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!

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!)"

Global Economy Is Part Of Gas Price Culprit

American businesses helped create the energy shortage when they started outsourcing services and manufacturing goods abroad. Within the last decade, China and India have seen a boom to their middle class. It was created when their citizens started earning money from jobs that once belonged to Americans. Chinese and Indian citizens are now taking that money and buying cars. Accordingly, these two countries importation of oil has greatly increased. In essence, oil resources that Americans relied on are now being diverted to other countries. This creates a deficit of oil and deficits cause the prices to go up. Just as one can not borrow his way out of debt, we can not drill our way to lower prices.

I am not opposed to drilling in ANWR or along coastlines. However, I warn my readers not to expect this to solve our high fuel cost problem. It takes five to ten years to bring an area into production, so their is no immediate relief by opening these areas up. Furthermore, I don't want to hear any proponents of this "great idea" bitching about an oil rig blocking the view from their million dollar condo. Americans standing up and refusing to do business with companies who outsource and consuming less gas in the US would be a quicker relief.

The quickest relief to high prices is to not pay them. It's a tough pill to swallow, but Americans need to change their habits. Stop making unnecessary trips such as a family with multiple cars going to the same event in separate vehicles. Gas prices are effected by inventories of gasoline. Parked cars help in two ways. They keep gasoline in inventory and money in owners pockets.

Gas Saving Tips

America's Beer Falls Victim to the Global Economy

I guess most of you have heard the big news in business this week, Anheuser-Busch has been purchased by InBev, a Belgium beer giant. Yep, America's #1 beer, Budweiser, is now owned by a foreign brewery. On hearing the news I must say I was pissed. Why hasn't President Bush and Congress stepped up to stop this non-sense? Foreigners brewing our Budweiser is worse than when the company which managed all of our ports was going to be sold to terrorist. I was going to show their butts and stop drinking my Bud Lites and those new BL Limes my brother in law just got me hooked on. I wasn't sure whether I would switch to Coors or Miller, but one thing I knew was that the Mockler family could kiss their revenues of my 12 pack every few weeks good-bye. I am also in a dilemma as whether or not to delete the 80 versions of Bud Lite's Real Men of Genius radio ads on my Ipod.

Then I did some research. I found out Budweiser was just another beer until they got into aggressive marketing. In the old days they would pay for a bar's liquor license if they sold Budweiser on tap. In the 1950's, they were the first to market their product by sponsoring prime time shows like the Jackie Gleason Show. They even payed Frank Sinatra $750,000 to sponsor his TV show. Then beginning in the 70's, they aggressively entered the sports arena's. That is said to have taken them to the top.

According to an article on Salon.com by Edward McClellend, Budweiser originally was not that good of a beer when compared to others.

"Adolphus Busch, the dynasty's founder, called his beer 'dot schlop' and drank wine instead. During taste tests, St. Louis drinkers spat it back over the bar. But if the Busches didn't believe in their product, they believed in their business plan."

This aggressive marketing put a number of small American beer companies out of business or if they were lucky forced them to sell to Budweiser or rivals Miller and Coors.

Maybe I should not be so upset. I must have become caught up in the marketing as I grew older because I recall it was Miller Pony's and Schlitz Malt Liquor that got through the stress of 11th grade math. Also, I just realized I now mostly drink imported red wine. I prefer Chianti (Italian) Crianza (Spanish) red and if I am broke, Yellow Tail (Australian). I reallly don't care that much for American wines.

Furthermore, I wrote a version of Real Men of Genius, but Budweiser did not accept it. Now I really don't care about the sale of America's beer.

PS - If I can dig up a copy of Mr. Bikini Wax Technician, I will post it so you can decide if it should have been turned into a radio spot. Perhaps I should resubmit it to InBev.

Don't buy into offshore drilling to lower gas prices

Bush’s latest plea to Congress to open more of our country’s coastline to oil drilling will not lower the price of gas. We consume 25% of the worlds oil deposits, but have only 3% in reserves. With those numbers, it is mathematically impossible to drill ourselves to lower gas prices. Besides, it would take 7-10 more years to bring the new offshore fields into production. It has also been reported that the oil companies have only explored 25% of their present leases. What Bush’s present plan will do is give the oil companies more leases in environmentally protected areas. This is just a last minute gift in the form of future oil leases from Bush and Cheney to their pals at the big oil companies. Congress should respond with a bill that requires oil companies to explore a lease within a reasonable set amount of time or loose the lease. Quite frankly, I am not opposed to drilling along coast lines and ANWAR, but selling or inferring this as a fix to today’s high gas prices is simply not true, but typical of this administrations practices.

The only solution to lower energy prices is to wean us off of oil by curbing our consumption now and by switching to renewable sources of energy. Some of this is already happening. People are driving less and using more fuel-efficient cars. Much more can be done with a forward-looking energy strategy that encourages and rewards renewable energy and conservation. We need to immediately begin approving new nuclear power plants and encouraging other means of energy generation such as wind and water. The automakers who sell cars in the US should be forced to triple (or at least increase) vehicle gas mileage rates.

Furthermore, Congress needs to do everything in its power to push more US research into alternative sources of energy. Whichever country makes this happen quickly will benefit by having developed the necessary technology, which can then be profitably exported to other nations. We can be that country. If we continue to bury our head in the sand by listening to oil companies excuses (which are designed to make them more money), we will end up trying to catch up to other countries.