Monthly Archives: December 2011

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

You may have notice that my writing has been sparse of late.  I passed my 80th birthday this year and priority had to be given to the management of many changes taking place on the personal front, all good except for the need to sell my airplane.  It is the plane pictured on the banner of the blog.  That photo was taken at the factory on January 4th, 2002.  It has been a very good ten years.

When the plane is sold there will be a new scene on the banner but the theme and content of the blog will not change.  When you are out browsing, I hope you will continue to stop by Random Thots from time to time.  The door is always open and there will be goodies on the table.

Bob B 2PZ

THE TEA PARTY vs. THE OCCUPIERS and OTHER RANDOM THOTS

There is no comparison.
The Tea Party members stand for less federal spending, less federal debt, less government restriction, more personal liberty, more growth and more jobs.  As a group they are peaceful, familial, respectful of private property, employed and proud of their American heritage.

The Occupy movement still hasn’t decided what it stands for as a group.  Members have taken stands against corporate bailouts, unequal wealth, capitalism, Israel, anything military and the notion that there is any reason whatever to be proud of their country.  They have asked for bailouts for individuals, free college tuition, higher taxes on other people, (the demonstrators themselves pay little or none), and redistribution of the wealth of others unto themselves.  Their methods are disruptive, sometimes destructive and occasionally violent and frequently illegal.  They show disrespect for the American flag, private property and the rule of law.  They have been unable to control criminal activity within their own group.

Our president expresses support for the Occupiers and holds Tea Party members in contempt.  Until Barack Obama we had never had a President like this.

Where’s the swamp?
The ripest department for corruption in any town is the housing department.  If you have ever dealt with one you know how involved the permitting and inspection process can be.  It is rich with opportunities for those in power to ‘earn’ a little income on the side.  The big opportunities are in the realm of awards to private contractors for municipal construction and other town services.  This is by no means an indictment of these departments as a whole for malfeasance, but where corruption does exist this is where you are most likely to find it because it’s the most fertile ground.

At the federal level, the equivalent that comes to mind is infrastructure programs.  Think about it.

More Republicans should play chess.
Republicans in Washington fell into a trap because they didn’t anticipate the Democrat’s future moves.

The Republicans were set up when they supported a temporary suspension of the payroll tax.  Now the Democrats want to extend it and the Republicans do not.  Obama has been given ammunition for his class warfare battle.  Now Republicans “want to increase taxes on the working man but never on the rich”.

Continuing the payroll tax suspension also plays into the Presidents plan to spread the wealth.  As it stands, the working man is contributing nothing to fund the Social Security he will collect.  Obama wants to keep it that way.

THATCHER AT HER BEST

“A common European currency is a preposterous idea and we will have none of it!”  Such was the steadfast position of Margaret Thatcher’s government.  For sheer entertainment the proceedings in the British House of Commons have no peer in government.  The Prime Minister stands up and speaks briefly.  The Sub-Prime Ministers moan loudly.  When the Prime pauses, the Sub-Primes leap from their seats, some of them that is.  They plop down as fast as they pop up, like bubbles in a boiling stew.

One minister refers to another as Right and Honorable and then lambastes him (or Her) with the sharpest sort of insults and both sides have a hearty laugh.  They talk about each other, in front of each other, but not to each other.  Like two kids tattling on one another to their mom, the ministers tell everything to a man wearing a silly looking wig.  A strange lot, the British.

The issues under siege in this clip are, first, the European Union which Thatcher sees as a looming federation robbing the individual nations of their sovereignty bit by bit, and secondly, the specter of outright Socialism.

JUSTACARTOON