The Help

Whew! Survived Christmas and still somewhat sane! While exhausting in many ways, it was a great day of fun, family, and FOOD. Think I need to have a food detox for a week.
Finished the day and crawled into bed to watch a movie before falling asleep. My wife picked the movie “The Help”, which is a story about Mississippi and the race struggles taking place in the 60’s.
 I was raised in St. Louis, Mo. which is basically a southern town that was segregated for much of it’s history. I became aware of predjudice when I became good friends with a guy on the football team in high school. His name was Roland Reese and he was (and probably still is) one of the funniest and most personalble people I have ever met.
I had Roland over to the house several times, and quickly discovered that his presence in my all-white neighborhood was a concern to the citizens. Being somewhat rebellious in those days, I made sure that Roland came over often.
Watching the movie, I was saddened by our history while still being encouraged by how far we have progressed. I trust that the best is yet to come. Thanks for being my friend Roland. Just Say’n.

A Washington Bully

Rep. James Sensenbrenner has elevated himself to a political bully in DC politics. The Wisconson Republican is a solid party man who agressively persues his job. 
Unfortunately, he’s decided that Michelle Obama’s program for healthy eating is wrong because "nobody should tell the American people what to eat.” He then goes on to say that Michelle has a large rear end and needs to follow her own advice.

From what I can see, Rep. Sensenbrenner follows his own advise. Nobody is telling him what to eat and so he is eating everything.
 As far as Michelle, a picture is worth a thousand words. 

Get back to governing Sensenbrenner and leave Michelle alone. Just Say'n

The 12% factor

Been a lot of talk about the 99% and the 1% as it applies to the American spread of wealth. However, the figure I think we really need to look at is the 12% factor. That figure is the percentage of Americans who think the government is doing a good job. The figure really states that 88% of the country believe that the fools on the hill in Washington are really fools.


In my opinion, that figure is about to fall to 0% if the fools on the hill can’t find a fix for this payroll tax problem. If they don’t find a way to work out a plan by January 1, our incomes will decrease by @ $2400. The country is in recession, banks are robbing the people, jobless rates are astronomical, and now the idiots are going to go on vacation and give us a pay decrease of $2400. %#@%$&##.


The days of 0% approval rating for congress are at hand. Happy Holidays. Just say’n.

Michele, Michele, Michele

In life we often run into people and situations that remind us we are a far from perfect people. Michele Bachmann is running for President of the United States, which is an admirable thing to do. At least she is willing to step up and express her positions on the problems in this country.

For example, unemployment: ''If we took away the minimum wage -- if conceivably it was gone -- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.''—Michele Bachmann, Jan. 2005

Maybe we could reinstate sweatshops too. No unemployment, just everyone working for $2.00 per hour.

 She has a good grasp on environmental issues too: ''Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.’’ —Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) in April 2009

She does admire strong female heros: ''Lady Liberty and Sarah Palin are lit by the same torch.''—Rep. Michele Bachmann, in a recorded message for a campaign event hosted by Sarah Palin to support Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller, Oct. 28, 2010

And she is good with fiscal accounting: ''The President of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day.''—Rep. Michele Bachmann, grossly exaggerating the expense of Obama's trip, which cost a fraction of that ($200 million is more than the entire war in Afghanistan costs per day), Nov. 3, 2010

You just can’t make these things up. Wish it was fiction. Just Say’n

Out of touch

Dear Mr. Romney,
I thought it might be a good idea to let you know that the American economic picture is not doing well. I dont know if you will win the primary or not, but I am assuming that you’re not aware of the struggles going on in our country.
 I’m basing this thought on the following article:

Romney has filed for permits for work that would almost quadruple the size of 3,009 square foot three-bedroom single-story home in tony La Jolla, California, near San Diego, to make way for a mansion. The plans call for a total demolition of the existing $12 million home and building a two-story, 11,062 square foot house in its stead, the San Diego Union Tribune reports.

I’m happy that you are able to “remodel” your beach house, but I question if you’re really in tune with the problems of the country when you blatently do things like this. Keep up this type of press release and you will definately spend more time in California than in 1600 Pensylvania Ave. Just Say'n

My son the genius

My son and a few of his friends have been working on a project with puppets. It is a unique approach to video blogging that recently became very popular on YouTube. It’s a cleaver program providing fun and entertainment while still being instructional. Obviously, he has highly developed creative talent because of my fantastically creative genes. 
Not so much.
He is just good at what he does and I’m proud of him.  That’s what makes life worth while. Just Say’n.
Take a look and have some fun. Click here

Our National Debt Solution

The brilliant minds that run the world are all bothered about our financial problems. In this country, as shown in the above graphic, we have around $15trillion in debt and can’t seem to agree on how to solve the problem. In fact, in Washington DC, I am not sure they can agree on what day it is. 
So here is the solution in round numbers. We implement a national LOTTO. Out of the population of 300million people figure about 200million would play. Every week there would be 3000 people who would win $100thousand. If tickets sold for $5, in five years we would retire close to half the debt and would make a lot of people happy with winning. Heck we pay a lot more than that now, don’t win anything, and watch the country sink in debt. Why not have some fun while we try to recover. Just say’n.

Bragging Rights

My son married a wonderful woman and together they produced two magnificent children. I do believe they are two of the most fantastic children in the universe. 
They are beautiful, smart, and very happy about life.
I like to talk about them because I have a Bragging Rights. 
Well, I don’t really; my son picked his wife and together they had children, so I didn’t really have any part in the activity.
But I don’t care, these are still the most fantastic children in the universe and I’m allowed to share that opinion. Just Say'n

Horrible moments

Watching the debates the other day, once again wondering why I waisted my time. Nevertheless, it was the night that Rick Perry said he had three agencies he wanted to eliminate. Commerce, education, and, and, and, son of a gun, he couldn't remember the third one. Somebody suggested EPA and he went along with it for a minute, but then said no. In all honesty, I think he was praying for a stroke. Those are horrible moments. There is no place to hide, no excuse you can make, you are just caught in your own naked stupidity.


A horrible moment that haunts me (one of many unfortunately) was at a meeting where I was the main speaker. I never met the people hosting the meeting and therefore was not aware of any of their personal life. The wife of the host was a somewhat large woman who appeared to be in the latter stages of pregnancy. I asked her when she was due to deliver …… and she told me she was not pregnant.
A horrible moment.
 Needless to say, I was not ever asked back to that event again. Guess that is why I can have empathy with Rick Perry and his two out of three memory. Just Say'n

Newton Leroy McPherson

It is always good for a person to be open to the opportunities of life. Newton Leroy McPherson is a man who has led a very opportunistic life. 
We know him as Newt Gingrich, a charismatic politician that is now toying with the front spot in the Republican Presidential candidates. 
I am not a great follower of Newt, but I do admire his ability to weather storms. 
He was the leading proponant of impeaching Clinton for improper relationship with Lewinsky, yet he was having a 6 year affair with Callista Bisek, a congressional aide. He ultimately married Callista and they seem to have a great relationship. I’m happy for both of them.
He is a man who believes in strict conservative ethics for financial matters, yet the house ehtics committee investigated him and sanctioned him $300,000 for improper business activities. He paid the bill.
He positions himself as a simple man of the people, which, given his humble background is true. However this simple man of the people is now worth over $6.7 million. I do wonder how politicians 
become so wealthy, but he is definitely not alone in this.
He resigned his office in congress because of the friction he was 
causing in the Republican party, but now wants to be its leader. That takes guts.


I’ve been around long enough to know that none of us have squeaky clean background, and we all have made some mistakes. Maybe that’s why we have to admire him, he does know how to survive. Perhaps that’s what we need in this country, a strong person who can survive personal scandle and problems then come out smelling like a rose. Then again, maybe we don’t. Just say’n.