Random Ramblings

It's been a while since my last rant and I've been holding back to see how some things would take form before bringing them up in this forum. Now is the time though.

Gun Control...

I'm not a hunter. I don't oppose those who do, I just wasn't raised in a family where this took place. I've lived in small towns and large cities. I've lived across the street from a crack house. None of these things ever pushed me to the point to purchase a weapon until our current President was elected. I found it very intriguing that gun and ammunition sales have skyrocketed since Obama won that election. Of course, during the campaign he said that he wasn't going to do anything extreme regarding personal gun ownership. Again - he's not being truthful.

The government is trying to limit gun ownership and ammunition sales and they are using the violence in Mexico as the reason for it. They claim that the drug lords there received 90% of their weapons from the US. Nevermind that the ATF has said that they cannot defend that number and feel that it has been dramatically overstated. An ammunition purchase will soon get you listed in a government database so they can track just how much ammunition you have at any one time.

I heard someone say today that if this becomes reality that she will be purchasing her ammunition one bullet at a time just to drown them in paperwork. Not a bad idea.

Limiting Executive Pay...

I'm not a big fan of some of these executives getting bonuses with tax payer bailout money. I think that if they take a bailout that they should be subject to some strict regulations until the money is paid back. But now look what Mr Obama is up to. Using AIG as his model, he wants the government to step in to ALL publicly traded companies and limit just how much their executives can get paid. Are you kidding? So the executives at McDonald's, Southwest Airlines, Apple, etc. - who have done nothing wrong and have led their companies to be world icons - will not be able to make whatever their board decides they are worth to the company. The government will decide what is fair.

Can we, as taxpayers, decide what these senators and the like are worth and cap their pay? Can we come in and say, "It's public service. So you are going to make $25,000 per year. You are not allowed to make any additional money as long as you are in office. Oh, and you'll need to go purchase your own health benefits, security teams, and private jets to accomodate the demands of your office."?

CEO of AIG...

Did you see the current CEO of AIG getting grilled by Senators last week? This isn't the CEO who ruined the company. This is a guy who was retired and was asked by the government to come out of retirement and try to turn around this mess. He did so because his country asked him to. OH, and he's getting a salary of $1 per year as long as he serves in this capacity. Then he gets brought in front of this panel to be scolded by the very people who voted to approve the bonuses that he was contractually obligated to. They want names of everyone who took a bonus. I'll give you a name. Chris Dodd from Connecticut. He's the one who changed the bailout terms that would have eliminated the bonuses and said that would not work and added the provision that required AIG to give out the bonuses. There's your name.

Obama...

I think it is safe to say that just because Obama says something, it does not mean it is true. We would not have lobbyists in his cabinet - yes, we do. We were going to have the most transparent administration ever - no, we don't. We were going to have 5 days of having any proposed law posted on the White House website for all Americans to review before it would be signed into law - no, we haven't. He's not going to come after guns and ammunition - yes, he is. He wants to reduce the number of abortions that take place in America - no, he doesn't.

He's a very good teleprompter reader. He's smooth. He's got this ability to fend off criticism with the flash of his smile and a tilt of his head - AND WE'VE FALLEN FOR IT! Don't be fooled by his words. As a matter of fact, when he says something - go ahead and accept the fact that the opposite is what he will do.

Funny story to end this rant. Mr Obama was a guest speaker at an event last week. It is well publicized that he takes his teleprompter with him everywhere (watch for it tomorrow night at his news conference). The person who introduced the President also had a speech on the teleprompter and when Mr Obama stood to greet the crowd, the other person's text came up instead which literally got Mr Obama to say the following...."Thank you. I am honored to welcome President Obama here tonight." Unreal.

Just Shut Up, Please!

I'm starting to see a trend in my topics. I'm thinking that Mr. Obama is going to be the subject of many rants for the foreseeable future. I didn't intend for it to be this way, but I just can't afford for him to keep on talking. Each time he makes a speach or gives a news conference, it costs us as taxpayers AT LEAST $50 billion! Every time! It's unreal!

Several times now, Mr. Obama has stated that the people voted him into office to see change, and not to do nothing. True - he did campaign on the promise to bring change to Washington. But my gosh, do we have to change absolutely everything? Really? Everything? My assumption was that he was only going to change the things that were desperately broken. Is there not anything that was okay as-is? Everything was completely broken? And let's assume that everything was broken, do we have to change everything immediately? Can nothing wait until, oh I don't know, maybe your third month in office? He is bringing change. Change this and change that. And while he's doing all of that, we're going to be living on spare change.

Let's put this into perspective...

• The Titanic - This was a great tragedy where over 1500 people lost their lives. The cost today to build this ship would be $150 million.
• Tanker Truck and Bridge - In 2004 in Germany, a car hit a tanker truck  causing it to go through a guardrail and explode down below. To replace the fuel, truck, and bridge - it would cost $358 million.
• MetroLink - In 2008, two trains collided in California because the conductor was text messaging. The wrongful death estimates are to be around $500 million.
• B-2 Bomber Crash - Also in 2008, a B-2 Bomber crashed shortly after takeoff in Guam. Cost for this mistake was $1.4 billion.
• Exxon Valdez - In 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship hit the reef. The clean-up cost $2.5 billion.
• Piper Alpha Oil Rig - In 1988, someone forgot to replace a switch and when someone started up the drilling again, the rig exploded killing 167 workers. Cost for this was $3.4 billion.
• Challenger Explosion - I think everyone remembers seeing the Space Shuttle Challenger explode in 1986. Today, it would cost $5.5 billion to replace that shuttle.
• Prestige Oil Spill - This one happened in 2002. 20 million gallons of oil were spilt into the sea and the ship was split in half. Total bill for the clean up was $12 billion.
• Space Shuttle Columbia - The shuttle exploded on re-entry over Texas in 2003.  Total cost today for the loss of the shuttle and all of the clean up - $13 billion.
• Chernobyl - This has been noted as the costliest distater during peace time ever. In 1986, this nuclear power plant disaster affected 1.7 million people. Cost was $200 billion.

Those sound like some hefty numbers and great tragedies, but when you consider that electing Barack Obama has cost us $800 billion in just the first two months of his Presidency - he simply needs to shut up! We can't afford for him to speak or even come up with anything else to change!