Random Friday Bombast

Here are some random thoughts for Friday:

A friend of mine sent me an article on a man in Alaska who made an ice sculpture of Al Gore in an effort to have the maven of global warming come to Alaska to explain his thoughts on global warming. I got a real kick out of the entire concept! But it made me think that someone should make an iron sculpture of the man sculpting an ice sculpture of Al Gore. Then I went on to think that maybe a statue, or idol in this case, be made of Barak Obama using cubic zirconium; because many claim he is the real thing but no one can really tell. And I can't think of Obama without thinking of Carter, so I decided that someone should make a statue of Carter using lint from the dryer; because there is little in this world that is more useless. I went on to imagine Bush Jr. made of brass, Bill Clinton made of chalcopyrite, Nancy Pelosi made of, well I can't print that, and even a rubber Harry Reid. Reagan made of steel. Ted Kennedy made of olives from martinis. So on and so forth...sometimes I really amuse myself!

I read that Mark McGwire's brother, Jay McGwire, is writing a book and telling that he personally injected Mark with steroids. No there is not a lot of love lost on Mark McGwire from my standpoint, but is there no honor left in the world? The man's own brother? What a lousy bum this Jay fellow is...and can anyone get a book deal now? And how good can Jay McGwire's book be? Can you imagine an excerpt: "It was a dark and stormy night. Mark came in from a long day of baseball. The lightning flashing was the only light available to guide my shaking hand to pick up the syringe of injustice and slowly jab the needle of shame into my demanding brother's gluteous maximus. Forgive me for my role in this sham, although I have been forced to be an unwilling participant. Why does my brother have such a hold on me? Will I ever regain my innocence?"...Give me a break...

And speaking of bums, how about John Thain, the former Chief Executive Officer of Merrill Lynch? They now have documents showing that he spent $1.22 million to refurbish his office at the dying securities firm. $1.22 million on office furniture ? $87,000 on an area rug when you had to lay of thousands of people? $15,000 on a sofa as your company bleeds to death? $8000,000 to a celebrity designer as you cost many investors to lose portions of their much needed income? $35,000 for a "commode on legs" whatever that is. $11,000 on fabric for a roman shade? This man has the nerve to buy a $1400 trashcan, but does nothing for his struggling company and it's workers? And it would be different if his were his own money and his own home. As difficult as it would be to rationalize, his personal business is his personal business. I still believe that a man in this country can spend his money anyway he chooses; but it should be his money. He could at least been patriotic and had the company money redistributed, or is that just a private issue? Either way, $1.22 million of company money on office decorations while the company dwindles is just wrong...and bring on the bailout now!

Speaking of bailout money makes me think about the new stimulus bill being proposed by president Obama. The initial reports that I read show that the pork is already being added to the bill. Now is the chance for Obama to be a man of his words and stop the pork. Otherwise all of this change and quitting the "business as usual" stuff is just smoke. And the stimulus package looks like long term spending on short term planning to me. As we learned from King Roosevelt, we may pay for "temporary programs" for an eternity. And we will only enable generations to become reliant upon the government and less reliant on American reilience and ingenuity. And the money will run out; and someone will have to pick up the tab. I'm all for creating jobs and infrastructure, but most of the money in this proposed package won't kick in for several years and much of the infrastructure work won't begin for years either. But it will at least look good now. Pass on the mess to the next guy, I did my part. Where is Truman's buck stopping here philosophy?

For my last random complaint, The closing of Guantanomo Bay is a mistake if they don't speed up the trials of the accused first. President Carter, dang! I gotta stop that. I mean President Obama seems to be more concerned with "global opinion" and the concerns of intellects rather than with the concerns of our national security. And I realize that I will catch a lot of flak from that statement, but I stand by it. The people in Gitmo need to be questioned and tried adequately. It needs to be expedient and fair, but it has to be done adequately. Regardless of global opinion, whatever that is. I know that one of the major knocks on W. was that he had little concern for global opinion. And why this is a complaint, I do not know. But when the "global opinion" has their country bombed and their people killed by evil cowards, then we should be concerned about what they think; whoever "they" is. And how quick we forget how we felt on 9-12. Bush was a hero for not taking crap. W. showed the strength of a leader in the face of a disastrous ordeal. We all talked about prayer. 90something percent of Americans and even a higher percent of congress people and senators agreed that U.S.A. should strike back. Almost every man woman and child had little care for "global opinion" and more concern for Americans. Now you would be hard pressed to find three individuals who stand by their former words or their former stance on the war against terror. Global Opinion sure has a lot of peer pressure for a non-existent entity. I just hope that as Obama emulates past leaders, that he will remember that tough decisions aren't always popular or good for your ego. And if we want to remain The United States of America that we need to make decisions that are best for us, not "global opinion". Otherwise we can go ahead and be the United States of Global Opinion. I guess we would at least be popular.

And that is it for today. I hope everyone has a great weekend!