, or take responsibility for themselves and have, for all intents and purposes, become "wards" of the federal government. Much like bond servants they have sold themselves into voluntary servant-hood -- or -- slavery to the state for a check once a month and an Obamaphone. Many, if not most, of them could not care less about the welfare of the country.
But take heart! The Greatest Generation is, once again, showing the way. Earlier this week eighty and ninety year old veterans of World War Two crashed through the barricades around the World War Two Memorial in Washington. They had been fenced out by the Obama Administration.
As it turned out, the Nazis couldn't stop them, the Japanese couldn't stop them and Obama, sure as hell, was not going to stop them!
Do you think for one moment that if THAT generation was in their 30's, 40's, and 50's this country would be in the shape it is in today? Uh-uh! Nope! Nosiree!
In the 1940's those men were at the point of Freedom's Spear. Now, in the 21st century, in the winter, and deep winter, of their lives they volunteered for the van guard of freedom again as they show the way to take back our country.
We have to take America back from the Atlantic to the Blue Ridge, from the Blue Ridge to the Mississippi, from the Mississippi to the Rockies, and from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. It CAN be done -- but -- it CANNOT be done sitting at our keyboards.It will be done in the streets, in the highways, and in the by ways of every crossroads community, every small town, every city, every state, all the way to the Congress and the White House.
Taking America back will require the guts and determination of the men and women of the Greatest Generation.
What say you? The jackboots are marching again. This time they are trampling freedom's soil. The Greatest Generation just stepped forwardAGAIN!What about us?
As Hillel 'the Elder' (a Jewish sage from the 1st century B.C.) said: If not us -- WHO? If not now -- WHEN?
by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny
You just can't make this sh*t up. Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry obviously fails to understand how our nation of laws work. Even following a United States Supreme Court ruling that a law is Constitutional. Apparently the slightly light in the attic Governor Perry has determined that 'implementation of the national health care reform law constituted "a criminal act."' By what standard he arrived at his "scholarly" determination apparently only his God knows. He (or I) may not like or agree with the ACA but that doesn't make it criminal.
HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. -- In a campaign appearance Tuesday on behalf of New Jersey Republican Senate nominee Steve Lonegan, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the government's implementation of the national health care reform law constituted "a criminal act."
"If this health care law is forced upon this country, the young men and women in this audience are the ones who are really going to pay the price," Perry said to a small crowd outside the Bendix Diner in this New York City suburb. “And that, I will suggest to you, reaches to the point of being a felony toward them and their future. That is a criminal act, from my perspective, to put that type of burden on them, to mortgage their future like that. America cannot stand that. America cannot accept that.”
Perry’s provocative comment came on the same day that state-based insurance exchanges, created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, opened for enrollment.
The 2012 Republican presidential candidate, who has said that he will consider launching a second White House bid in 2016,...
One thing is for certain. If the Governor decides to run for the highest office in the land he will MOST CERTAINLY provide those who haven't jumped the shark with comic relief.
Smoothed recession probabilities for the United States are obtained from a dynamic-factor markov-switching model applied to four monthly coincident variables: non-farm payroll employment, the index of industrial production, real personal income excluding transfer payments, and real manufacturing and trade sales. This model was originally developed in Chauvet, M., "An Economic Characterization of Business Cycle Dynamics with Factor Structure and Regime Switching," International Economic Review, 1998, 39, 969-996.
The following chart compares the recession probabilities seen starting in 2006 to those seen starting in 2012. I'm looking specifically for the formation of tiny cracks in the dam.
Click to enlarge.
What a structural engineer might say: "The cracks are growing again. Might want to get that fixed before it fails entirely again."
What Jamie Dimon might say: "So we're kind of confident that you'll see growth over the years as America recovers."
Reality Check: Kind of Confident = Not Confident
Nobody who is truly confident says kind of confident, just like nobody who is truly pregnant says kind of pregnant.
I'm going to predict the next recession will hit on or before October 2014.
For what it is worth, my long-term prediction stands. That said, the odds of making it to October 2014 seem smaller now. As I have stated previously, I am not at all optimistic about this year's Christmas season.
This is not investment advice. I am being kind of sarcastic though, in honor of Jamie Dimon.
A Commentary by J. D Longstreet **************************
I feel as though I have lost a friend today. I refer to the passing of author Tom Clancy. Clancy died on October 1, 2013, in a Baltimore, Maryland, hospital. He was 66 years old.
I never met the man, though, I think I "sorta" did through his writings. Clancy was a conservative and that makes him a brother.
I have spent many, many hours pouring over his books, savoring every single word. He had a talent for painting what I call "word pictures." His mastery of the English language was such that, using words alone, he could paint a picture on the canvas of your mind and you could view the scene he described as though it were real and in vivid color.
Many of his books were made into major movies, but none of the movies did the books justice. Hollywood just could not produce -- on the silver screen -- what Clancy could produce in the minds of his readers. Theirs was an impossible task.
Tom Clancy was a lifetime supporter of conservative and Republican causes in America. His books bear dedications to conservative political figures, most notably Ronald Reagan.
Oh, and Clancy was also a Life Member of the National Rifle Association since 1978.
Here are just a few of Clancy's awards and recognitions quickly gleaned from Wikipedia: "Achievements and awards:
Clancy was one of only three authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing in the 1990s (the other two being John Grisham and J.K. Rowling). Clancy's 1989 novel Clear and Present Danger sold 1,625,544 hardcover copies, making it the #1 bestselling novel of the 1980s.[21]
Clancy received an honorary doctorate in humane letters and delivered the commencement address at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1992, and has since worked a reference to the school into many of his main works.[22]
Clancy was an honorary Yeoman Warder of The Tower of London holding the title "Supernumerary Yeoman".[23] On the television show Ace of Cakes his wife commissioned, for his 60th birthday, a special cake in the shape of the Tower of London in acknowledgment of his status. In the episode, Tom Clancy referred to the Beefeaters as, "Just a terrific bunch of guys".
Clancy received the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement from the Navy League of the United States in 1990.
In popular culture:
The BBC Radio 4 sitcom Deep Trouble, set on a nuclear submarine, features a humorous version of Clancy as a recurring character. He is portrayed by Ben Willbond, co-writer of the series.[24]
The British sitcom My Family has often shown the character of Ben reading a Tom Clancy book, particularly in the Series 5 episode "The Book of Love", in which Clancy's novel The Bear and the Dragon is referenced frequently.
He was mentioned in American History X at a family dinner table were Edward Norton and Edward Furlong were present. The mother of these two remarked to the father that they do not teach Tom Clancy at college.
Tom Clancy appeared in the "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" episode of The Simpsons, wearing a cap saying "USS Iowa (BB-61)" and was tricked into giving Marge a quote for her upcoming book." SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. was born on April 12, 1947, in Baltimore, Maryland. He died October 1st, 2013. His work will, hopefully, live on for centuries to come.
To say that Clancy will be missed is so, SO, inadequate. His passing will leave a hole in the pantheon of American writers that will not be filled soon, certainly not in my lifetime. His regard for truth and detail made his writings leap from the page. His prescience was often reflected on the front pages of newspapers. To say that fact was uncomfortable for leaders of many countries around the globe would be an understatement.
Clancy once said the following:
"Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away." – Tom Clancy
We can thank God for the talent that enabled Clancy to share his dreams with us.
Besides the Shows, presentations and parties during NYFW, I also had the pleasure to preview Meredith Wendell's NEW Collection and let me tell you that my eyes were in Heaven! Colors, Colors and more Colors + a good dose of texture and prints. I can't establish which piece is my favorite, I really can't!
All the bags and pouches are individual great manufactured in bold colors with unique great details and fine Italian leather.
I'll let you to decide the best piece ( I'm sure it will be a hard decision :)
Sound the trumpets and let the stop watch begin, it is One Room Challenge time ladies! Whoop Whoop!
My dear friend Linda asked me to join in the fun for the second time and I am pumped and ready for some design action. Just look who I get to play in the sandbox with this time.
I know. Good, right?!
For those of you new to my blog, welcome and I look forward to getting to know you.
And for those of you who are new to this addictive series, here is the gist - 20 bloggers pick a room in their house (or the house of a client) to makeover. Every Wednesday for the next six weeks we will report on our progress, roadblocks and detours, ending with a big reveal full of oohs and aahs.
Six (short) weeks. Funny how six weeks sounds like a nice amount of time, until that clock begins and suddenly it seems like the snap of a finger.
You might be thinking, "Elizabeth, you fool. That room looks fine to me."
But hold on with the name calling. I have a few good reasons actually.
First, those yellow walls aren't doing anyone any favors. They've been that way for five years now and I'm officially over them. While a happy choice in a lot of spaces, yellow in the basement just makes everything feel a bit jaundicey. (jaundice-like?) It's time for a change.
Then there is this saucy number. I found her at Goodwill for $20. She is in mint condition and after taking her vintage cushions for a spa day at the cleaners she is ready to rock the family (room). And green couch/yellow walls is not a good combo.
And the straw that broke the bloggers back was this little event. We had a really wet spring/summer. Not good. The only thing that prevented tears was the fact that I HATE that carpet. So I'm taking it as a sign of good things to come. I tried to convince the girls that we got water in the basement because they never pick up their toys but they didn't buy it.
So the plan is to change this room entirely. Something fresh, clean and most importantly dry. I'm channeling Anna Spiro and I'm going light, bright and colorful with a capital C.
The to do list is long. So very, very long.
- Rip up gross carpet (floor and stairs) and replace flooring - Paint and plank walls and bookshelves - Recover estate sale chairs - Create some sort of art station for the girls - Paint chairs and table - Repair and paint coffee table - Create toy storage that doesn't involve the words 'pink' or 'plastic' - Get some art on those walls - Find rugs - New Lighting
I'll be referring to my Pinterest board on the regular, so feel free to check my organized brainstorm. And if you see a woman wandering around Home Depot with paint in her hair and a list in her hand, that's me. At Home Depot. For the third time this week.
Now let's check in with the others and see what great plans they have for us!
Four of seven formerly fired workers decided to return to work at Palermo Inc.
By H. Nelson Goodson
October 2, 2013
Milwaukee, WI - On Tuesday, Voces de la Frontera (VDLF) reported that seven Palermo Pizza workers who were terminated more than a year ago for supporting a union and walked out in support of more than 100 striking workers got $106,000 in back pay. Four of the seven fired workers decided to return to work.
The back pay marks another victory for VDLF who helped the fired workers get their money for the unfair labor practices that was conducted at Palermo Inc.
So far in the past year, Palermo Inc. has paid at least $63,000 for health and safety violations that included a three finger amputation in May 7, 2013. The recent three OSHA citations for violations totaled $13,500, which each violation totaled $4,500, according to VDLF.
SUV driver rear ended biker who slowed down after an SUV driver got to close, according to YouTube video of Sunday's incident.
By H. Nelson Goodson
October 1, 2013
Manhattan, NY - On Sunday, Alexian Lien, 33, who was driving his SUV Range Rover along the Manhattan highway with his wife, Rosalyn and 2-year-old child apparently got some biker justice after rear ending Christopher Cruz, 28, of New Jersey. Lien got to close to Cruz who was riding his sports bike and the incident caused Cruz to gesture at Lien. Cruz slowed down in front of the SUV and it seems Lien just kept going and rear ended him, according to the YouTube footage recorded by another biker.
The highway incident made other bikers stopped to help Cruz, but Lien wouldn't get out of his vehicle and panicked. Other bikers tried to get Lien out to face what he had done, but Lien was very uncooperative. Lien was attempting to flee the scene when bikers near the SUV tried to stop him by hitting the vehicle with helmets and slashing the tires, so he couldn't leave the scene. Lien in a panick mode, according to police decided to press on the gas pedal to get out of the situation quickly, but ran over several other motorcycles, striking bikers and running over a biker.
Edwin "Jay" Mieses is seen getting of his bike to help Cruz who suffered minor injuries when Lien in a driving frenzy ran over Mieses and broke both of his legs. Mieses family told media outlets that he is paralyzed and won't walk again. He also suffered bruised lungs, including spine fractures and was in a medically induced-coma St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, according to doctors who say he might not walk again.
Mieses has two children ages 10 and 14, according to family members.
Cruz was arrested by police and is facing misdeamenor charges for reckless driving, icluding endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child for initiating what police are calling a rode rage that extended through a 50 block chase by more than 30 bikers who went after Lien for the hit-and-run incident. No police were in the area for at least 6 minutes, according to the YouTube footage that went viral.
Another biker turned himself to police, Ellen Edwards, 28, of Queens was also questioned by police. Edwards was facing charges for reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and menacing, but was released without pending charges, according to police. Witnesses say, that Lien was driving fast and wouldn't slow. Police haven't provided information, if Lien attempted to call for help after striking Cruz.
Lien hasn't been charged for a hit-and-run or striking Cruz, Mieses and other bikers including running over multiple motorcycles.
Police continue to investigate the incident that left Lien beat up, with a slashed face and chest. Authorities are looking for another biker who was captured on video hitting and breaking Lien's door window with a helmet after Lien took a side street and got stuck in traffic. Lien's wife and child were not hurt in the incident.
NY police say more than 50 bikers were out with a biker group called the Hollywood Stuntz who organized a rally ride for the group on Sunday without a permit when the incident occurred.
At least 30 other bikers are being sought by police in connection with Lien's beating, chase, slashing after he caused a hit-and-run incident.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly told media that Lien fled the scene because he feared for his life and safety of his family.
As many hit-and-run drivers do after causing serious injury and damage to other people, according to a police source.
The irresistible force in blue is just about to hit the immovable wall in red.
In my opinion, this "sure thing" growth "driver" is just about over. It's possible that we crash through the wall a bit, but it's not sustainable over the long-term.
“September had only 23 selling days,” said Kurt McNeil, G.M.'s vice president for United States sales operations. “All of this goes a long way in explaining the month-to-month decline” in the annual rate of industrywide sales.
You will note that he said it goes a long way. He did not say it goes the entire way. Go figure.
This is a film with a powerful Christian message you can share with your teenagers without them thinking you’re square. Okay maybe they think you’re square anyway, but they’ll still appreciate the film. It is a little bit mushy in parts, but hey, it’s a love story. As writer and producer Galley Molina says, it’s a story of “surrender, redemption and second chances.” Inspired by Molina’s own life experiences, I’m In Love with a Church Girltells the story of a man trying to break away from his drug-dealer past after doing time in prison.
Miles Montego, played by hip-hop star Jeff “Ja Rule” Atkins, is now a successful show promoter. But has he really left that old life behind? He still hangs out at his old haunts with his “boys,” Martin, (played by Christian rap star, T-Bone), “T” (played by Tobymac), and their gang. Trailing Montego are a DEA surveillance team, (Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen) gathering evidence to arrest them in a major drug bust.
Stopped at an intersection in the middle of town, Miles spies Vanessa Leon (played by Adrienne Bailon) driving by in the opposite direction in a silver convertible. Smitten, he turns his car around and speeds off after her, only to be stopped by the police. Later he coincidentally meets her at a pool party put on by a mutual friend, Nick, (well-known star of The Sopranos, Vincent Pastore). Thus begins their stormy romance, where Miles is inspired to learn about God through his love for Vanessa, and Vanessa learns, to her consternation, about Miles’ past life.
Church GirlProducer Galley Molina is CEO of Reverence Gospel Media (RGM). The movie closely parallels his life. In the movie, however, Miles finds the church girl and God after leaving jail. In real life, Molina found the church girl (to whom he is now married) and God first.
Then he went to jail.
"They think that once you become saved your life is just peaches and cream," said Molina. "For me, the storm of my life happened after. I gave my life to Christ and then I was indicted, I went to bed on top of the world and I woke up with the world on top of me."
Molina began writing Church Girl while in prison. In the movie he plays himself as the pastor of Vanessa’s church. On Miles’ first visit to the church, he sees Galley drive up in a gleaming white Lamborghini, decked out in white shirt and slacks, wearing a white cap. When Galley walks out on the stage to give the sermon, Miles is shocked to realize he is the pastor. It is an understatement to say that Galley does not look like your average pastor. After the service, they have a humorous but meaningful exchange:
Miles (skeptical): “So, you’re really like a pastor, huh? I mean like, a real pastor?”
Galley (amused): “As opposed to, like, an imaginary, cartoon pastor?”
Miles (skeptical): “Nah, that’s not what I meant. I mean, you don’t even look like a pastor.”
Galley (amused): “So, what’s a real pastor supposed to look like, Miles?”
Miles (skeptical): “I don’t know, I mean, look at you, man… your clothes, your jewelry…”
Galley (amused): “You’re kinda decked out yourself, Miles.”
Miles (accusing): “Yeah, but, I don’t drive no Lambo pastor.”
Galley (amused): “Lambo huh? I recall pulling into the parking lot and seeing a four-door black Bentley that I ain’t never seen here before, and I’m assuming that’s yours, man.”
Miles (accusing): “Yeah, but I ain’t no pastor.”
Galley (serious): “True that, but last time I read the Bible, it said nothing about style being a sin… Kinda goes back to that old saying about ‘you cannot judge a book by its cover,’ you heard?”
Miles (accepting): “Yeah I dig. So what made you want to be a pastor anyway?”
Galley(persuasive): “Well, God had a calling in my life, Miles. And as much as I tried to avoid that call, I couldn’t avoid it anymore. And here I am… He’s got a calling in your life too… in everybody’s life. But you gotta answer the phone when he calls, you dig?”
The narrative is authentic and the actors are comfortable with it. It sounds real because it is real for them. The dialog comes right from the streets, and Ja Rule, Molina, Bailon and the others give compelling performances. Moreover, in writing the script, Molina managed to pull off authentic dialog without any character uttering a single expletive – an accomplishment in and of itself.
I won’t tell you the rest of the story. You will have to watch the movie yourself to find out what happens.
In a genuinely ironic case of life imitating art, Atkins went to jail immediately following the movie’s filming in 2011 to serve a two year prison sentence on weapons and tax evasion charges. Though he had dabbled in religion, unlike many of the film’s participants, Ja Rule was not a Christian. At the time, Molina said, “Ja Rule has been ministered to. He's a dear friend… We've been praying for him a lot. He's been open; he's been so [receptive] to the word.”
Now out again, Atkins says it changed him. "It's been real crazy. Real reflective. You go through something like that…it changes you a little bit… You get a chance to really to be at one with yourself. A lot of late nights, by myself… So, you know, I'm really in a good head space. I really want to just do what I'm doing and not focus on nothing negative at all… Right now I'm on my God flow, you know what I mean? I got Job 1:21 tattooed on my chest."
The soundtrack was produced by 5-time Grammy Award winner and Christian music legend Israel Houghton, who wrote and performed original songs for the movie, including Providence, Sunday Kind of Love, Better, Worthy of All Praise and I Surrender. T-Bone also performed in a number of pieces, including, Possess My Body, Return of the Bionic Man and others.
For his part, T-Bone was enthusiastic to participatein the film upon reading the script. A Christian for 15 years, he too has a similar life story of street life and redemption. What got him the most was when he realized that the character he plays in the movie was actually someone he knew of “back in the day, when I was doing my thing…”
As a piece of contemporary drama, the film stands on its own. Actors turn in good performances and the story is solid and entertaining. Still, given Hollywood’s hostility to anything and everything Christian, this is a very brave film. It is boldly, proudly Christian, and as Molina says, it is indeed an inspiring story of “surrender, redemption and second chances.” Films like this should be supported if for no other reason than to reward producers willing to risk making healthy, clean and entertainingmovies with an uplifting message, in counterpoint to the typically violent and decadent Hollywood fare.
Grammy Award-winning singer Donnie McClurkin said of the film, "I've seen this movie, and am both moved and inspired by the story, the characters, and the quality of both movie and music… This is not what people have come to expect from Christian films, and I know it will resonate deeply with viewers – even those who would never have gone anywhere near a movie that touches on the subject of faith."
I’m In Love With a Church Girl Opens nationally on October 18. HERE is a list of theatres where you can see it in your state.
Each year the US Treasury Department collects trillions of dollars in taxes. Last year that amount was $2.449 trillion, and this year it is projected to bring in $2.902 trillion.
If we look at federal spending on the conventional Gregorian calendar instead of the fiscal calendar, as of last Wednesday the federal government had already spent all of this year’s income, and every dollar spent after Wednesday is money it doesn’t have and has to be borrowed. That is called deficit spending and Wednesday was Deficit Day, the day after which every government action is performed on borrowed money.
Since there was at the time more than three months left in the year, between last Wednesday and December 31 the federal government will spend about $10 billion each day that it doesn’t have, adding $900 billion more to the national debt. This is another year of profligate spending that bloats our already bloated national debt still further, pushing the total near the $17 trillion mark.
The Heritage Foundation created an example that puts our federal government’s fiscal irresponsibility in perspective: The median family income in the US is $52,000 this year. If the median family spent money the way the government does, it will spend $64,000 this year, meaning it would put $12,000 on a credit card, without any regard for the $312,000 in existing debt the family already has accumulated. Other than many politicians and bureaucrats, who thinks this makes any sense at all?
Our government has so much debt that it breaks down to just slightly less per American citizen than the aforementioned median family’s annual income.
President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress demand yet another increase in the debt ceiling, opening the way for even more debt, although they want you to believe it’s only for paying existing bills.
A recent Bloomberg poll shows that 60 percent of the participants believe Congress should require spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling, even if that puts the nation at risk of default, while only 28 percent think the increase should be granted without conditions.
But Congressional Democrats want no restrictions on spending, either now or in the future. That is the source of their influence with voters, hence their power to impose asinine laws like the Affordable Care Act on the American people, despite the people’s dislike for that law.
However, if spending limits do come about, projects like the $27 million to teach Moroccans to make pottery would have to go. And the highly important half-million dollar project to create a video game called “Prom Week” to enable Americans the relive their high school prom would be sacrificed. Maybe we don’t really need a $376 million renovation of the White House, and we will no longer be able to pay unemployment benefits to those 1,000 prisoners who collected weekly benefits over a four-month period, costing taxpayers $7 million.
You may argue that those examples of foolish spending and waste amount to pocket change, but the complete list contains many more examples, and we must remember that pennies here and there add up to dollars, and millions of dollars here and there add up to billions of dollars. More importantly: The government has no business doing any of these things, at any cost, ever.
And, with the end of the fiscal year upon them, federal departments, agencies and offices have been busy spending whatever is left in their budgets, fearing that if they don’t spend it all, they will get less next time.
Some examples from The Washington Post: “the Veterans Affairs Department spent more than a half million dollars for artwork, the Coast Guard spent nearly $200,000 on ‘cubicle furniture rehab,’ and the Agriculture Department spent $140,000 on toner cartridges in just one day.”
And, according to Fox News, “federal agencies last week spent money on junkets for Chinese wine connoisseurs, Christmas tree initiatives, radio ads promoting New Jersey blueberries, a maple syrup recipe contest and produced a YouTube video to instruct on the proper handling of watermelons.”
So much for putting the interests of the taxpayers first.
Raising the debt ceiling is tied to a government shut down: raise the debt ceiling and everything is fine. Don’t raise it and the government shuts down. By the time you read this, government either will or won’t have been shut down. Either way, the term “shut down” is so far from accurate that it’s dishonest to use it. The government will “slow down,” not shut down. Sure, it will be hard on some, and the longer it lasts the harder it will be, but it’s not the crisis the Democrats and the media want us to think it is.
But in order to make everyone think it will be the end of the world, they have sacrificed their elitist façade of “tolerance” in favor of name-calling. The same people who cringe at calling terrorists and jihadists “terrorists” and “jihadists” have no problem calling Republicans and conservatives terrorists and jihadists, as well as hostage-takers, extremists, anarchists, arsonists and racists.
It should be no surprise that yet again politics has elbowed out integrity and service.
"It was the wing cameras -- those simple HD wing cameras -- that grabbed everybody's attention," Asner, a professor at the California-based Carnegie Institution for Science, told the Huffington Post.
They revealed vast tracts of dead zones slicing ever-widening swathes through the once-emerald expanses of the Amazon -- the trails of a modern-day gold rush.
"A lot of poor folks from up in the Andes have migrated down to partake in a very classic-style gold rush," Asner explained. "It's totally illegal. It's totally unplanned. It's totally informal.
Dr. Gregory Asner didn't need hyper-spectral imaging to tell him something was very wrong with Earth's mightiest rain forest.
In fact, none of the super-sensory techno-gadgetry aboard his research plane -- dubbed the Carnegie Airborne Observatory -- would tell a more horrifying tale than a basic pair of wing-mounted cameras.
"It was the wing cameras -- those simple HD wing cameras -- that grabbed everybody's attention," Asner, a professor at the California-based Carnegie Institution for Science, told the Huffington Post.
They revealed vast tracts of dead zones slicing ever-widening swathes through the once-emerald expanses of the Amazon -- the trails of a modern-day gold rush.
"A lot of poor folks from up in the Andes have migrated down to partake in a very classic-style gold rush," Asner explained. "It's totally illegal. It's totally unplanned. It's totally informal.
"It's somewhere between 300 per cent and 500 per cent higher than the government thought was going on. There might be 50,000 of these miners now."
And, as their operations rake claws across the Amazon, the toll not only on the land but the people who have long called it home has become impossible to ignore.
"It is amazing to see the gold mining expand so rapidly," Asner noted. "I've been on the ground, covertly, in the mines, and it is horrendous for the people who are working and living there, but they don't care because gold is so valuable currently."
Indeed, the Amazon may be the most vital victim of the 2008 financial crisis. Amid the bailouts, collapse of financial institutions and market panic of that dismal year, the price of gold skyrocketed.
Asner estimates before the crisis, the Amazon was studded with some 2,100 hectares of goldmines.
And after gold prices surged?
"The rate went up from 2,100 to 6,500 -- and it has gone up since then."
