Category: rant

The Unemployed Need Jobs Not Stimulus

Posted by Eric – June 16, 2010

In a blog post published by Governor Beshear he justifies paying out unemployment claims despite the program coming unglued from its intended purpose.

Few things are as devastating to a family as losing a job. Without income, almost everything they need for both short-term survival and long-term stability is at risk: Food, medicines, clothes, shelter, heat, water, transportation, education … everything.

Since 1935, the Unemployment Insurance program has sustained our families when loss of employment threw them into disarray through no fault of their own.

If some states are still paying out benefits at 99 weeks then this stops being temporary. Extended periods of unemployment make government benefits more appealing. Eventually, idleness and government subsidy become a way of life. Motivation and work ethic are destroyed because the productive workers see their neighbors receiving benefits that they do not.

Entitlement. In a word, we have too many idle nitwits believing they are owed something because they belong to a protected class of voters.

April commented earlier on the blog

You say limited and I say where do we draw the line? I am sure people years ago panicked over the thought of a public school system. Or Public roads, fire departments, police departments etc. I am sure they panicked the same way they are now over the health care situation. Now though, we wouldn’t know what to do without those institutions. Why will a Public option health care be so much different?

OK, April, how much debt is too much? The Democrats have spent us into a hole from which it will be very difficult to pull ourselves out of. If our nation is to survive, we  must immediately put governments at all levels on a crash diet. Some people like Governor Chris Christie get it (No fat jokes! Christie is the real deal.).

Interest-free loans and Unicorns

Posted by Eric – April 14, 2010

Again with the “interest-free” nonsense. The new middle school is going to be built with interest-free bonds funded with Federal stimulus dollars.

IF THE DISTRICT HAD USED A TRADITIONAL BOND PROGRAM TO FINANCE THE NEW SCHOOL, THE FINAL BILL WOULD HAVE BEEN ROUGHLY 41-MILLION DOLLARS, BUT WITH THE 14-MILLION DOLLARS SAVED FROM NOT PAYING INTEREST AND THE 7-MILLION DOLLARS EARNED IN INTEREST FROM THE ESCROW FUND, THE NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL WILL BE BUILT AT A COST OF 20-MILLION DOLLARS TO THE TAXPAYERS OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY.

The money being spent here doesn’t magically appear because somebody chased down a leprechaun and stole his pot of gold. The money is generated via three methods all of which are very bad for us. The first is through selling U.S. Treasuries that earn interest to the investor. We already have a crushing level of debt; we can’t afford to borrow another penny period! The second is through the printing of paper currency. The unregulated printing of paper demeans the value of all dollars in circulation. The third and final method is through direct taxation. Which will be the number one topic on April 15th.

WKDZ normally provides excellent news coverage but this story is really no better than if the station had reported unicorns flying through the streets of Hopkinsville. The concept of an interest-free loan does not stand up to any kind of smell test at all. To borrow money is never free unless someone else agrees to eat the cost of not charging interest.

Get Green, Go Broke

Posted by Eric – April 7, 2010

straw hut

Stimulus-funded Vegetative Dwelling

A few years ago I got on the CFL bandwagon believing they were a good idea. Today, the house has been fully installed with CFL bulbs. They suck big time. CFL bulbs are not any brighter than incandescent bulbs. I don’t believe they burn long enough to be a cost saver. That’s the general problem with everything that is labeled as “Green” and so called alternative energy.

At the state level I wish it were only faulty CFLs that Gov. Beshear was granting money for. Governor Beshear’s plan is to spend $500,000 on some incredibly expensive ‘improvements’ to an abandoned building. The money is meant to convert a larger building into a new firestation for Russellville. A new firestation would be a wonderful thing except for the unnecessary embellishments.

The new station will be fitted with the latest sustainable materials and technologies mandated by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design U.S. Green Building Council standards, including a vegetative roof, wind turbine, solar panels and recycled roof rainwater.

The vegetative roof, wind turbine, and solar panels are all superficial additions. I don’t believe for a second that these changes will ever pay for themselves. Ultimately, Kentucky doesn’t have the money to pay for this because Beshear is borrowing it from Federal stimulus funds. The Federal government doesn’t have the money because the Treasury was emptied of all value many months ago. The actual source of the half-million dollars to build this new firestation will be either borrowing from foreign creditors or simple printing of worthless paper.

The United Socialist States of America

Posted by Eric – March 19, 2010

Obama Obey

Kneel before the One

Obamacare is not about providing better health care to anyone. It will be the vehicle through which the government gains control of everything including your own living body. Living under Obamacare will mean a bureaucrat decides whether your children will be born. A bureaucrat will decide what medical treatments you will receive. A bureaucrat will decide when you die.

A patient under Obamacare will no longer be a freeborn citizen but they will be serfs subject to the will of the State.

If you think this is alarmist rhetoric and overblown you haven’t been paying attention to the actions of this Democratic congress, the Federal Reserve, and Obama’s many Czars.

Will KY Leadership Lead?

Posted by Eric – November 18, 2009

Kentucky has borrowed nearly $474 million from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits this year and the total will likely reach $1 billion before the state’s economy improves.

A Billion dollars is a lot of money for the average Kentuckian. It all becomes play money in the halls of Frankfort, though.

Union leaders want the task force to recommend increasing the unemployment tax for employers. Business leaders prefer a wait-and-see approach on any tax increase and perhaps a reduction in benefits.

With a Democratic governor, I couldn’t guess who is going to win this struggle.

Currently, the state pays out 79 weeks of benefits, although Beshear announced Tuesday the state is working to quickly implement a new federal law that allows 20 additional weeks of payments to those who have already exhausted their benefits. In addition, Beshear recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to temporarily increase the weekly payout by $25.

Sigh… Why do I bother depositing my check at all? The Democrats might lose the next election cycle but does that mean anyone learned why we have the problems we do?

Unfortunately, I think Kentucky is headed toward higher taxes and a very poor job environment. Both of which advance President Obama’s goals of putting more people on welfare. I would say Kentucky needs to learn from California’s experience and not go down that road but those Democrats know exactly what they are doing. The whole country is being methodically bankrupted by our own leaders for a very specific purpose.

It’s so bad in California that even the State Treasurer has come out and spoken the obvious.

Kentucky voters need to listen up. Your elected leaders aren’t stupid they do what they do deliberately.

Gag me with a Hate Crime

Posted by Eric – October 30, 2009

My favorite left of center blogger from Lexington celebrated the addition of new protected groups under Federal hate crime law. It’s funny because after almost a year in office this is President Obama’s most successful legislation signed to date. Obamacare has been trapped within a Congressional stalemate between the hard-left and slightly less radical Democrats. Obama being completely ineffective in providing any leadership whatsoever the only green twig he can find to say that he accomplished something is this laughable enlargement of hate crime constituencies. Even so, Obama is still quite capable of making permanent and unconstitutional changes even with his obvious leadership handicap.

Supporters of expanded hate crime laws always bring out the most grotesque examples of murder and mayhem. To make the false argument that such crime can only be punished under these laws. The truth is that standard laws already exist for every variation of mental, emotional, and physical abuse possible.

Appropriately, it is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay young man tortured and killed eleven years ago this month, as well as James Byrd, Jr., the black man who in that same year was dragged alive behind a truck in Jasper, Texas by three white men, until his limbs and head were severed.

Yes! Yes! Yes! The deaths of these two men were horrific. I would support the death penalty for everyone who was involved. The death penalty is not used often enough period! Why is my life less important than a disabled man if both of us were murdered in the same manner? All U.S. citizens enjoy the equal protection of the law yet how can this be when it is made explicit that some men are more equal than others?

Standard crimes of theft, terrorist threatening, or murder are all based on the provable actions of someone to commit said crimes. Hate crimes are different in that it does not require any action to commit a hate crime. Hate speech laws are used mostly to silence the opposition when they speak the truth. Actual crimes of libel, slander, and defamation  already cover the valid reasons for stopping the speech of another person.

Harassment, as vaguely defined in the directive, allows an individual to accuse someone of discrimination merely for expressing something the individual allegedly perceives as creating an “offensive environment.” The definition is so broad that anyone who feels intimidated or offended can easily bring legal action against those whom he feels are responsible. Moreover, the directive shifts the burden of proof onto the accused, who has to prove the negative, i.e. demonstrate that he or she did not create an environment which intimidated or offended the complainant. If the accused fails to do so, he or she can be sentenced to paying an unlimited amount of compensation for “harassment.”

This comes from the European Union. Hate speech laws have no purpose other than to club the opposition into submission.

Climate Failure

Posted by Eric – October 15, 2009

Mullins, a retired state employee, was one of seven landowners who shared $65,000 in what is believed to be the first sale of carbon credits for trees in Kentucky. That means they were paid for allowing their trees to do what comes naturally: Absorb carbon dioxide. [...]

Here we have the other half of the carbon trading marketplace. The Blue Heron buys carbon credits to sooth their guilty conscience. Then that money is paid out to men like Rodney Mullins who are laughing all the way to the bank. For those who live on this planet men are paid for their time and labor but in BizarroWorld men are paid for the work they are NOT doing. When the coal plant burns fuel to produce electricity the trees will absorb it for as long as they remain alive. This mechanism has worked for a very long time without need for a government subsidy. The Blue Heron should ask why are they paying to finance another man’s lifestyle of NOT doing something.

MACED had been planning to sell credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange. But carbon credits are trading very low there now as that emerging market waits to see what Congress will do about climate legislation.

Proponents say that if that legislation includes a cap-and-trade plan, it will bolster a market in which companies that put carbon into the atmosphere pay landowners for allowing their trees to absorb carbon.

Translation: The carbon credit market can’t sustain itself unless it is made mandatory by government fiat. Again I ask how does taxing carbon producers and subsidizing landowners improve the carbon absorption on the landowners’ property.

No Indoctrination Here

Posted by Eric – September 26, 2009

I am absolutely appalled at the statements and attitudes being taken by elected and school officials.
This is nothing but BLATANT RACISM at its best. To even suggest that OUR DULY-ELECTED PRESIDENT
is attempting to “indoctrinate” our children into “socialism” is utter nonsense.

The Obama administration did a classic bait and switch leading up to the President’s national speech to school children. The documents leaked were lesson plans meant to be used before and after the President’s speech. After taking careful notes on the most controversial areas, the final draft of the speech was written to avoid those problems. Among the most controversial was a paragraph requiring students to write an essay about how to help the President.

This time, similar language is included in a Census fact sheet meant to be distributed in schools. First of all, there is a problem with the children being involved at all because the general fact sheet states clearly that the Census is to be filled out by the person named on the mortgage or rental lease.

Q. Who should fill out the census questionnaire?
A. The individual in whose name the housing unit is owned
or rented should complete the questionnaire on behalf of every person living in the residence, including relatives and non-relatives.

Despite this, schools are expected to spend a week of classroom time on the Census.

Opportunities to discuss and practice civic responsibility through five 15-minute lessons, available online, during a Census in Schools Week celebration.

Students are also expected to memorize the content of the Census form.

Lessons are designed to:
Familiarize students with the census questionnaire.

After being fully educated regarding matters that don’t concern them. Students are supposed to go home and talk up the Census with their parents.

Provide students with family take-home pages to promote participation in the 2010 Census and initiate a family dialogue about the benefits of being counted.

What do you think? Come January I think the same parents that questioned why the President wanted to speak directly with their kids should also question why the Federal Govt’ is in the schools.