Tying up some loose ends

I woke up this morning at 3 a.m. again. But this time I decided not to run with it. I did have an idea for the greatest blog entry ever. It would have won the Pulitzer, Peabody, Emmy, Tony, or whatever award goes to the best blog entry ever. But I chose to go back to bed, and when I git up around 7, I realized I had forgotten. I spent the next 2 hours thinking and hoping, but still--nothing. So, I was going to go with a Larry King-esque series of nonsequiters, but that was even worse than just not blogging at all.

So I have done the next best thing; just a few random observations. Things not worthy of an entire blog entry, but they are annoying me anyway.

As I listened to the radio, it was announced that one of the Freeloaders Freeholders had been given some county administration position. His pledge was to make the department more efficient. This tagline by every politician has become rather hackneyed. It's along the lines of "I'm Myron Ketchup, and I approve of this message" that follows every political commercial, or at least the ones from Myron for Mayor. I would think that after 20 years of eliminating the waste in government, we'd have none left. Could all those polticos have lied?

Say it ain't so, Joe.

I also heard them talk about the economic impact on us of the earthquake in China. In no way am I saying anything against those hurt or killed, for I am greiving for any pain they are now enduring. I'm talking just about the economic impact on us, only. It's time we do something about our dependence on Chinese goods. After all the contaminated food products, and the dangerous toys



it's time to make some changes.

And it's easy enough to do, really. Our government needs to support American manufacturing. Support, rather than handouts. I know a guy who used to be a health inspector. His goal was to protect the consumer, and to help the business he was inspecting. For example, one store used raw wood storage racks in their back room. He failed them for this. The store owner was very upset as he envisioned the cost for all new shelving. My buddy explained to him that to be in compliance, all that was needed was for the wood to be painted. Support. It cost the store owner almost nothing, made the consumer safer, and became win-win. I'm positive many such situations exist in the manufacturing sector. We have safety and other rules that are obtrusive, and border on ridiculous. We don't need business to run roughshod over the environment, nor do we need workers at risk, but we do need sensible solutions. I've heard that one of the biggest costs facing US manufacturing is in environmental compliance. Perhaps this is where government financial aid could be used? I find it abhorrent that we are destroying the environment in other countries so we can get cheaper goods.

Lastly, it's nice to see Britney Spears seems to be getting her life back on track. For the sake of her, and her kids, I hope she keeps it together.