This is just stupid

Ok, the election is over. Plenty of people were unhappy with the results. Of course, it appears that no one voted for McCain because nearly every blogger I read sounds like they didn't. Must be the quietest 48% ever heard.

Anyway, it is time to move on.

I was really disturbed to read that in Warren NJ, some idiot tore down a home made Obama sign and burned it apparently in the shape of a cross. WTH is wrong with someone to do something like that? I can understand the anger associated with this election, but there still is no excuse for such behavior under any circumstances. It just reinforces the negative stereotypes that have been put forth in recent weeks.

We, as Americans, are better than this. We need to work together.

I found this classic post card online. It harkens back to a simpler time.




www.humorbloggers.com

Time for Some Politics

I try to remain apolitical. Sure, I do rant from time to time about issues, but as far as choices, I don't push an agenda for a few reasons.

I've been involved in politics for many years, and I have learned that most folks have their minds made up long before any issues are even discussed.

Yesterday, on the heels of the Democratic National Convention, Republican candidate John McCain announced his running mate, Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska. Naturally, the blogosphere is exploding with opinions of this choice.

I enjoy reading opinions, even if I don't agree with them.

But damn, nothing drives me more crazy than really stupid opinions.

I know opinions are like .

Everyone has one, and most of them stink.

Anyway, the discussion was about the choice by McCain. And here's the way it went. I swear I'm not making this up.

Them: "I disagree with the choice."

Me: "Why."

Them: "I don't know who she is."

Me: "She is very popular in her state."

Them: "She can't be that popular because I never heard of her."

OK, quickly. How many state governors can you name?

That's right, all but the most politically astute can name maybe 2 or 3 state governors. Yet, her not being well known means what? The middle of a donut.

Then, here's where it gets good, women started indicating she can't be pro family values and hold a job.

How friggin' 1950's.

My mother raised 2 kids while running a business with my father. (how well we turned out is still up for debate, though my sister and I have both managed to stay felony free, have college degrees, and raised families of our own. I'd say mission accomplished.)

My sister is raising a kid while working full-time. Hell, most women with families that I know work full time. That family values argument is so much BS.

Lastly, one woman (I swear these are women living in 2008) was concerned about Ms. Palin's child who has Down's. Talk about intrusive.

Have women become such lemmings that they don't think they are capable of deciding what is best for one's own family? Can't they recognize a strong woman? Can't they have faith in a person to know what is best?

I'm not a huge McCain fan, and I really dislike Obama. But damn, I think I don't think I ever admired a public person more than:

Hubba Hubba

If she plays her cards right, she could become the official crush of this blog, replacing Martha Stewart.


They Vote Early and Vote Often at

http://www.humorbloggers.com/

Super Deluxe Jam Packed Sunday Edition

This is the New York Times of blogs today. Get yourself a cup of coffee, make sure you’re in a comfortable chair, pack a light snack, and get ready to read.

I provided links, pictures, and everything. And the links, by the way, go right back to noted historian, bon vivant, and all around nice guy, me. So you know they are trustworthy, and more or less honest.

Today, I need to ranttalk about a very serious subject, economics. I promise to not be as boring as your high school teacher or college professor.

The reason I need to explain economics is our economy is going into the dumper, because the overwhelming majority of people have their eyes glaze over when the subject comes up.
First, you have been lied to by every person who ever explained economics to you. Except me, because I don’t lie. Ok, maybe that one time, but I swear I won’t do it again unless it suits my needs.

This entire economic epiphany hit me last year, around November, when my toaster broke. That small event turned into ToasterQuest 2007.

I love my toaster

You can relive the drama here:
http://crotchety-old-man-yells-at-cars.blogspot.com/2007/10/one-mans-quest.html

But this isn’t about toast, which is one of my favorite subjects. It’s about economics, which is one of my hobbies. Ok, I do have geek tendencies.

A few years ago, some big economics lying sack of crap expert announced that we were moving towards a service economy, and that this was a good thing.
Everyone rejoiced, imagining that they would remain a small cog in the giant economic machine, but now would be a cog with clean hands and a tie. Maybe even an ascot for the more nattily attired. Yes, life would be grand.

But the economic theory reminded me of the South Park Underpants Gnomes. Their economic plan was as logical as turning us into a service economy.



Here’s the problem: as we send production jobs overseas, we now have more of our neighbors seeking work in the service economy. Rather than have X factory workers, and Y service workers, we now have X+Y seeking service positions. Just spend 5 minutes studying economics and it is obvious that supply and demand controls price. Which means, simply put, more workers than jobs means lower wages for each of them. Sure, that means lower prices, but if one doesn’t have the ability to earn a wage, how can one buy all the cheaper crap available? And, thanks to technology, even service jobs are being sent overseas.

For those algebraically inclined, the formula would be X+Y-Z=


We ship raw goods overseas, and they come back as finished products. Doesn’t sound like a big deal until one understands that we get a dollar, and send back 5. This will eventually cause cataclysmic economic problems.
Economics is much simpler than it seems. Truly. Spend a little time and think it through and study it before voting in November. Listen to the candidates, especially the local ones. Test them. Make sure they know your concerns, and when they give you poop for answers, call them on it. Hey, if they say anything to you, mull it over.

The average politician will try to convince everyone he’s


When he’s really


Disclaimer: No slimeball politicians were injured in the making of this post. Sorry.

Vote for Me for President

I am so disgusted with the candidates that the only option I have is to run myself. I am hoping for a massive write-in vote obviously, as I have no campaign organization except for the Crotchety Old Lady and the Crotchety Kid. To be honest, I'm not even sure I have their votes. I also have no money to pay a staff. So, I am relying on both of my regular readers to help spread the word. If each of you can get me just 2 votes, and each of those 2 get me just 2 votes, and so on, I'll have billions and billions of voters in under a month. Do the math, my calculator exploded at the 24 day mark.

I've been working on my platform. I will address the issues people really care about.

Ok, I only have one campaign promise, but I think it will solve nearly every problem we face as Americans today.

No left hand turns.

Left turns are the bane of American drivers. Just last night, I was out driving a very short distance, and had at least 3 near impact incidents with drivers making left hand turns. Such incidents are the cause of road rage, and that rage turns into stress, which everyone knows causes illness such as high blood pressure, which leads to heart attacks and every other illness known to man such as colds and flu.
All because of left hand turns. So I have helped solve the health care crisis.

And, of course, who hasn't been stuck for seemingly hours behind a driver trying to make a left hand turn? Our gas shortage and the resulting high prices, has been caused by Hummers making left hand turns.
No more gas crunch.

With no left turns, no need for a left turn bulb in your car, reducing waste that is filling up our landfills.
Garbage problem solved.

And lastly, it will eliminate that old guy driving down the interstate for 50 miles with his left turn signal on, reducing light pollution.

Vote for me,and I promise:

Is the media biased?

I just read the AP story of Hillary Clinton's win in West Virginia, and it raised a very interesting point. Here's the quote:

Nearly a quarter of the voters in West Virginia's primary were 60 or older, and a similar share had no education beyond high school, exit polls indicated. More than half were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the former first lady was winning nearly 70 percent of their votes.

Now, here's where I have the problem and accuse the media of bias--Mrs. Clinton won with 67% of the vote state-wide. Although I've taught Math, so I'm slightly better at it than most people, but wouldn't almost everyone recognize and agree that 67% is nearly 70%? So, why is the AP writer trying to make it look as if a huge block of the Clinton supporters in West Virginia are old, poor, uneducated (aka dumb) racists? This is starting to annoy me. No one questions why blacks voted 19-1 in favor of Obama, yet it's fine to besmirch Clinton's supporters? I don't understand this at all.

By the way, before anyone accuse me of any kind of agenda, I'm only questioning this from a purely academic standpoint. I wonder why we don't get follow up questions. If the writer truly believed this (the suggestion of voting along racial lines) was significant, why leave it open to speculation? Ask the people at the exit poll why they voted as they did. It could have been done quickly and anonymously. To be perfectly honest, I would be upset if they voted against Mr. Obama because of his color. This is 2008, even in West Virginia.

The more I read about our political process, the more convinced I am that we need some sort of criteria to cast a vote. Perhaps one needs to recite at leat 2 potential policy differences between the candidates before they get in the booth. Hell, I'd take it if a voter could recite one significant policy difference.

Talking about clueless voters, in NJ we voted in a governor a few years ago, and many of those voting for him did so because "he's not a political insider." Of course, the guy who was "new" to the political scene was a former State Assemblyman and then State Senator, and a career politician. Never overestimate the intelligence of the American voting public.

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.

Sock it to me?

That was the phrase that won the Presidential election of 1968.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ItU6tkdF2A

Richard Nixon appeared on one of the top sketch comedy shows of the day (one of the greatest of all-time, really.) Laugh-in had the effect of humanizing him, and made him into an electable candidate. He went from a punchline of many jokes to almost lovable. This was the first time such a tactic was used.

Today, appearing on TV programs is a staple part of the campaign. A week or so ago, John McCain appeared on WWE Wrestling (you can't make this up.) Hosting, or at least being a part of a comedy or funny talk show is almost routine for presidential candidates. Obama has been on Letterman to do a Top Ten List, and last night it was Hillary's turn.

In case you missed it, here is her list:

10. "We have more Dakotas than every other country combined."

9. "Canadian bacon: soggy and chewy; American bacon: crisp and delicious!"

8. "Thanks to the internet, I can order new pantsuits 24/7. There's your pantsuit joke, Dave. Are you happy now?"

7. "232 years and not one cookie shortage."

6. "TiVo."

5. "Did I mention the soup? Mmm, soup."

4. "Did you know former President Teddy Roosevelt was an American?"

3. "Where else can you get a car painted for $29.95?"

2. "Is this the part where I say, 'Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!'?"

1. "Apparently anyone can get a talk show."


Apparently, making a fool of oneself is the way to win the hearts of Americans.

I wonder if either party is thinking about Carrot Top for 2012?