Attention Book Lovers - Save Money and Go Green!

One of my favorite hobbies is reading, though I am really backed up on wish list books right now. I am finding it is hard to juggle hobbies of gardening, reading, watching movies and blogging. Anyone who has daily access to me will see that all four are suffering. Anyway, I have found book reading to be an expensive hobby. I find paperback editions difficult to read, so I have to purchase the more expensive hardcover editions. At $18 to $30 a copy, they can get very expensive. I have found that by searching online bookstores such as BN.com, amazon.com, and biblio.com, I can find the same books in the used book section for less than $5 and often with free shipping. The last two books I received were more durable former library copies (plastic cover and thicker pages) and were $1 and $3 dollars each with free shipping. The only disadvantage I have found is the shipping may take longer. With today's economic and environmental problems, I am choosing to save the money, save a tree and recycle at the same time. Go Green!

Where's Bobby?

Last week I was behind a car with a bumper sticker that asked "Where's Bobby?" Since it also displayed an Obama bumper sticker, I am pretty sure he was referring to Louisiana's own boy wonder, Bobby Jindal, AKA "absentee governor" and presidential candidate. OWO can answer the question for you. Jindal is doing what he has done at all of his other jobs - looking for another J-O-B. For you ultra right winger Bobby lovers who don't believe me, just check out his resume' on Wikipedia. Piyush "Bobby" Jindal has never kept a job for more than a couple years. Since being "found" by former Governor Mike Fostor in 1996 (just a couple years out of college), Piyush has been, head of Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals, a national commission on Medicare, President of the Louisiana University System, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services (federal), failed Louisiana gubernatorial candidate (I voted for him and still think he was the best choice) in 2003, US Congressman and now Louisiana Governor. True to form, Piyush now appears to be setting himself up for a run at US President. While he was US Congressman, he missed a number of votes because he was making "fact finding" appearances (or many would say fund raising for governor) in other Louisiana Congressional Districts. Now after a successful gubernatorial election, Piyush is making fund raising appearances in right wing areas of the country. Sounds like he is working towards his next J-O-B to me.

HEROES or ERRANTS? Just setting the record straight

OK I just have to get this off my chest. I have been dumbfounded by the recent rush to proclaim someone a hero only to find the facts of the incident indicate they screwed up. Have Americans become so desperate to have heroes in their lives that they rush to conclusions? Is the word HERO an easy headline for the media, or is it just a good "buzz" word for a politician to use in front of cameras?

Cases in point:

The Stolen Ship Incident: Last week Capt. Richard Phillips was hailed a hero after being rescued by the United States Navy. Hmmmm, lets see if I understand this. Phillips was sailing his gazillion foot freighter over the high seas off the coast of Somalia. Four 16 year old kids in a skiff managed to capture the ship and take the captain hostage. How did he let that happen? It seems to me the real heroes are men and women of the US Navy who "executed" his release.

Hero or Goose Killer: We all remember the miracle landing in Hudson River by Capt. "Sully" after he flew his Airbus jet into a flock of geese causing both engines to fail and forcing the plane to land in the Hudson River. I am pretty sure airline pilots are told it is not wise to do either of those events. Nevertheless, after having a couple 10 pound geese take control of his multimillion dollar aircraft, Capt. Sully was heralded a hero. I believe the real heroes are the flight attendants and ferry boat crews whose swift actions assisted in the rescue of the passengers from the cold water.

Lost Soldier: During the early days of our immoral invasion of Iraq we all gasped at the news that one of our female soldiers had been captured after fierce gun battle. Before we really knew what happened, the Whitehouse had erroneously described her fierce battle against the enemy and led to speculation she was being tortured and raped. It turns out her supply unit was lost after her company commander did not follow directions. They wandered into an enemy strong point the rest of the Army was trying to avoid. Jessica never fired a shot form her weapon. Fortunately, after the battle some decent Iraqi citizens took Jessica Lynch to a hospital where she was treated until rescued by special forces. We now know the special forces were not needed as the doctors were seeking her safe return. I would call the citizens and doctors who gave her safe care the real heroes of this unfortunate event.

WHO HAS MY MONEY?

I checked on the values of my various IRA and 401K plans. It appears I am a victim of the Wall Street mess to the tune of a near six figure loss. My question is, who got my money? I sure would like to have it back. The government chose to bail out the big banks using the rational they are too large to fail. What about guys like me who are too small to survive?

Some politicians are tossing around the idea of letting us little guys withdraw up to $10K from our IRA/401K's without a penalty to cover mortgages and other financial losses. The trick here is they failed to mention you still have to pay taxes on the withdrawal. On the average, the government will get $2800 of my $10,000. I guess they will use that to cover the 700 billion dollar loan to keep the wealthy bankers from loosing any of the their money. Thanks again, pal.

The Financial Mess

I ran across this while reading the Washington Post this morning. It was in the comment section of an article describing how Bush has lost the respect of the American people. The commentor did not give his name, but I thought it summed up how I feel about Bush and Congress.

Bush the Criminal President said:
"I recognize this is a difficult vote for members of Congress. Many of them don't like the fact that our economy has reached this point, and I understand that. But the reality is that we are in an urgent situation, and the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act."

TRANSLATION:
"I know you Republicans who have supported every criminal action I asked you to support will probably be voted out of office in a few weeks. I know that you are upset because you were not able to grab as much cash for yourselves as we were able to push through to our corporate supporters and war profiteers. But the reality is that we have gone as far a we can in keeping this financial house of cards afloat on the taxpayers back and we are in an urgent situation. The consequences of inaction will be that our good old boy supporters on Wall Street who are starting to see their multi-million dollar bonus dry up before the year end need our help. Otherwise there will be no more cash filled envelopes or behind the scene political action committees, which will result in our inability to buy elections. This will grow worse each day if we do not act and commit to cover the billion dollar life styles of our rich friends. They have lived well off the savings of the little people (aka American Tax Payers) which is our administration's way of life, but it seems like the little people want some of their money back, and those kooks overseas who brought up all those bad loans that their companies bundled and sold as "High Paying Investments", (He-He-He that was so unbelievable) now want some of their money back. Our friends on Wall Street certainly don't want to dig into their own pockets to try and fix the mess they made while taking millions out of their own companies. They certainly don't want to give anything back. They want to skate with the billions they got while the pickings were good, and leave us holding the empty bags! We can not allow this to happen. It will mean no last minute campaign slush funds just 6 weeks before the election which we will probably loose. So we must act now while we still have the power to keep using tax payer's money to support and protect our self interests. We've already hocked them into debt that their grandchildren will still be trying to pay off. Let's take one more bite of the pie and hock their great-great-grand children, but we must act now before they find out what we are really doing! So, keep doing what you do best. Don't ask questions. Dont read the fine print. Just rubber stamp my proclamation and let me get on with our Conservative agenda. (He-He-He!)"

OWO MIA no more!

I apologize to readers. Two hurricanes, a business trip and a operations review at work totally consumed the month of September for me. Now that all this is behind me, I hope to get back to regular posting.

Charlie WIlson's War

I do not want to make this a movie review, but I watched the 2007 movie Charlie Wilson's War. It is a true story about the CIA's covert involvement leading to Afghanistan repealing the Soviet Union's long standing war to take over the that country. The defeat ultimately led to collapse of the Soviet Empire. Even though the Soviet Union was our bitter cold war enemy, the Regan Administration had shown little interest in defending a non-Christian nation for fear of upsetting Israel. At some point, a liberal Congressman, Charlie Wilson, from East Texas and known for his immoral behavior became involved in the cause of the Afghanistan people. He was drawn after visiting a refugee camp and hearing horrible stories of the Soviets near genocidal attacks on civilians. Wilson, through his Congressional Committee positions, was able to covertly fund weapon supplies to Afghanistan and we all know the rest of the story. What is not widely known is something I believe significant to our recent history. Following the end of the Soviet/Afghanistan war, Charlie Wilson warned his fellow Congressmen that we needed to fund the rebuilding of Afghanistan or it stood to be taken over by Islamic fundamentalists. Congress turned down this request because they had little interest in assisting a non-Christian country and could care less about Islamic fundamentalists - what a mistake that turned out to be. Afghanistan was left to fend for itself. Because everything was covert, the Afghans believed that America did nothing for them in their fight with the Soviets. Many of the men armed by the CIA went on to become the Taliban's enforcers and Osama bin Laden's protectors.

I am all about keeping our money home, but I have to think we missed the boat on this one. Had we provided more assistance to Afghanistan following the soviet war, we might have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Think of the money spent and human lives lost since 9/11 and our war on terror. A little money spent in foreign aid might have saved us that expense. We need to think about this next time we criticize money being allocated for foreign aid.

In the movie, the CIA agent who worked with Wilson told him a parable of the Zen master.

In a village, a boy got a pony, and all the villagers said, “That’s good.” The Zen master said, “We’ll see.” A couple of years later, the boy fell off the pony and broke his leg. All the villagers said, “That’s too bad.” The Zen master said, “We’ll see.” Then a war came and all the other young men went to war, but the boy couldn’t because of his leg. All the villagers said, “That’s good.” The Zen master said, “We’ll see.”

So it is with Afghanistan. As we look back, we see that the victory over the Soviets was not the end of the story.

The movie credits began with this quote:

“These things really happened. We changed the world, then we [blew] the end game.”

Yes we did.