ADRIFT AT SEA

 “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

 

The big story this past week, besides the annual State of the Delusion speech by Barack “It won’t add a cent to the deficit” Obama, was the fate of the passengers on the Carnival Triumph as their skyscraper sized ship was left adrift at sea for days without power. This 900 foot long, 100,000 ton goliath is one of the largest passenger cruise liners in the world, carrying 3,400 passengers and 1,100 crew members in luxurious splendor through warm Gulf of Mexico seas to sun drenched exotic isles. These ships are practically floating countries, with passengers treated to an endless American buffet of never ending quantities of bacon, sausage, biscuits, gravy, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, waffles, pizza, cheesecake, soda, beer and the rum drink of the day. It’s as if all 3,400 passengers have a SNAP card with no limit. There are retail stores, restaurants, bars, ice skating rinks, movie theaters, showplaces, and staff waiting on you hand and foot. No cash changes hands. You charge everything to your room number and then just pay with one of your 13 credit cards at the conclusion of your voyage into debt. Then you pay 18% interest on the 25 Funky Monkeys you consumed for the next 14 years. Cruising captures the essence of America as we traverse our voyage to hell.

The ordeal at sea of the Carnival Triumph and the leadership displayed by the Carnival management and executive officers is a microcosm of our declining empire. The $420 million Carnival Triumph was put into service in 1999 and has run continuously for the last fourteen years, with only periodic dry dock maintenance. These massive ships are replenished within hours of docking and depart within twelve hours of dumping their 3,400 passengers back onshore. The CEO and top management of Carnival care only about ROI and whether their stock options are vested. Their goal is to bilk the passengers out of as much cash as possible, while paying their foreign slave labor crew members as little as possible. The ships are registered in foreign countries for tax purposes and the crew members are mostly from third world countries. Carnival executives and shipboard officers have a history of recklessness, mismanagement, and willingness to endanger its passengers in its greedy thirst for short term profits. Ask the families of the 32 passengers killed in the sinking of the Costa Concordia.

The engine room fire that disabled the Triumph was not an isolated instance. This was the fourth engine room fire on a Carnival owned ship resulting in a loss of power, the others being the Tropicale in 1999, the Carnival Splendor in 2010, and the Costa Allegra in 2012. The Carnival Triumph should not have been at sea. It had been plagued with mechanical problems for weeks prior to the engine fire. Voluntarily taking the ship out of service would have hurt the 1st quarter earnings per share of this public company, therefore the leadership of Carnival told the engineers to patch it up and get it back out on the seas. Two weeks prior to the engine room fire the Carnival Triumph experienced propulsion issues that caused it to be five hours late returning to its Galveston home port on January 28, 2013 and delaying the ship’s departure for its next cruise until 8:00 pm that night. The ship departed, but the problems had not been fixed. The Associate Press reported a story about that cruise that provides a different assessment than the public relations drivel released the corporate office:

An email informed Debbi Smedley and other passengers that the propulsion problem would prevent them from docking at two ports. “Due to the limited cruising speed, our itinerary will be impacted. Depending on the progress of the repairs, we will either visit Progreso or Cozumel,” stated the email, signed by Vicky Rey, vice president of guest services. Smedley said the ship was in poor condition overall. During her five-day cruise, a water line broke in the hallway ceiling near her cabin, and a separate sewer line broke outside the main dining hall, she said. Metal was protruding from handrails on the staircases, and the elevators often did not work. Rather than docking in Progreso for only a few hours as planned, the ship stayed in the port for two days, and cruise workers repeatedly told passengers they were waiting for parts to fix a mechanical problem, according to Smedley.

Carnival’s public relations machine then admitted to an electrical problem with the ship’s alternator in the last voyage before the fire, but claimed it was repaired. What they didn’t reveal is that it was a Coast Guard inspection that revealed there was a short in the high voltage connection box of one of the ships generators causing damage to cables within the connection box. A directive with a compliance due date of February 27, 2013 was issued following the inspection requiring that “the condition of the ship and its equipment shall be maintained to conform with the regulations to ensure that the ship in all respects will remain fit to proceed to sea without danger to the ship or persons on board.” The Coast Guard Marine Information Safety and Law Enforcement System showed that this deficiency remained unresolved at the time of the subsequent fire and loss of power while at sea on February 10. So you have a company PR maggot lying and you have another useless Department of Homeland Security branch not enforcing regulations that are supposed to protect passengers. This is par for the course in our corporate fascist states of America today.

Shit Happens

George: Aha. Aha. Could it be because you don’t want him to know that you have a friend who pees in the shower, is that it?!

Elaine: No, that’s not it!

George: Oh, I think it is! I think that’s exactly what it is!

Elaine: Why couldn’t you just wait?

George: I was there! I saw a drain!

Elaine: Since when is a drain a toilet?!

George: It’s all pipes! What’s the difference?!

George Costanza would have enjoyed sailing on the Carnival Triumph as passengers were left to piss in showers and shit in red plastic bags for days. It finally became socially acceptable to pee in the shower. Most of the ship’s electrical power went down after the engine room fire, causing extensive breakdowns of vital shipboard mechanical systems, including taking out sanitary systems. Passengers reported sewage sloshing around in hallways, flooded rooms and trouble getting enough to eat. Passengers waited in line for three hours to get a lousy hot dog. On the lower decks sewage came up through the shower drain, pooling in the sinks and flowing into the hallways. The allegory of the poor people on the lower decks being inundated with feces and living in wretched conditions, while the rich people living in luxury on the upper decks are blissfully ignorant of the fate of their fellow passengers is so easy to apply to our society in this day and age. The 1% glory in their stock market gains, while 20% of U.S. households are on food stamps.

These direct quotes from passengers and pictures taken onboard this voyage from hell provide a taste of what our future portends:

“We have to urinate in the shower. They’ve been passed out plastic bags to go to the bathroom. There was fecal matter all over the floor.”

“They’re walking around in a lot of urine and fecal matter, and the sewers are backing up.”

“The sanitation situation was gross and the stench was awful.”

“Just imagine the filth. People were doing crazy things and going to the bathroom in sinks and showers.”

“A lot of people were crying and freaking out.”

“We are trapped aboard a floating petri dish without power, air conditioning, or fresh water.”

“It’s degrading. Demoralizing, and then they want to insult us by giving us $500″

 Disgust: Guests were being forced to defecate into plastic bags and place it outside their rooms as toilets on board the Triumph backed up following the electrical failure Foul: Passengers on board the Carnival Triumph reported that floors were being flooded with raw sewage from overflowing bathrooms

 Where's my charger: After days without power a generator was airlifted unto the ship today and many people took the opportunity to charge their phones

After reading a number of articles describing what happened before, during and after the engine fire aboard the Carnival Triumph, the parallels between this Ship of Horrors and our Ship of State become self-evident. You have the CEO and top executives of Carnival only concerned about their wealth, power and control of the company. Rather than thinking long term and making decisions that might be detrimental to their short term quarterly earnings, but insure the long –term financial health and reputation of the company, their decision was driven by their true masters on Wall Street. Instead of taking the ship off-line to make vital repairs and  necessary investments, they just papered over signs of an imminent disaster and turned to public relations spin and propaganda as there preferred course of action. When disaster “suddenly” struck, the management and executive officers were unprepared, slow to react, and more concerned with their reputations than about the health, safety and welfare of the passengers. Much more could have been done to alleviate the misery of the 3,400 passengers. Carnival could have had a large generator helicoptered onto the deck and used to produce enough electricity to run some lights, ventilation, refrigeration and toilets. It appears that this ship had two engine rooms and only one was damaged by fire. They could have restarted the undamaged engine room and would have had enough power for most normal functions in the cabins of the ship, and probably some capability to propel the ship towards port. The disgraceful lack of urgency and refusal of top management to attempt every possible solution to this crisis is a lesson to be learned by passengers and citizens alike. They don’t care about you.

Rev. Wendell Gill’s experience onboard the Triumph provides a glimpse into our future. He immediately recognized the leadership of the ship was non-existent and it would be up to people helping people if they were to make it through the ordeal:

“What you had was a tale of two ships. You seldom saw a deck officer. I never saw the captain. Some of the people in the upper areas had plenty of air, but down below, it was unlivable. It was like a sauna of sewage. It was the people on the boat that saved Carnival. In an adverse situation, most people will rise to help — that’s just the human spirit.”  

Reverend Gill and his wife noticed that no one from Carnival was stepping up to help the elderly and sick get around. The Gills, along with other concerned passengers, decided to take matters into their own hands, carting mattresses and bedding up from the lower decks. They witnessed the worst side of human nature in the inaction of Carnival leadership, along with some people becoming drunk, disorderly and fighting over food. But they also witnessed people coming together under difficult circumstances, with many in the upper cabins sharing their space with those from the lower uninhabitable decks. The passengers created their own shanty town of tents on deck and in the cooler hallways. The vast majority of people acted like decent human beings. Kindness, sharing, and helping one another won the day. This voyage through hell is a precursor of what lies ahead for everyone in this country. When vital systems fail, the lights go out, and your beloved government leaders are nowhere to be found, how will you fare? Don’t count on someone from the government to lead when we are set adrift in a sea of chaos created by them. The politicians, bankers and bureaucrats will be scrambling to save themselves. Your family, friends, and neighbors will be the only people you can rely on. Your caring government doesn’t really care about you.

Cruisin for a Bruisin      

“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” Friedrich Nietzsche

The similarities between the horrific voyage of the Carnival Triumph and the tragic voyage of the dysfunctional ship of state we call America are many. We have a ruling class consisting of the President, Congress, Judiciary, Central bankers, Media titans, and goliath corporation CEOs who care not for the citizens of this country. You are ignorant peasants in their eyes. They only care about maintaining and expanding their wealth, control and power through the complete capture of our financial markets, political system and media propaganda to the masses. The health and welfare of the peasants isn’t even on their radar screen. The ruling class steering this ship of fools have no interest in the truth or the best long –term interests of the country. The vast majority of the passengers on this impaired listing ship prefers to believe the propaganda and lies spewed by the captain and his minions. They prefer the illusion of safety and security to the truth about the real condition of this ship. When the engines of this ship come to a grinding halt, their illusions will be shattered. Big government will come up small when it counts. The government propaganda and public relations will be revealed as nothing but hot putrid air and fecal matter.

Michael Ramirez Cartoon

Speaking of fecal matter, President Obama’s State of the Union address, which was watched by 33 million (down from 52 million in 2009) believers, was a perfect reflection of the thinking that led to the Carnival Triumph disaster. The reality facing the country is: $220 trillion of unfunded entitlement liabilities; a $16.5 trillion national debt; annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion; 48 million citizens on food stamps; 11 million people on SSDI; a true unemployment rate of 23%; true inflation exceeding 5%; record high gasoline prices; 0% interest rates for senior citizen savers; free money for criminal bankers provided by their sugar daddy Bernanke; not one criminal prosecution of a Wall Street executive for the greatest financial fraud in history; a war department that spends $1 trillion per year and fights undeclared wars around the world; a chief executive that invokes dictatorial executive orders to murder Americans with his fleet of predator drones and imprison citizens indefinitely without charges; and a bureaucratic nightmare called Obamacare that will drive up deficits, drive up healthcare costs for every family, enrich the healthcare industrial complex, drive doctors into retirement, and drive small businesses into bankruptcy.

Rather than deal with this reality, Obama chose the Carnival Cruise Line method of public relations, misinformation, denial and delusion. He has embraced the Big Lie concept as if he had created it. With a straight face he proposes “investments” in infrastructure, new jobs programs, new education initiatives, more green energy projects, pollution control schemes, bailing out more underwater mortgages, and raising the minimum wage, all done for the children – and it won’t add one cent to the deficit. Instead of leveling with the American people and explaining the dire economic issues confronting our nation that require sacrifice, reality based thinking, and tough choices, we got more platitudes, class warfare, divide and conquer, phantom spending cuts, disingenuous twisting of the truth, intellectual dishonesty and fuzzy math. Public relations spin created by Madison Avenue maggots and pronounced grandly by corrupt puppet politician hacks will not prevent the catastrophic engine failure that will leave this country adrift in a sea of its own feces.

Our cruise of illusions and delusions is headed for troubled water. The math challenged citizens on this ship have been enjoying the 24 hour pizza buffet without the labor required to pay for the bounty. When your leaders boldly lie and tell you we don’t have a spending problem, refer to proposed spending increases as “investments”, and hail $1.6 trillion of spending cuts that did not happen, you’ve got a ship that will be signaling SOS in the imminent future. Both political parties are laughable in their blathering about spending cuts as Bush and his Republican cronies drove spending from $1.9 trillion in 2001 to $3.0 trillion in 2008 with their unfunded wars, unfunded new entitlements (Medicare Part D), Wall Street bailouts, and creation of police state agencies (DHS); while Obama and his Democrat co-conspirators have driven spending up to $3.8 trillion in four years with new unfunded entitlements (Obamacare), expansion of warfare in the Middle East (they sit on top of “our” oil), $800 billion stimulus handouts, $60 billion hurricane relief pork handed out for $25 billion of uninsured losses, and bailing out banks, auto companies, homeowners, and other gamblers who took undo risks and lost to the tune of hundreds of billions. Politicians and the inhabitants of this country have forgotten there are consequences to their actions and inactions.

Carnival Cruise Line is trying to buy off the passengers with refunds and $500 bribes to keep them quiet and sedated, while protecting their continued hundreds of millions in profits and million dollar bonuses for their executives. The ruling class in the United States has bought off the American people with entitlement promises that can’t possibly be honored, food stamps, SSDI, tax rebates, homebuyer tax credits, loan modification programs, Cash for Clunkers, payroll tax cuts, $1 trillion of taxpayer financed student loans, taxpayer financed subprime auto loans, and a myriad of other handouts designed to keep the masses sedated, while the ruling class continues to pillage the national wealth. It’s as if the entire country has been charging their food, drinks, excursions, and purchases to their room number and the bill has reached $16.5 trillion, rising by $3 billion per day. This voyage is reaching an end and the bill is coming due. The engine is on fire but the captain is telling us all is well. Eventually, everyone will know the captain lied.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Leonard Cohen – Everybody Knows

 

survival seed vault

Why Raising the Minimum Wage is a Terrible Idea

The biggest problem with Americans today, and the politicians that pander to them, is that they make choices based on emotional effect and not on data.  This is why there’s no outrage over the budget-busting compensation of public sector employees like teachers, firefighters and police (yes, they all do important jobs, but the free market should dictate their salaries and compensation, not union thuggery and fleecing of the taxpayer), why nobody cares about all the stupid stimulus bills that had no impact other than to further increase our national debt (and hence, debt servicing costs), why people think price gouging is bad (gouging is GOOD) and of course, why Americans love a minimum wage.  To add insult to injury, Obama used emotional platitudes to highlight why America needs to raise the minimum wage yet again.  It is a terrible idea; here’s why:

  • Forced Overpayment for Labor – I’m sorry, but someone should be paid what they’re worth to the employer.  If it’s an absolutely zero skill job that just requires a body, why is the government mandating you pay them any set wage rate at all?  Think like an employer.  Consider a dishwasher.  There’s no prior experience required, no special skills and easily replaced.  Many restaurants use illegal immigrants for this type of role anyway, but let’s say they’re by the books and paying the full wage, payroll taxes (people forget about all the additional expenses business incur when something like this is proposed) and all the other costs associated with employing someone…

…continue reading Why Raising the Minimum Wage is a Terrible Idea

WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER DO THAN WATCH OBAMA TONIGHT CONTEST

Tonight the Liar in Chief will enter the Den of Thieves and Dullards and spew propaganda, lies and misinformation to a wilfully ignorant populace. The corporate mainstream media mouthpieces will dutifully report this drivel and instruct the ignorant masses how they should think and feel about the crap they just heard. There are 115 million households in the country. Only 27 million tuned in to last year’s State of the Union address. That was down from 31 million in 2011, 34 million in 2010, and 37 million in 2009. Do you sense a trend? I will go out on a limb and predict that under 25 million households will tune in tonight. This means that 80% of the people in the country don’t give a flying fuck what Obama has to say.

I will not watch one moment of this farce. I started thinking of things I’d rather do than watch this egotistical douchebag blather on about jobs, green energy, and protecting the children from guns. Maybe the entire student body of Sandy Hill Elementary can sing Hail to the Chief.

I’d rather stick a pin into my eyeball than watch Obama tonight.

I’d rather have my teeth cleaned by Zell than watch Obama tonight.

I’d rather have sex with Hillary Clinton than watch Obama tonight. Maybe that is going too far. If Bill won’t do it, who would?

I’d rather eat a giant cockroach than watch Obama tonight.

If you can think up something more creative to do you can win the contest.

The winner gets to experience the pleasure of free Obamacare for the rest of their lives starting in 2014.

GLOBAL WARMING? MANY REPUTABLE SCIENTISTS SAY NO.

Up front, I am a staunch Warmer skeptic.  What happened to the 1-2 mile thick sheet of ice which covered half of North America during the Ice Age, which ended 10,000 years ago?  It got warmer, and the ice melted, of course.  Up to 2 MILES THICK OF ICE COVERED MILLIONS OF SQUARE MILES OF LAND, AND IT DISAPPEARED, FOLKS.  What happened to the Medieval Warm Period, which lasted for about 400 years, 800-1200 AD, and grapes were grown on the now frigid, Arctic-like coast of the province of Labrador in Canada?  It got colder, and the settlements were abandoned, of course.

Did man have anything to do with those dramatic climate change examples?  Absolutely not.  Yet now, we are supposed to believe that MAN is causing, largely through carbon dioxide emissions of his activities in the past 150 years, the temperature of the Earth to warm.  A scant 40 years ago, similar scientists were warning the planet was heading towards a mini-Ice Age.

I don’t buy the Warmer hysteria, which is exactly what it is, and I am not alone in my skepticism.  Read on.

A List of Quotations from Scientists Who Reject Global Warming

“Because the greenhouse effect is temporary rather than permanent, predictions of significant global warming in the 21st century by UN-IPCC are not supported by the data.” (Hebrew University Professor Dr. Michael Beenstock, an honorary fellow with Institute for Economic Affairs who published a study challenging man-made global warming claims titled “Polynomial Cointegration Tests of the Anthropogenic Theory of Global Warming”)

“The UN-IPCC assessment process had a substantial element of schoolyard bullies, trying to insulate their shoddy science from outside scrutiny and attacks by skeptics…They will tolerate no dissent and seek to trample anyone who challenges them.” (Judith Curry, climatologist and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology; co-editor of Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences; co-author of Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans; author of over 140 scientific papers)

“There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s a consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t a consensus. Period. The greatest scientists in the world are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.” (Michael Crichton, biological anthropologist, “Science” writer and author)

“I am flabbergasted at what the promoters of global warming have so far gotten by with. These ideological fanatics have invented a belief complete with predictions that cannot be wrong: Rainstorms — global warming! Drought — global warming! Snow storms — global warming! Freezing winters — global warming! Warm winters — global warming! Hurricanes, tornados, tidal waves — global warming! If someone had told me thirty-years ago that a group of professionals of varied scientific disciplines would mob up together and pull this ruse off, I would have declared that person insane. Yet every day, to my chagrin and embarrassment, I see that it has happened.” (Henrik Kleist, physicist/mathematician)

“Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Every time you exhale, you exhale air that has 4 percent carbon dioxide. To say that that’s a pollutant just boggles my mind. What used to be science has turned into a cult.” (Will Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Princeton University)

“In essence, the jig is up. The whole thing is a fraud. And even the fraudsters that fudged data are admitting to temperature history that they used to say didn’t happen… Perhaps what has doomed the Climategate fraudsters the most was their brazenness in fudging the data” (Dr. Christopher J. Kobus, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Oakland University, specializes in alternative energy, thermal transport phenomena, two-phase flow and fluid and thermal energy systems)

“We maintain there is no reason whatsoever to worry about man-made climate change, because there is no evidence whatsoever that such a thing is happening.” (Greek Earth scientists Antonis Christofides and Nikos Mamassis of the National Technical University of Athens’ Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering)

“Who are these scientists that present manufactured consensus as science? Who are these scientists who threaten the whole world with deadly forecasts in a desperate effort to force them to believe their postulate? Who are these scientists in the lead position of a proposition who refuse to show (much less accept or respect) qualified opposing views? They are the scientists behind manmade global warming — who represent a sharp u-turn back to the Dark Ages where dissenters were likely to find their heads in a bucket.” (Steven Hapberg; multi-disciplinary scientist)

“Global warming is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life.” (Physicist Hal Lewis, who resigned from the American Physical Society for its promotion of the “Global Warming Hoax”)

“The whole idea of anthropogenic global warming is completely unfounded. There appears to have been money gained by Michael Mann, Al Gore, and UN-IPCC’s Rajendra Pachauri as a consequence of this deception, so it’s fraud.” (South African astrophysicist Hilton Ratcliffe, a member of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and a Fellow of the British Institute of Physics)

“It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of the earth. A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Further, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, and so on, which make up the climate.” (Bjarne Andresen, of the Niels Bohr Institute, at the University of Copenhagen; Christopher Essex, of the University of Western Ontario; and Ross McKitrick, of University of Guelph, in Canada)

“Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science. The earth’s climate is changing now, as it always has. There is no evidence that the changes differ in any qualitative way from those of the past.” (Will Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Princeton University)
“Hundreds of billion dollars have been wasted with the attempt of imposing an Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) theory that is not supported by physical world evidences (physics)… AGW has been forcefully imposed by means of a barrage of scare stories and indoctrination that begins in the elementary schooltextbooks.” (Brazilian Geologist Geraldo Luís Lino, who authored the 2009 book “The Global Warming Fraud: How a Natural Phenomenon Was Converted into a False World Emergency”)

“The US Global Change Research Program’s (USGCRP) report is well out of step with the scientific literature, including the very literature it cites… Given the strength of the science on this subject, the USGCRP must have gone to some effort to mischaracterize it by 180 degrees. In areas where I have expertise, the flood example presented here is not unique in the report (e.g., Hurricane Sandy is mentioned 31 times)… A four-year effort by the nation’s top scientists should be expected to produce a public draft report of much higher quality than this. However, given the problematic…treatment of extremes in earlier UNIPCC and US government reports, I’d think that the science community would have its act together by now… ” (Environmental studies professor, Roger Pielke Jr.)

“There are clear cycles during which both temperature and salinity rise and fall. These cycles are related to solar activity…In my opinion and that of our institute, the problems connected to the current stage of warming are being exaggerated. What we are dealing with is not a global warming of the atmosphere or of the oceans.” (Biologist Pavel Makarevich of the Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences)
“We’re not scientifically there yet. Despite what you may have heard in the media, there is nothing like a consensus of scientific opinion that this is a problem. Because there is natural variability in the weather, you cannot statistically know for another 150 years.” (UN-IPCC’s Tom Tripp, a member of the UN-IPCC since 2004 and listed as one of the lead authors and serves as the Director of Technical Services & Development for U.S. Magnesium)

“The energy mankind generates is so small compared to the natural overall energy budget that it simply cannot affect the climate…The planet’s climate is doing its own thing, but we cannot pinpoint significant trends in changes to it because it dates back millions of years while the study of it began only recently. We are children of the Sun; we simply lack data to draw the proper conclusions.” (Russian Scientist Dr. Anatoly Levitin, the head of geomagnetic variations laboratory at the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radiowave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences.)

“The temperatures at the North and South Poles are lower now than they were in 1930. The Antarctic Peninsula, the finger of land pointing north towards Argentina (and the equator) has been getting warmer…The other 97 percent of Antarctic has been cooling since the mid-1960s.” (S. Fred Singer, Research Professor, George Mason University, and Dennis Avery, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute and co-authors of “Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years”)

“I am ashamed of what climate science has become today. The science community is relying on an inadequate model to blame CO2 and innocent citizens for global warming in order to generate funding and to gain attention. If this is what science has become today, I, as a scientist, am ashamed… Science is too important for our society to be misused in the way it has been done within the Climate Science Community.” (Swedish Climatologist Dr. Hans Jelbring)

“I am an environmentalist — but I strongly disagree with Mr. Gore” (Chemistry Professor Dr. Mary Mumper, the chair of the Chemistry Department at Frostburg State University in Maryland, during her presentation titled “Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide and Global Warming: the Skeptic’s View.”)

“Once again we have misleading climate change pronouncements being based on data errors, data errors detected by non-UN, non-IPCC, non-peer-reviewed external observers…This is exactly what happens when you base your arguments on ‘consensus science’ and not scientific fact.” (Professor Dr. Doug L. Hoffman, a mathematician, computer programmer, and engineer, who worked on environmental models and conducted research in molecular dynamics simulations. Hoffman co-authored the 2009 book, “The Resilient Earth,” described as “bringing a dose of reality to climate science and the global warming debate”)

“The new scientific report directly challenges the conclusions of the UNIPCC Summary that human emissions of carbon dioxide are causing dangerous and unprecedented warming.” – Quantitative Economist Kenneth A. Haapala, the past president of the Philosophical Society of Washington, the oldest scientific society in Washington (founded 1871), has reviewed hundreds of reports based on quantitative techniques. Haapala co-authored the report “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate.”)

“Observations are ambiguous, models are inadequate, and our understanding of the complex interactions of the climate system is incomplete.” (Judith Curry, climatologist and chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology; co-author of Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans and co-editor of Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and over 140 scientific papers)

“The case for climate fears is blown to smithereens…the whole theory should be destroyed and discarded and the UN conference should be closed.” (UK astrophysicist Piers Corbyn regarding Climategate and what should be done about AGW claims)

“Climatic changes have natural causes according many geological data. I am very glad to sign the U.S. Senate’s report of scientists against the theory of man-made global warming.” (Geology Professor Uberto Crescenti of the University G.d’Annunzio in Italy; past president of the Society of Italian Geologists)

“I am appalled at the state of discord in the field of climate science…There is no observational evidence that the addition of anthropogenic so-called greenhouse gas emissions have caused any temperature perturbations in the atmosphere.” (Atmospheric scientist Dr. George T. Wolff, former member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board; served on a committee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and authored more than 90 peer-reviewed studies)

“The sky is not burning, and to claim that it is amounts to journalistic malpractice…the press promotes the global warming alarmists and ignores or minimizes those of us who are skeptical. When it’s a little warmer than normal, the media yells. When it’s cooler, they say nothing.” (Chemist Mark L. Campbell, a professor of chemistry at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, who has published numerous studies in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on topics such as methane)

“The questions are scientific, but the UN answers are political. The global warming debate is hardly about science.” (Computer Modeler and Engineer Allen Simmons, who worked 12 years with NASA’s top climate scientists and wrote computer systems software for the world’s first weather satellites and aided in the development of computer systems for polar orbiting satellites. Simmons co-authored the new book that contends AGW is false, “The Resilient Earth” )

“Belief in climate models compares to ancient astrology.” (Award-winning Japanese Physicist Dr. Kanya Kusano, program director of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology who’s research “focuses on the immaturity of simulation work cited in support of the theory of anthropogenic climate change”)

“Please remain calm: The Earth will heal itself. Climate is beyond our power to control. Earth doesn’t care about governments or their legislation. You can’t find much actual global warming in present-day weather observations. Climate change is a matter of geologic time, something that the earth routinely does on its own without asking anyone’s permission or explaining itself.” (Nobel Prize-Winning Stanford University Physicist Dr. Robert B. Laughlin, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1998, and was formerly a research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.)

“The recent ‘panic’ to control GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and billions of dollars being dedicated for the task has me deeply concerned that the US, and other countries are spending precious global funds to stop global warming, when it is primarily being driven by natural forcing mechanisms.” (Climatologist and Paloeclimate researcher Dr. Diane Douglas, who has authored or edited over 200 technical reports, specialized in the reconstruction of a variety of proxy data and has worked for the Department of Energy and conducted research for the Arizona State Office of Climatology to investigate the Little Ice Age)

“Temperature measurements show that the [climate model-predicted mid-troposphere] hot zone is non-existent. This is more than sufficient to invalidate global climate models and projections made with them!” (UNIPCC Scientist Steven M. Japar, a PhD atmospheric chemist who was part of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (UNIPCC) Second (1995) and Third (2001) Assessment Reports, and has authored 83 peer-reviewed publications and in the areas of climate change, atmospheric chemistry, air pollutions and vehicle emissions)
“[Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration] was exactly the same during the Middle Ages. It didn’t change at all. So there is something that was making the earth warm and cool that modelers still don’t really understand. The problem does not in fact exist, and society should not sacrifice for nothing.” (Will Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Princeton University)

“The UN-IPCC reports, which have become bibles for bureaucrats and environmentalist fanatics, accuse modern civilization of being responsible for global warming, and repeatedly state that they reflect a `true consensus’ of the scientific community. This statement about consensus is totally false: The assessments, conclusions, and even the working method of the UN-IPCC numerous scientists have harshly criticized. A more accurate description of the current situation would not be consensus, but rather controversy. Science does not progress via a process of consensus, or voting. There was no `consensus’ for Copernicus’s idea, in his time, that the Earth orbited the Sun. Consensus is not needed in science; that is for politicians.” (Zbigniew Jaworowski; multidisciplinary scientist: M.D., Ph.O., and D.Sc.; professor at the Central Laboratory for Radiologi-cal Protection in Warsaw; has studied glacier ice samples from around the world, analyzing traces of heavy metals and radionuclides. Article in “21st Century Science & Technology”: “Ice Core Data Show No Carbon Dioxide Increase”)

“The cause of these global changes is fundamentally due to the Sun and its effect on the Earth as it moves about in its orbit. Not from man-made activities.” (Retired Award Winning NASA Atmospheric Scientist Dr. William W. Vaughan, recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, a former Division Chief of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and author more than 100 scientific journal articles, monographs, and papers)

“Unfortunately, Climate Science has become Political Science…It is tragic that some perhaps well-meaning but politically motivated scientists who should know better have whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomena which is statistically questionable at best.” (Award-Winning Princeton University Physicist Dr. Robert H. Austin, who has published 170 scientific papers, was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and is the current Chair of the U.S. Liaison Committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. Austin is the winner of the 2005 Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society)

“If global cooling will come soon — scientists will lose trust. And it’s coming.” (Award-winning Japanese Geologist Dr. Shigenori Maruyama, a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences who has authored more than 125 scientific publications, was decorated with the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon for a major contribution in the field of geology, specializes in the geological evidence of prehistoric climate change. He is far more fearful of a short span of “global cooling,” brought about by the natural processes of our solar system)

“Observe which side resorts to the most vociferous name-calling and you are likely to have identified the side with the weaker argument and they know it. I have never been vilified so for being skeptical of global warming claims.” (Materials and Research Physicist Dr. Charles R. Anderson, a former Department of Navy research physicistwho has published more than 25 scientific papers specializing in spectroscopy, microscopy, thermal analysis, mass spectroscopy, and surface chemistry.)

“The data which is used to date for making the conclusions and predictions on global warming are so rough and primitive, compared to what’s needed, and so unreliable that they are not even worth mentioning by respectful scientists.” (Award-winning Aerospace and Mechanical Engineer Dr. Gregory W. Moore, who has authored or co-authored more than 75 publications, book chapters, and reports, and authored the 2001 Version of the NASA Space Science Technology Plan which included a comprehensive approach to studying the Sun-Earth connection aspect of space-based research.)

“I appreciate the opportunity to add my name to those who disagree that global warming is man-made…Hansen embarrassed NASA by coming out with his claims of global warming.” (Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist Dr. John S. Theon, a former supervisor of NASA’s James Hansen, and the former Chief of the Climate Processes Research Program at NASA Headquarters and former Chief of the Atmospheric Dynamics & Radiation Branch.)

“I am pleased to be considered a ‘denier’ in this cause if this puts me in the class with those who defied the prevailing ‘scientific consensus’ that the earth was flat and that the earth was the not the center of the universe.” (Retired U.S. Air Force (USAF) Meteorologist William “Bill” Lyons, of the USAF’s Global Weather Central at Strategic Air Command.)

“I do not find the supposed scientific consensus among my colleagues… Curiously, it is a feature of man-made global warming that every fact confirms it: rising temperatures or decreasing temperatures. No matter what the weather, some model of global warming offers a watertight explanation.” (Earth Scientist Dr. Javier Cuadros of the UK Natural History Museum, who specializes in Clay Mineralogy and has published more than 30 scientific papers)

“It is amazing to me, as a professional geologist, how many otherwise intelligent people have, as some may say, ‘drunk the Al Gore Kool-Aid’ concerning global climate change.” (Professional Geologist Earl F. Titcomb Jr., who has co-authored numerous analyses of geological and seismological hazards.)

“Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus [which] is the business of politics…What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. And that’s what I’m doing by denying AGW.” (Atmospheric Scientist Timothy R. Minnich, who has more than 30 years experience in the design and management of a wide range of air quality investigations for industry and government, is a past member of the American Meteorological Society and specializes in issues like acid rain and ozone, and has authored or co-authored numerous technical publications and reports.)
“Based on the laws of physics, the effect on temperature of man’s contribution to atmospheric CO2 levels is minuscule and indiscernible from the natural variability caused in large part by changes in solar energy output.” (Atmospheric Scientist Robert L. Scotto, who has more than 30 years air quality consulting experience, served as a manager for an EPA Superfund contract and is co-founder of Minnich and Scotto, Inc., a full-service air quality consulting firm. He also is a past member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Scotto is a meteorologist who has authored or co-authored numerous technical publications and reports.)

“Whether the ice caps melt, or expand — whatever happens — the AGW (anthropogenic global warming) theorists claim it confirms their theory. A perfect example of a pseudo-science like astrology.” (Mathematical Physicist Dr. Frank Tipler, professor at Tulane University who has authored 58 peer-reviewed publications and five books.)

“My dear colleague [NASA’s James] Hansen, I believe, has finally gone off the deep end…The global warming ‘time bomb,’ ‘disastrous climate changes that spiral dynamically out of humanity’s control.’ These are the words of an apocalyptic prophet — not a rational scientist.” (Chemist Dr. Nicholas Drapela of the faculty of Oregon State University Chemistry Department)

“There is no credible evidence of the current exceptional global warming trumpeted by the UNIPCC…The UNIPCC is no longer behaving as an investigative scientific organization or pretending to be one…Their leaders betrayed the trust of the world community.” (Chemist Dr. Grant Miles, author of numerous scientific publications who was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, was a member of UK Atomic Energy Authority Chemical Separation Plant Committee.)

“Any reasonable scientific analysis must conclude the basic AGW theory wrong!!” (NASA Scientist Dr. Leonard Weinstein who worked 35 years at the NASA Langley Research Center and finished his career there as a Senior Research Scientist. Weinstein is presently a Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace)

“Climate prediction is complex, with many uncertainties. The AASC recognizes climate prediction is an extremely difficult undertaking. For time scales of a decade or more, understanding the empirical accuracy of such prediction — called ‘verification’ — is simply impossible, because we have to wait a decade or more to assess the accuracy of the forecasts.” (The American Association of State Climatologists.)

“Opponents of global warming are often snidely referred to as ‘climate change deniers’; precisely the opposite is true. Those who question the myth of global warming are passionate believers in climate change — it is the global warmers who deny that climate change is the norm.” (Philip Stott; author of books on climate; he resigned as a member of the Scientific Alliance because he deems it important to be academically independent of all organizations, industry, and green groups — so that he can comment independently of the pressure they place on members to agree with majority opinion)

“The orthodoxy that claims global warming is a fact must be challenged.” (Nigel Calder, scientist and former editor for the New Scientist)

“Global warming is the central tenet of this new belief system in much the same way that the Resurrection is the central tenet of Christianity. Al Gore has taken a role corresponding to that of St Paul in proselytizing the new faith…My skepticism about AGW arises from the fact that as a physicist who has worked in closely related areas, I know how poor the underlying science is. In effect the scientific method has been abandoned in this field.” (Atmospheric Physicist Dr. John Reid, who worked with Australia’s CSIRO’s “Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Division of Oceanography” and worked in surface gravity waves (ocean waves) research)

“Those who call themselves ‘Green planet advocates’ should be arguing for a CO2- fertilized atmosphere, not a CO2-starved atmosphere…Diversity increases when the planet was warm AND had high CO2 atmospheric content…Al Gore’s personal behavior supports a green planet. His enormous energy use with his 4 homes and his bizjet, does indeed help make the planet greener. Kudos, Al for doing your part to save the planet.” (Engineer and aviation/space pioneer, Burt Rutan, who was named “100 most influential people in the world, 2004” by Time Magazine. Newsweek called him “the man responsible for more innovations in modern aviation than any living engineer.”)

“To the satisfaction of a judge in the High Court in London — that there were multiple serious errors not of mere interpretation or `theory’ but of fact in Al Gore’s mawkish sci-fi comedy-horror movie; that the errors all tended to invent problems where they did not exist or exaggerate them where they did; and that, therefore, the movie was political rather than scientific. The judge found in our favor, saying that `The Armageddon scenario that [Gore] depicts is not based on any scientific view. I wrote the scientific testimony that convinced Gore’s allies in the case that they should concede his film was seriously, serially inaccurate. Had they not made that concession, and had they not agreed to circulate 77 pages of corrective guidance, the judge said he would have banned the movie.” (Christopher Monckton, author, virulent critic of the UN-IPCC methods; has begged Albert Gore to debate “global warming”; Gore refuses)

“The most fundamental question is: ‘Can humans manipulate climate predictably?’ Or, more scientifically: ‘Will cutting carbon dioxide emissions at the margin produce a linear, predictable change in climate?’ The answer is ‘No.’ In so complex a coupled, non-linear, chaotic system as climate, not doing something at the margins is as unpredictable as doing something. This is the cautious science; the rest is dogma.” (Philip Stott; author of books on climate; he resigned as a member of the Scientific Alliance because he believed it important to be academically independent of all organizations, industry, and green groups — so that he could comment independently of the pressure they place on members to agree with majority opinion)

“Climate warming caused by man-made greenhouse gases is usually presented as a gloomy catastrophe that will induce the mass extinction of animals and plants, epidemics of contagious and parasitic diseases, droughts and floods, and even invasions of mutated insects resistant to insecticides. Melting glaciers are predicted to raise sea level by 3.67 meters; densely inhabited coastal areas, and great metropolises will flood. There will be mass migrations and a host of other social and environmental effects — always detrimental, never beneficial. That is the propaganda they spread.” (Zbigniew Jaworowski; multidisciplinary scientist: M.D., Ph.O., and D.Sc.; professor at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw; has studied glacier ice samples from around the world, analyzing traces of heavy metals and radionuclides. Article in “21st Century Science & Technology”: “Ice Core Data Show No Carbon Dioxide Increase”)

“What global warmers claim is climate science is truly dogma. There are no testable hypotheses. Instead there is consensus backing claims that are impossible to disprove. Any and all results support the theory. If the weather is warmer: `We told you so.’ If the weather is cooler: `Weather is not climate.’ More hurricanes: `Just as we said.’ African dust storms: `Ah yes, definitely proof of global warming.’ Excellent scientists refute the science they claim is behind `global warming’: `All the best scientists agree — the debate is over.’ And on and on this charade continues with no end in sight.” (Martin Hellig; multi-disciplinary scientist and mathematician)

POPE RESIGNS – GOOD RIDDANCE

Let the Catholic Church public relations spin begin. This man isn’t resigning because of his age. He has been leading an institution that has been conducting a coverup on par with the Wall Street criminal banks. There is absolutely no difference. Powerful men seeking to retain their wealth, power and control have been covering up the crimes of priests who were fucking little boys for decades. The coverup continues today. This man knew about these crimes and did nothing. He did worse than nothing. He allowed predators to continue their evil deeds. He is as guilty as the perpetrators. He knows he is guilty. That is why he is resigning. Until the Catholic Church is purged of every Cardinal, Bishop and priest that was involved in this cover-up, it will be nothing but a corrupt institution of evil men. This man will have to answer before God for what he allowed to happen to children around the world. All of the apologists for the Catholic Church should be ashamed at their cowardice in allowing these men to continue as their leaders.  

Pope Benedict XVI Announces Resignation At End Of Month

 
Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/11/2013 06:36 -0500

A stunning announcement to start the week from the Pope, who just a month ago was the first pontiff to enter twitter, and who just announced his resignation at the end of the month for “health reasons.” “I’m very shaken by this unexpected news,” outgoing Italian PM Mario Monti told reporters today on the sidelines of an event in Milan, as reported by Ansa. A Vatican spokesman confirms Pope Benedict XVI, who is 85 and was one of the oldest new popes when elected, is not resigning because of any difficulties in the papacy. And so Pope Benedict XVI, f/k/a/ Joseph Ratzinger, April 19, 2005 – February 28, 2013.

Full Papal resignation letter below.

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th. Below please find his announcement.

Full text of Pope’s declaration

 
 

Dear Brothers,

 

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

 

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

 

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

 

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

49ers – 31 Ravens – 34

As Smokey used to say – this is a mortal lock. My predictive skills regarding sporting events is legendary.

If anyone dare disagree with me, do so at your own peril.

The TBPer with the most accurate prediction will have the privelage of working for one week at LLPOH’s manufacturing plant. Just don’t get sick or wear a thumb ring or call him a capitalist pig or ask him for an extra long lunch hour.

750 LI

Last Saturday I took my youngest son to his weekly guitar lesson at George’s Music in North Wales. It’s located in one of those dying strip malls, with a vacant decaying Hollywood Video store, a dumpy Thai restaurant, a nail salon, and chiropractor. I sit in the car for the 30 minutes reading a book and minding my own business.

I pulled into a parking space and my son went in for his lesson. Being easily distracted and always looking for something to think about, I noticed the car parked directly in front of my Honda Insight. It was a BMW 750 LI. Anyone who has read this site for awhile knows that I’m not a car person. I’ve never spent more than $20,000 for a vehicle. I buy a car, pay it off as soon as possible and drive it as long as I possibly can. I consider a car nothing more than a way to get from point A to point B.

I do know that the higher the number of a BMW, the more expensive the car. I figured the car in front of me was fairly expensive.

I had no idea the rather normal looking vehicle in front of me retails for $90,000. After about fifteen minutes an Asian woman, about my age, and her teenage son arrived and got into the car. My guess is that she might be the owner of the dumpy Thai restaurant. She didn’t appear to be a uber-wealthy.

This is where I have a mental disconnect with a vast swath of America. This country is consumed by the status symbol representation of the vehicle they drive. The MSM and economists judge our economic progress based upon the number of vehicles sold per month. It doesn’t matter that most people essentially rent their vehicle for 3 or 4 years before renting their next one. Many people select a vehicle in order to impress family, friends and coworkers. They may be in debt up to their eyeballs, but if they are driving a BMW, then people think they are a success. The appearance of success is more important than doing what it actually takes to become a success (hard work, saving, investing).

I have trouble comprehending spending $90,000 on a car. I paid $100,000 for my first house. I could buy 4 Honda Insights and have $10,000 left over for the amount this lady spent on the BMW 750 LI. But, we all know it is highly unlikely that she bought the car. The BMW website says the car can be financed for 3.9% for 60 months. That comes to a monthly payment of $1,650. Why pay that, when BMW is offering a 3 year lease for the low low monthly payment of $989? Even this option requires $6,200 cash due at signing. Driving a car like this strikes me as foolish and vain.

The reason I have a hard time understanding the thought process of people who drive these cars is that I refinanced my house this week at 3.25% for 30 years and my monthly payment for a 2,200 square foot single family house in a nice suburban neighborhood is now $689. Renting a car for $300 more per month than it costs to own a home seems a tad excessive in my book.

My Honda Insight has four wheels, four doors, an engine, a stereo and a steering wheel. So does the the BMW 750 LI. My Insight gets 45 mpg. The BMW gets 14 mpg. I have one payment left on my Insight. I paid it off in three years at a 0.9% rate. I will drive it for at least seven more years and pay $0 per month. The money not spent on a car payment will be saved. The nice Asian lady will impress her neighbors while paying $989 for eternity as she is likely caught in perpetual leasing hell.

I will never understand people whose egos and vanity override prudent financial decision making.

HOW THE ENEMY THINKS – REALLY!

By Old Muck About (in a fit of temper!)

 

note: all emphasis made by the author..

_____________________________________________________________________________
Yesterday, I got a “free” copy of Bloomberg’s Business Week magazine.. Of course, it also included a come-on to subscribe, which, after thinking about it 10 milliseconds, I tossed in the trash.

Then I sat down to look it over. It curdled my guts with the initial column titled “Opening Remarks”.  You can’t get much closer to the front of a magazine than that.

In this totally asinine jumble of words, Mario Draghi, the Central Banker for the ECB was praised for saving the Euro by promising to buy unlimited sovereign debt from any and all bankrupt, deadbeat European  countries.

The piece went on to say that the jawboning was perfectly timed so that the “markets” (and I am no longer sure who or what makes up the “markets” anymore) were so impressed by this wonderful, economically sound commitment that they rallied (as they have in our own poor benighted U.S.A.) and, to date, no bankrupt country debt has had to be purchased – yet.

Key word, “yet”.

So, short one sentence that says, “Europe isn’t out of the woods by any means.”, Bloomberg has decided that Draghi and the ECB are just the ticket to eternal solvency by purchasing bankrupt countries debt.

Ring a bell? Kinda like the Fed is doing as I type – buying $85 BILLION dollars of U.S. Treasury debt and various “market based” instruments such as mortgage backed securities, credit default swaps, stocks and who the Hell knows what EACH AND EVERY WEEK 4-EVA……

I’ll give you a hint.. 4-EVA will not last nearly as long as our Fed (and their shills) seems to think it will.

The entire world — including normally sane Switzerland — has initiated a global race to the bottom in the useless and destructive attempt to go deeper in debt and devalue their currency to “grow their economy out of debt” and devalue that currency just a little faster than their trading partners so they can keep some productive capacity going and beggar their neighbor with a little trade.

It’s totally insane and will end very badly. This is not my opinion, by the way, it is mathmatics.

So I threw up all over the first column, tore it out and threw it away, then gingerly turned the page and there lay yet another blurb titled, “How to Resolve the Debt-Ceiling Crises”.

I will spare you the agony of a thorough review and just hit one or two of the low spots contained therein.

First, Bloomberg acknowledges (Ha!) that it is up to Congress to raise the debt ceiling so this country will not default on the $16.4 trillion National Debt. No mention is made of the $200 plus trillion of unfunded debt laying around out there with no way to pay it back except —– the way Bloomberg wants to do it!

Bloomberg next suggests that to eliminate all these pesky problems of “paying” off the deficits and “paying” for ongoing and new spending proposal is as follows:

“Congress should give the White House (i.e. Da Emperor) power over the debt ceiling so the U.S. can avoid a sideshow that threatens the ‘full faith and credit’ pledge made to those who buy U.S. debt”. (Which happens to be mostly the Federal Reserve).

They go on to say:

“So here’s another way to end the fight: tie spending decisions to automatic increases in the debt limit. When Congress passes a budget resolution or spending bill, it should also authorize a concurrent increase in the statutory debt limit to pay for what it’s authorizing.”

“This would have the added benefit of fostering fiscal restraint by linking spending decisions to the Congress that authorizes the money.”

Now please read the above two paragraphs again – only this time, read very slowly for comprehension and keep reading them until you understand that which is being put forth as a “serious” suggestion by a leading establishment magazine on how to solve our debt problems.

These people are fucking idiots less than well informed who, I’m deathly afraid, actually believe what they are proposing is a worthwhile thing to do! Could it be possible that TPTB (and Bloomberger is certainly one of those) is planting this crap in their tame and completely controlled MSM  widely published papers and magazines? Who is their audience? Herds of sheeple so brainless they cannot understand even the simplest economic facts? Surely no one in the financial industry at any level above trashcan emptier would give this garbage any credence. Would they? Are they trying to convince each other with this bullshit?

Perhaps the target audience are politicians and other government drones who truly don’t have a clue of anything economic and must, therefore rely on the likes of this junk magazine and its’ farcical articles to justify their destructive actions.

I’ve only managed to read the first two articles in this piece of shit Bloomberg Business Week and I’m almost afraid to turn to the next page to see what absurdity is regurgitated next.

So I will stop here, allow you to recover from your dose of shock and awe and I will dig further the garbage magazine  after lunch and three or four beers and maybe a nap. Perhaps I can get my mind to cooperate and stop running around in circles screaming, “Idiots, dumbasses, puppets, dog turds!” and other complementary thoughts on the quality of Bloombusted publication and those who actually subscribe to it and believe what’s in it.

MA

Note: The above article was composed by Muck About and The Burning Platform assumes no responsibility for the comments made therein nor the conclusions drawn. Read at your own risk!

IT TAKES A TWO PARENT FAMILY TO RAISE A CHILD

It doesn’t take a village to raise a child. Hillary Clinton is a liberal power hungry control freak. Liberals like to spew gibberish like this because their welfare state policies have destroyed the family unit and they want the all powerful government to assume even more control over our lives to fix the problem they created. The disintegration of America began with LBJ’s War on Poverty entitlement state solutions to a problems we didn’t have. West Philly is a ghetto because black men have abdicated their role of being a father to the government. The spiral continues and the liberal solution is more food stamps, more welfare, more dependency, and less self responsibility. The state will fix all of our societies ills. Just give them some more money.

Family disintegration has hurt America

Monday, January 28,2013

COMMUNITY LEADERS across the U.S. find themselves struggling with rampant tardiness, high truancy rates, high dropout rates, low educational attainment, widespread drug addiction, crime, a degraded work force and more.

It’s as if society is disintegrating.

That’s because many poor American families have.

Some social scientists contend that War on Poverty programs intended to help the poor actually led to what they call “family disintegration” instead.

“The core feature of the U.S. welfare system, and its central problem, is that it subsidizes and thus promotes self-destructive behavior,” the Heritage Foundation said in a 1995 briefing paper. “Specifically, the welfare system promotes: non-work, illegitimacy and divorce.”

The current system “transformed marriage from a legal institution designed to protect and nurture children into an institution that financially penalizes nearly all low-income parents who enter into it,” the foundation said.

In 2011, almost 41 percent of children born in the United States were born to unmarried women.

This has consequences.
“Welfare insidiously creates its own clientele; by undermining work ethic and family structure, the welfare state generates a growing population in ‘need of aid.’”

The Heritage Foundation again: There is “material poverty,” which measures income, and “behavioral poverty,” which “refers to a breakdown in the values and conduct which lead to the formation of healthy families, stable personalities, and self-sufficiency.”

BEHAVIORAL POVERTY “incorporates a cluster of severe social pathologies including: eroded work ethic and dependency, lack of educational aspiration and achievement, inability or unwillingness to control one’s children, increased single parenthood and illegitimacy, criminal activity, and drug and alcohol abuse,” the foundation said.

That’s what U.S. law enforcement, criminal justice, public school and court systems wrestle with every day.

ALL THESE problems would be lessened if society were to address the cause of family disintegration – welfare that is more rewarding than work – rather than the consequences of family breakdown.

Society, it turns out, makes a very poor substitute for strong families.

— The Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail

ONLY 2,400 BIG BOX STORES TO CLOSE IN NEXT FEW YEARS

Nothing like a little reality on a Wednesday afternoon. Below is a list of the worst of the worst retailers in the U.S. Hysterically, there are multiple articles about JC Penney this morning and the surge in their stock price yesterday because their dumbass CEO has announced a major change in strategy. Drum roll please. He is going back to having fake sales. The idiots who call themselves financial analysts immediately expounded upon the brilliance of this move. After losing $1 billion of business in one year, this will surely turn the ship back on course.

So solly. The list below, along with the three other failed retailers – Gamestop, Office Max and Radio Shack will be closing thousands of stores in the near future. Just think of all the benefits this will provide. More ghost malls across America. It will do wonders for the Space Available sign manufacturers. Maybe some new retail concepts can gain a foothold – Soup Kitchens R Us, Used Body Parts Thrift Store, or a cafe catering to senior citizens with your choice of cat or dog food. 

It should really test the accounting fraud skills of mall owners, property developers, and our friendly Wall Street bankers as rental income dries up and loan payments on vacant malls become a little challenging. I’m sure Bernanke can convince the FASB to let the banks convert all commercial loans to balloon payment loans with a 50 year term. Therefore, all will be well. No need for cashflow or tenants. I should work for the government.

There should be some great going out of business sales. I’m looking forward to it.

Retailers That Will Close the Most Stores

by | January 29, 2013 at 1:24 PM | Economy, General, Shopping

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

By Douglas A. McIntyre, Samuel Weigley, Alexander E.M. Hess and Michael B. Sauter, 24/7 Wall St.

It is the time of year again, when America’s largest retailers release those  critical holiday season figures and disclose their annual sales. A review of  these numbers tells us a great deal about how most of the companies will do in  the upcoming year. And while successful retailers in 2012 may add stores this  year, those that have performed very poorly may have to cut locations during  2013 to improve margins or reverse losses.

For many retailers, the sales situation is so bad that it is not a question  of whether they will cut stores, but when and how many. Most recently, Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE:  BKS) decided it had too many stores to maintain profits. Its CEO recently  said he plans to close as many as a third of the company’s locations.

Several of America’s largest retailers have been battered for years. Most  have been undermined by a combination of e-commerce competition, often from  Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:  AMZN) and more successful retailers in the same areas. Borders and Circuit  City are two of the best examples of retailers that were destroyed by larger  bricks-and-mortar competition and consumers transitioning to online shopping.  These large, badly damaged retailers could not possibly keep their stores  open.

RELATED: The Most Hated Companies in America

24/7 Wall St. reviewed the weakest large U.S. retailers and picked those that  likely will not be profitable next year if they keep their current location  counts. 24/7 analyzed the retailers’ store counts, recent financial data, online presences, prospects against direct  competitors and precedents set by other large retailers that have downsized by  shuttering locations. We then forecast how many stores each retailer will have  to close this year to sharply increase its prospects financially, even if some  of those location closings do not occur for several years. These forecasts were  based on drops in same-store sales, drops in revenue, a review of direct  competitors, Internet sales and the size of cuts at retailers  in the same sector, if those were available.

5. Barnes & Noble
> Forecast store closings: 190 to  240, per company comments
> Number of U.S. stores: 689
>  One-year stock performance: 8.95%

The move by customers away from print books toward digital books has hurt  Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE:  BKS). Same-store sales during the nine-week holiday season fell by 8.2%  year-over-year. The bookseller has tried to offset the declines in physical book  sales with its Nook e-book reader device, but sales of that device fell 13%  compared to the previous year. The company already has begun cutting down  the number of its stores in the past several years. In a recent interview with  the Wall Street Journal, the head of the retail group at Barnes & Noble said  he expected the company to have just 450 to 500 retail stores in 10 years.

RELATED: The Best- and Worst-Run Cities in America

4. Office Depot
> Forecast store closings: 125 to 150
> Number of U.S. stores: 1,114
> One-year stock  performance: 50.7%

Office Depot Inc.’s (NYSE:  ODP) troubles date back to years of competition against OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE:  OMX) and Staples Inc. (NASDAQ:  SPLS), as well as big-box retailers like Walmart. All three stores were  dealt a blow from reduced business activity during the recession, as well as  increased popularity of online retailers such as Amazon. The company’s North  American division reported an operating loss of $21 million in the third quarter  of 2012. Office Depot plans to relocate or downsize as many as 500 locations and  close at least 20 stores. In the third quarter of 2012, the company closed four  stores in the United States, and same-store sales were down by 4%  year-over-year.

3. J.C. Penney
> Forecast store closings: 300 to 350
> Number of U.S. stores: 1,100
> One-year stock performance: -53.6%

J.C. Penney has gone through a rough stretch recently. In the most recent  quarter, same-store sales fell by 26.1% compared to the year-ago period. Even  Internet sales, which are increasing significantly across the retail sector,  have taken a turn for the worst, falling 37.3% in the third quarter, compared to  the prior year. J.C. Penney sales have taken a turn for the worst since former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:  AAPL) retail chief Ron Johnson took the helm at the company. Johnson’s plan,  among others, has been to wean customers off of heavy discounting and simply  give customers low prices. However, retail strategists and analysts have argued  that Johnson’s plans have created confusion among customers and has been a  further setback to any potential turnaround.

RELATED: States with the Best and Worst School Systems

2. Sears Holding Corp.
> Forecast store closings: Kmart  175 to 225, Sears 100 to 125
> Number of U.S. stores: 2,118
> One-year stock performance: 8.8%

Both Sears and Kmart have been going down the tubes for a long-time, steadily  losing their middle-income shoppers to retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  (NYSE:  WMT) and Target Corp. (NYSE:  TGT). Sears Holdings Corp.’s (NASDAQ:  SHLD) same-store sales have declined for six years. In the most recent year,  same-store sales at the namesake franchise fell by 1.6% and at Kmart by 3.7%,  compared to the year-ago period. The company is already in the process of  downsizing its brick-and-mortar presence. In 2012, Sears announced it was  shutting 172 stores. CEO Lou D’Ambrosio is leaving the company in February, to  be replaced by chairman and hedge-fund manager Edward Lampert. Lampert has  minimal operating experience in retail management.

1. Best Buy
> Forecast store closings: 200 to 250
> Number of U.S. stores:1,056
> One-year stock performance: -36.8%

The holiday season was rough for Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:  BBY). Same-store sales declined by 1.4% year-over-year, with international  stores posting a 6.4% decline while U.S. same-store sales were flat.  Companywide, the electronics retailer reported that holiday revenue had declined  to $12.8 billion from $12.9 billion the year before. In the most recent  completed quarter, during which same-store sales declined 4.3%, the company  reported a loss of $0.04 per share. Best Buy has been plagued by customers “showrooming” — looking at products in the store and then purchasing them online — in recent years. Speculation persists  that former chairman and founder Richard Schulze may buy out the company.

To see the full list, visit 24/7 Wall St.

Jan 29: NATIONAL FREETHINKERS DAY

Today is “National Freethinker’s Day” — also known as Thomas Paine Day, as he was born on this date in 1737. Throughout his life, he wrote many influential books and pamphlets including The Age of Reason, The Rights of Man, and Common Sense. Each of these works brought public attention to key issues and helped establish the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution.

Paine’s writing inspired many people to strive for political, economic, and social advancement. He was also one of the first people to call for an end to slavery and universal human rights.

Freethinkers Day has been celebrated since the 1990s. Its purpose is to educate people about Paine’s work and the importance of freethinking, freedom and liberty.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Common Sense and The American Crisis:

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher.

O! ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the Old World is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

It is of the utmost danger to society to make it (religion) a party in political disputes.

There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

You can read more from Thomas Paine here.

LINCOLN

We went to see Lincoln this past weekend. I know this is sacrilege to all of the Lincoln haters out there. My view of Abraham Lincoln has changed dramatically since I started this site. I had been brainwashed to believe the myth that Lincoln was a saintly figure who freed the slaves. After reading the arguments of flash and many others on the site, I realized the history taught in our schools is a whitewashed version of the truth. I do not believe Lincoln was evil, as some try to argue. I believe he was a flawed human being, put into an extremely difficult situation, who made decisions which set in motion an ever more powerful Federal government.

I personally thought the movie was outstanding. Spielberg did not glorify Lincoln. He humanized him. It was not a tribute to Lincoln. It was a balanced examination of the year 1865. I consider myself a student of history and a Civil War buff, so I found the movie to be fascinating and informative. Spielberg brought the same brutal gritty realism to Lincoln that he brought to Schindler’s List. From a film-making standpoint, it deserves to be in the running for Best Movie. Daniel Day Lewis should be a lock for Best Actor. He is brilliant and believable as Lincoln. Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens deserve strong consideration for Best Supporting Actors.

Spielberg does not candy coat Lincoln’s actions. The Democrat and Southern view of Lincoln as a killer, law breaker, and tyrant is voiced loudly in the scenes during Congressional debates. The movie is entirely set during the historic year of 1865 and focuses on the passage of the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. I particularly liked seeing the attitudes, decisions and dynamics of the last year of the Civil War Fourth Turning. It gives me an inkling of what will happen during this current Fourth Turning.

The scene where Lincoln pleads with his cabinet to support his effort to pass the 13th Amendment captures the complexity of Lincoln with all his faults, frailties, and fortitude. The reason he wanted the 13th Amendment passed during the lame duck session of Congress before his 2nd inauguration is because he knew that he had broken the law by freeing slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation. He originated the concept of Executive Orders. He was fairly certain the courts would overturn it. Therefore, he needed the amendment to pass before this could occur. Spielberg doesn’t try to gloss over the fact that Lincoln committed criminal acts by suspending habeus corpus and interpreting the Constitution in any way that helped his cause. Lincoln needed 20 Democrat votes in the House to get his amendment passed. He hired men to bribe the required number of Congressmen. He bribed them with patronage jobs, cash, and threats of retribution.

If you think Congress is corrupt and dysfunctional today, it was just as bad in 1865. Again, this was a Fourth Turning. There are no compromises in a Fourth Turning. The wars are fought to a final decisive conclusion. The leaders during a Fourth Turning will do whatever is required to win. They don’t worry about the means to their ends. This is the slippery slope that Lincoln needed to walk. The actions he took during these years have had far reaching consequences that he didn’t consider at the time. The power of the Federal government and the industrial corporate interests became conjoined and have grown ever larger over time. Future Presidents have used Lincoln’s decisions as the basis for expanding the power of the Executive branch. Many Libertarian minded people despise Lincoln for the actions he took during the Civil War.

I do not believe he was an evil man. I believe he was a decent man put into a terrible situation who made many mistakes, but ultimately kept the country together. Some would argue that he should have let the South form their own country. Would we have been better off? Slavery as an institution was immoral and evil. How long would it have lasted in a seperate Southern nation? Maybe 10 years. How many border wars or national wars would have occurred if there were two Americas? The industrial North would have grown ever more powerful and the South would have been left behind. Attempting to reunite the country was not an evil act.

Lincoln bore a terrible burden during his Presidency. He lost his young son Willie to typohoid fever and this loss practically drove his wife insane. He was elected to office with only 30% of the popular vote. His cabinet thought they were smarter than him and were often uncontrollable. He had radical Republicans on one side and secessionist Democrats on the other. He was the only moderate in Washington DC. The battlefield deaths took a terrible toll on him. He was haunted by the 600,000 dead souls. He was plagued by terrible generals during the 1st few years of the war. He aged terribly over four years. His sorrow bore heavily on his soul.

Abraham Lincoln: Before (1858) and After (1865)

The information which I found most eye opening in the movie was the impact of Thaddeus Stevens on passage of the 13th Amendment. He was a Congressman from my neck of the woods in Montgomery County PA. He was a nasty SOB. His tirades in Congress against his opponents would make him a perfect fit on TBP. He was the leader of the Radical Republicans and the chief proponent of freeing the slaves. He believed they should have the right to vote and were the equals of white people. This was radical thought in 1865. He never married, but his common-law wife was black. He hated Lincoln. He hated the South. He hated Democrats. His hate knew no bounds. But Lincoln needed him to pretend to be moderate in order to get the amendment passed. He sacrificed his ego and rose to the occasion. Without his efforts, the amendment would have never passed.

Most Southerners have always hated Lincoln and still hate him to this day, but his assassination was the worst thing that could have happened to the South. He had no malice towards the South, its leaders, or its people. He wanted a reunion of the states. He did not want retribution, hangings, or reparations. He would have treated the South with respect. Instead he was replaced by Andrew Johnson. Thaddeus Stevens led the effort to make the South pay for their sins. When Johnson did not go along, Stevens led the effort to impeach him. Reconstruction was brutal on the people of the South and the blowback was worse for the poor blacks that made no progress over most of the next century.

I find it fascinating that it was the Republican Party that freed the slaves and fought for their equality, but now 148 years later black people vote 90% for the Democratic Party. The blacks were treated so badly in the South for the 100 years after the Civil War that it was Democrat guilt that brought about the entitlement state with LBJ’s Great Society. Democrats tried to buy the votes of black people with entitlements. What has happened over the last 50 years has been a re-enslavement of black people in the chains of welfare. They are now trapped in urban plantations with no hope of escape. I wonder if they grasp the irony.

I know flash and others will not be changing their opinions about Abraham Lincoln, but I believe that every human being has good and evil within them. We are all terribly flawed and subject to the circumstances we are placed in. We often judge historical figures without putting ourselves in the context of their situation. Having the responsibility thrust upon him, Lincoln did whatever it took to try and preserve the Union. He broke laws, overstepped his Constitutional authority, imprisoned his opponents, ordered hundreds of thousands of young men to their deaths, and ultimately preserved the Union. He was a strong decisive leader. Fourth Turnings always require such a person or persons. We may get the chance to test our own mettle, as this Fourth Turning progresses. I wonder if we will be up to the task.

1865 was one of the most important years in the history of our country. Decades of history occurred in the space of one year. The Battle of Wilmngton NC, the 3rd Battle of Petersburg, passage of 13th Amendment, Lincoln’s 2nd Inauguration, Surrender at Appomattox, and assassination of Lincoln all occurred in the first five months of 1865. Fourth Turnings always build to a crescendo of intensity, disarray, and a decisive dramatic conclusion. Spielberg captures this dynamic in his excellent movie.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants a better understanding of this important time in history. It does a fine job of distinguishing between the myth of Lincoln and the reality of Lincoln. Even the Lincoln haters might like it.

LLPOH’s Short Story: Through Fault of Their Own

The other day, I made a statement that my experience is that people lose their jobs through “fault of their own”, and that those that say that many people lose their jobs “through no fault of their own” do not know what they are talking about. I believe that this attitude of “through no fault of their own” is reflects a major shift in the attitude of the populous – that people do not want to face reality, and that they need not be responsible for their own actions. To me it is similar to the way teachers can no longer grade papers in red pen for fear of offending the child, and that the child that finished last in the race still gets a ribbon or prize. People are afraid of acknowledging what is true – people do not lose their jobs for no reason. And those that do lose their jobs have played a significant part in the loss of their jobs.

I have literally fired thousands of employees in my career. A great many of these I firings I have done personally, and many more I was a senior decision maker. Following are some random examples of firings I have been involved in. Some of them reflect mass terminations, while others are examples of individuals being fired. I lost no sleep over any of these firings. They all occurred through the fault of the employee:

– 1700 workers who lost their high paying union jobs because they failed to acknowledge that the company was going broke and that they needed to accept a pay reduction if they wanted to keep their jobs. Only after the plant closure was announced did they come to their senses and agree to accept the cuts. But it was too late. The plant closed, all of them lost their jobs, their property values plummeted, as they lived in a small town where almost everyone owed their livelihood to the plant, and the town went into depression.

– The workers who lost their jobs because they missed too much work

– The workers who lost their jobs because they failed to return from vacation on time, “because they felt like a few more days in the sun”

– The workers that lost their jobs because they refused to obey safety regulations

– The guy I fired because he blocked my maintenance men from taping up an electrical wire that had come loose from its mooring, saying that only electricians could do that work. Government inspectors determined I had acted prudently (he reported me after he was fired), and had done the right thing.

– The guy I fired for dumping a carload of trash onto my parking lot

– The guy I fired for abusing a customer who came to pick up goods

– The guy I fired for writing obscenities on a part and then sending it off to a customer

– The guy I fired for throwing parts around in a fit of anger

– The guy I fired for dropping a very expensive piece of equipment when lifting it with a forklift. I had just told him not to do it, and to wait while I organized a proper means of lifting the equipment. He thought he knew best, and caused around $10,000 worth of damage. When asked why he had done it, he simply shrugged. I had him thrown off the property on the spot.

– The guy who took a blow torch to a $2000 bit of equipment because he couldn’t get the chuck loose, destroying the specialist equipment.

– The guy who left the valve open and drained $3000 worth of chemicals on the floor, and almost caused an EPA disaster

– The guy that went to the car race and called in sick.

– The guy I fired for climbing 20 feet up scaffolding (and so jeopardizing me personally should he have fallen and killed himself)

– The people I have fired for abusing and threatening other employees

– The guy I fired who called in sick who was actually running his own business on the side

– The myriad folks I have fired for theft

– The folks I have fired for malingering

– The people I have fired for throwing things in the plant (amazing how often this one has happened)

– The people I have fired for refusal to follow instruction, due to them “knowing better” and their methods “being better”. (If they are going to breach work procedures they best get this right, as mistakes cost me money, and if they get it wrong they get fired. If they approach me or a manager first, then they are OK – I am almost always willing to give an idea a try. )

– The lady I fired for shooting her boyfriend on my site. (I would not have really cared one way or another if she shot him of-site, as he was a cheating scum-bag, but I cannot let employees run around shooting other employees in my plant. I just can’t do it).

– The guy I fired that laid hands on me when he didn’t like his job assignment

– The guy I fired who came in and worked overtime when I told him he was not so allowed. He told me he would be in anyway (what the fuck???) as he needed the overtime and it was his right. I advised him against his decision, but he thought he knew best.

The above were all clear-cut cases of having lost their jobs through “fault of their own”, in my opinion. I have many more examples, but these are the ones that come to mind. Now let’s take a look at those times I have had to reduce the size of the workforce because of drop in sales or as a result of having to make a company viable that was losing money because of a bloated workforce. The reductions in these instances have ranged from a few persons at a time to hundreds. The argument many folks would make about these cases would be that these people lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

But I disagree. Why? Because I know how the people were chosen that lost their jobs. I chose them. And this is the criteria I used:

– Who missed the most work?
– Who is the most skilled?
– Who is the most willing to work overtime when needed?
– Who was the most likely to refuse overtime?
– Why did they refuse overtime?
– Who causes problems with other employees?
– Who is flexible when it comes to asking them to do or learn something new?
– Who is undertaking outside training to improve their skills?
– Who is argumentative when asked to do something?
– Who is happy to train other employees?
– Who reads and writes the best, and can do math?
– Who is the most cross-skilled?
– Who would be the most difficult to replace?
– Who treats the business as it is his or her own?
– Who keeps a neat work area?
– Who obeys all safety regs?
– Etc.

I actually create a matrix, where I rate each of these attributes on a scale of 1 to 5, and weight them according to the value each has to the company. For instance, cross-skilled gets a higher weighting than does who is undertaking outside training. I add up all the points for each employee, and thus create a ranking. If I have 100 people and need to reduce that number by 30, I take my ranking and count up thirty from the bottom and draw a line. Those 30 go.

Notice what I do not do? I do not go by seniority, and experience means very little to me. I care only about what the person can do for the business, and who have shown they will take care of the business.

And so there you have it – the 30 that have it lost their jobs through fault of their own. They did not compete well enough. They did not care for the business well enough. They did not train themselves well enough. They did not come to work often enough. And never have I seen a situation where all 100 were good “employees” – far from it. The thirty in this example would have been poor to marginal employees. And so when push came to shove, through “fault of their own”, they lost their jobs.

There have been a few times when people have indeed lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and I grieved over it, and regret it. And each time it was similar to this: the people were mentally or physically handicapped in some way. I have a history of trying to employ people many would think to be unemployable. I do it because I think it is right. If I have 100 people, there will be a handful of folks employed that are generally considered unemployable. So long as they are willing to give a good effort, I will try to employ them and find valuable work for them – cleaning, low skill, repetitive work, work where I can tolerate minor quality mistakes, etc. But if I need to reduce the workforce down from the 100 people, I cannot absorb the cost of employing these people because they become a greater percentage of the workforce as the size of the workforce drops. And so I am left with no alternative but to let them go in those situations. It is extremely stressful for me, as I know they will not be employed elsewhere. I try to rehire them when opportunity allows, but that has infrequently been possible. These people do lose their jobs through no fault of their own.

There are other reasons I consider that people lose their jobs through their own fault. For instance, they allow unions to destroy their companies. They vote for people that do not support their interests. They buy imported product in preference to local made – when I looked at the make-up of the vehicles driven by my employees last week, which I do often, the imported cars vastly outnumber the locally built. This all puts pressure on their companies, and causes job loss, indirectly at least, and directly at times.

When I interview people for work, even in tough economic times, the numbers that show up inappropriately dressed is appalling. The number that wants to dictate terms of employment to me is astonishing. The number that vastly overestimates their market-value is horrifying. These people remain out of work through “fault of their own”.

The idea that people lose jobs through no fault of their own is wrong, and it is dangerous, and it promotes the idea that people do not need to be responsible for their own actions and decisions. It is make-believe. People must take responsibility for themselves, and the idea that people are unemployed, or lose their jobs through “no fault of their own” serves to tell them that they are not responsible for themselves, but rather that some greater force is at play, and that there was nothing they could have done to change the situation. As I have shown above, out of the thousands of people that I have fired over the years, all but a handful controlled their own destiny. They lost their jobs through “fault of their own”, and I am not going to coddle them by saying otherwise.