Friday, December 21, 2012

Do Not Blame Caesar


Do Not Blame Caesar
Kevin Bryant 

"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious." --Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) (Quote & picture copied from the Patriot Post) 

There are mornings I wake up and after a cup of coffee and get caught up on the previous nights news shows, I ask myself; “Are We Really That Stupid”. Unfortunately the answer is usually a resounding “yes”.  

As was Rome a few thousand years ago, America today is caught between a struggle of desiring freedom or security. Many Americans believe you can have both and there are politicians who are supported by 1000’s already who stand ready to convince you that all you have to do is trust in them and believe that with your support, you can have freedom and security and the government will provide you all you desire.  

Right before the collapse of Rome, the senate was a useless body. It was a mere rubber stamp to Caesar for not only had the people believed and put their faith in government, government had conceded their power to Caesar. I don’t know if they did it out of fear, out of gratitude, coercion or bribery. Perhaps it was all the above. Or perhaps it rose from their stupidity. Stupidity manifested from years of greed and grandeur. Always wanting more more more.  

Rome was doomed long before it finally collapsed. A society believing that government not only could provide for them but should provide for them. Politicians robbing from the treasury to give to those who believe the lies of government provided freedom and security. It really became the first true welfare state.  

Look at America today. We have politicians promising more from the treasury just to buy votes. We have a President who is demanding the House of Representatives relinquish the authority to borrow money and grant Obama full authorization and total control.  

Hitler in the 1930’s was able to grab total control away from a democracy in roughly 5 years. Obama controls the EPA and dept of HHS. He has Dodd Frank and Obamacare to regulate and control most anything regarding money and every little facet of what makes up healthcare and human behavior. He believes he is entitled to get everything he wants. He has a senate that will do his bidding. He wants more people to be beholden to the government for their livelihood.  

The actions taken by Obama and the democrats over the past 4 years has enabled to get closer and closer to his quest to become like Caesar. Their actions have lead part way to allow Obama to become a 3rd term president. If not, then the stage is set for Hillary of whoever decides to run for the presidency on the left to circumvent congress at will and pass any law they with just by declaration.  

America is being ripped apart slowly by China, Russia, and the U.N. But mostly, this country is being ripped apart by those in Washington D.C.  

Republics work the way they are designed when those in the positions of power embrace all the people they represent and do what they know is right in their heads and especially in their hearts. Too many of today’s politicians are forced to live up to the expectations of their major campaign contributors first, and then they must remain attractive to their party base. There is no one in the congressional leadership in either party or either body of congress willing to put God first in their decision making, They are unwilling to put the freedoms and liberties that were put in the constitution as placed by our founding fathers in the forefront of their decision making.  

Sadly yet most important, it’s a power grab by the left and the way the rules are written, they will slowly but steadily get to the end game, absolute power. We are destined to destroy ourselves because it seems as though 80% of Americans don’t have clue what the 20% of the history of the world is between 1900 to the present, and 70% could not tell you what Bunker Hill is famous for much less what hill should be famous in place of Bunker Hill.  

We by our own hands we have condemned this country to repeat the mistakes of Egypt and Rome and Italy and Germany and Russia and Greece and Spain and so many more. Who can blame the left for the tragedies we will face as a nation in the coming years but ourselves. We elected those who seek more power. We elected a president knowing full well he is a devout socialist/fascist with Muslim traits and a Muslim background.  

We have the left the power just like those other countries before us. “Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s”.  Little by little we continue to give that which the government believes should be the governments. As a country we made a serious mistake in 2008. In 2012 we all but put the final few nails into America’s coffin. I firmly believe if we do not do the right thing as a nation in 2016, we have fully and completely condemned and forced America down the very road that Rome was destroyed on.

 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

More Laws Won’t Stop the Needless Deaths


More Laws Won’t Stop the Needless Deaths
Al Ritter 

One has to use logic to access the recent violence that ended in death at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Yes guns were the vehicle that caused the death of those innocent lives. The 2 questions that beg for logical answers are, “were the guns the sole reason of the deaths?” and, “Do we have enough laws on the books already?” 

Of course they weren’t, guns are inanimate objects, they don’t hold anger, they don’t hold grudges, they don’t care who their operators are. The operator holds the answers and ingredients for the ability to create destruction. The second answer is….of course we have enough laws, the recent shooter violated over 40! 

With all this being said, America seems to be besieged by these social freaks of nature lately, and one has to ask why. We always have had, and will continue to have mentally deficient people in our society, but maybe the treatment of those people should begin to change. We have become a godless society that desensitizes its youth to violence. Through movies and video games, or everyday news shows, we have allowed extreme violence to become part of their everyday life. 

Children who possess the character flaws that manifest themselves as anger, find solace in such games that act out the very their wildest fantasies of death and destruction. They have a hard time separating reality and fiction. The directors of such mayhem constantly strive to sell more movies, sell more video games, or sell a larger TV share through increased violence. 

Our Liberal society wants to hold legal gun holders accountable for the actions of a tiny part of our dysfunctional society. Cars aren’t being taken away from every legal driver in good standing because of the actions of a few drunk drivers, even though those accidents account for more deaths on a daily basis than guns do.  

The words Sunday night by our President, “We can’t tolerate this anymore”, are so thinly veiled, that no American can deny that his intentions are aimed at making American citizens defenseless against the government. His exact path to “the means to an end” hasn’t been shown yet, but the writing is on the wall. 

He can disarm America one of two ways, he can sign on to the UN treaty and then later use them as a “patsy” to place blame at a later time, or he can try to repeal the second amendment through legislative means. Both paths will require him to obtain a 2/3 majority vote. It is my personal feeling that given his past history of setting up sacrificial lambs to take the fall in his place, Obama will try the UN treaty method. He will view this as the path of least resistance. 

But herein the problem lies…….using such a ploy; he will remove America’s Sovereignty and give control to the UN to operate freely in our country to conduct unwarranted searches. 

It seems to me that ratification of the UN Small Arms Treaty opens more of a bag of worms than a repeal of the Second Amendment. The really scary part is that a Treaty Ratification will open our country by precedence to the dreaded New World Order that conspiracy theorists hold so dear to their hearts. 

Either way Obama choses to do this it most certainly will “fundamentally transform America.” Not in a good way, but in a way that America can never return from. “An armed militia” has ALWAYS meant THE PEOPLE and not the military. The second amendment was written to protect the people from the government. If we give up this right “peacefully” there will be no turning back, there will be no future for the people of America…………the “transformation” will be complete…….destroyed by the worst president in America’s history.

 

 

Monday, December 17, 2012

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World


It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Ron Boat
If you're over 45 and you read the title you're probably thinking of Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters and one of the best collections of comedic talent ever assembled to hunt for money under a big "W".
But unfortunately our attention these days is not of things funny and relaxing, but of things that disturb us, things unimaginable, things that fill our lives with fear, disappointment and even disbelief.
It was just timing that I started this the beginning of the week and then the tragedy in Connecticut occurred taking the lives of 20 young innocents who now live in heaven, never to see a graduation, enjoy their first car, or revel in the excitement of a first date or wedding. And adults who cared enough to educate these victims so young in years, they too are lost to the world for no good reason. A tragedy caused by a young man gone mad and who of us can even begin to understand. Schoolyards should not be filled with uniformed guns responding to such madness as this.
It was a week ago that another young madman decided to enter a mall in Oregon filled with all the wonderment of Christmas only to bring havoc and death to many whose only thought that day was of presents and Santa Claus and the celebration of the holidays. A maddening experience that shouldn't have been.
The history books of America are quickly filling with tragedies for which there are no real answers. The theater shootings during a movie opening in Aurora, Colorado: The rampant violence on the campuses of Virginia Tech and Columbine: The great loss of so many patriotic Americans at Ft. Hood; The shootings at the Sikh temple. And add to these the growth of deliberate daily violence that seems so stylish among the disturbed masses unashamedly taking lives and causing pain around every street corner and opportunity in America.
It’s unfortunate but it’s not just the violence so pervasively invading us but the lack of common sense that adds such madness to our daily lives we can hardly stand it – and certainly can’t explain it.  It’s as though the government has gone so completely mad with its self-instilled power it can’t stand its new found control.
It was bad enough when the government starts to tell people how to eat taking salt off the tables of restaurants and banning soft drinks larger than 16 ozs. (like you couldn’t buy two 12 oz if you wanted?) But during the recent storms in the northeast, they denied shipments of food to the hungry homeless because of their inability to verify fat and fiber content. Much needed power wasn’t restored to those freezing in the cold New Jersey nights after the storm because electrical workers, having traveled days to help their fellow man, were turned back…because they weren’t union workers.
When your family has mounting debts and declining income, you generally slow or stop spending on things unneeded, but our government? No way. We take in about $2.3 Trillion a year in revenue and yet we continue to borrow money so we can spend about $3.5 Trillion. (Just spending or subversion?)
Much of it on programs like: $100,000 for the DOE to develop an app for smart devices so customers can track and reduce their energy usage. Nice? Sure, but...there’s already 5 apps that do that. (Don’t forget the app to alert you when to take a coffee break – a sure winner for gov’t employees). Pepsi’s $66 Billion in revenue and $4.2 Billion cash on its balance sheet wasn’t enough to build a new yogurt plant in NY without taking $1.3 Million from the taxpayers for a new water system. Mad yet?
UC Davis spent a portion of a $325,000 National Science Foundation grant to construct a robot squirrel to answer the question of why rattlesnakes rarely attack squirrels that wag their tails and a research team in North Carolina used $1.2 Million from a NS Foundation grant to study 39 individuals, aged 60 to 77, to see how their cognitive function responded after playing Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.
Madness? Probably, but even NASA spent nearly $1 million on developing a “Mars menu” in order to stave off food monotony (10 kids from high school could answer that one in a day). Michigan State Police, apportioned $10,000 in federal funds to purchase 400 talking urinal cakes from a Maryland-based company called Wizmark. When activated by a motion sensor, they would encourage users at local bars to consider getting a cab if intoxicated and, of course, remind them to wash their hands! (Have you seen that at your local Applebee’s or steak house yet?) I wonder what women have?
But hey… it’s only money and the government has gone mad spending it like they had it – which they do, if they borrow it. Question is - are you mad yet? It’s your $1,000,000,000 that the Missile Defense Agency spent building interceptor missiles…without first testing them. And Amtrak and the Post Office? They lose money on every meal served and letter delivered.
Besides the insane programs that people in government dream up and spend on, it’s the departments themselves. We talk all the time of eliminating waste but, the Dept of Energy created under Carter has done nothing – NOTHING – to decrease foreign imports and develop local resources. It doesn’t create watt of energy yet continues to employ 116,000 with a budget of nearly $30 BILLION and remember…The Budget Director for Dept of Energy just has no clue how many vehicles they own.
There's a curious line in the summary of President Obama's proposed fiscal 2012 Department of Education budget. "Now more than ever," it reads, "we cannot waste taxpayer dollars on programs that do not work." It's curious because no federal education programs appear to work, yet this administration is proposing to increase DOE spending to $77 billion.
A department that continues to spend more and more money while test scores decline, teachers are paid more for doing less (remember the Chicago teacher’s strike?) and decisions are made like promoting more and more unprepared people to go college to get degrees, yet only 56% of students in 4 year programs complete them in 6. Give the responsibility to the states and save a ton-o-bucks.

The folly encircling us isn’t limited to the U.S. In France a t
eacher asks students to compose their own suicide notes, and in London, two Muslims, who laughed as they repeatedly raped a 24-year-old woman, had their sentences slashed after politically correct judges ruled that the men were not “dangerous.” And down the street, the BBC dropped the use of Before Christ (BC) and Anno Domini (AD) on their programs, deciding that the terms 'Before Common Era' / 'Common Era' are more appropriate.
We’ve seen a continuing assault on Christianity especially at the holidays where one complaint from an atheist can stop a Charlie Brown Christmas play, or send the long established community nativity scenes back to the storeroom, but a school in Seattle wins the prize by renaming its Easter eggs “spring spheres” to avoid causing offence to people who did not celebrate Easter. 
Santa Clauses in Sydney, Australia, were banned from saying 'Ho Ho Ho'. Their employer, a company that supplies hundreds of Santas across Australia, told trainees that 'ho ho ho' could frighten children, and be derogatory to women. And of course we all know that we now buy holiday trees instead of Christmas trees, and Happy Holidays is the more appropriate “greeting du jour”
Whether an assault on your religion, freedoms, money, or even your life, there’s a mad attempt to take control of your way of life, your possessions and your thinking. You can say that politicians have gone mad but they’ve probably been that way their whole lives – it’s just that now they’re in charge of yours.
Do you sleep better knowing that $700,000 was spent to find that "dairy cows emit most of their methane through belching, not flatulence? And with the recent elections, it’s good to know The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study "ambiguous" statements by politicians, to find if candidates, "gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions." And that “fish could show the nation how to overcome political polarization and promote democracy.”

And if you’re in that “soon-to-be-broke” state of California, you can rest well knowing your long gone grandparents are benefiting from the $11 million being distributed to providers of care or patients– that were deceased. 
If you’re not mad you should be. We’re slowing revolving down the financial toilet toward an accumulative sewer of waste and corruption, political payback, and more pork than would dismay all the world’s Muslims. Rights are being questioned, the Constitution marginalized, and watch now for a new round of anti-gun talks, rhetoric and pressed legislations.

It’s incumbent on all of us to watch out for ourselves, be aware of our surroundings, things and people around us and protect ourselves, our families and friends from situations… and even the government. I would normally add here to protect our country but even that is less than possible. The popular rephrasing of Maj. General Leonard Wood’s comment says that the purpose our own military is to kill people and break things – something that must happen to win a war, which should be the real purpose of our great military. However it’s not happening for in their politically correct madness, our leaders have established such restrictive ROE (Rules of Engagement) that to do so invites the wrath of a court martial. Even to the extent of disallowing bad “speech” against the enemy lest we evoke a hated of America. Shame shame.
This is my chance to step away from being mad for a bit, say Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or if you insist, Happy Holidays to everyone who loves America and the country we all cherish. We do indeed live in “interesting times” and I can only hope that the madness we’ve seen over the last few years disappears into a atmosphere of reason, understanding, trust and caring for each other. But somehow I doubt it, and we’ll have to keep fighting for the rights and freedoms afforded us by our now “politically incorrect” forefathers and founders. But, more on that next year.
Make it a fun, fun, fun, fun world for yourselves. Be safe and God bless America.

 

Monday, December 10, 2012

Old Lies – New Lies


Old Lies – New Lies
Kevin Bryant

"It is a matter of record that in the German Election of 1933, the Communist Party was ordered by its leaders to vote for the Nazis -- with the explanation that they could later fight the Nazis for power, but first they had to help destroy their common enemy: capitalism and its parliamentary form of government." --author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) (Copied from The Patriot Post) 

There was a book written in the 1970’s titled “New Lies Of Old”. This book was written by the former #3 guy in the KGB. The book is officially considered a work of fiction because it was a forecasted blue print of a plan to be executed by the KGB and the old Soviet Empire. The book describes how the Soviet Union would tear itself apart and put itself back together to be even stronger than before and how they were going to influence and use the United States to accomplish their goals. To date, many who actually continue to study the old Soviet Union and Russia claim just over 70% of this book has come true, it has just taken a longer time to accomplish their goals than what was predicted.  

In the past 100+ years, there has not been a single nation that has experienced a revolution, a revolt or a major political shift where the middle class has outnumbered the lower class of a capitalistic type country.  

Communism and Fascism are still alive here in America. If you look between the years 1945 - 1960, these two factions had small but steady growth in membership and influencing ideology here in the United States. Both basically came out of the woodwork so to speak in the middle and later 60’s and early 70’s. It was also around that time their influence in America really took hold and it started showing up on college campuses, in worker’s unions, in the “peace” protests and even in the fringes of our federal government. If you closely study the statements made by those self-proclaimed communist of that era, you can hear the same statements today being made by the “progressives” of the Democratic Party.  

I actually give credit to Bernie Sanders, former Representative and now Senator of Vermont. He proudly boasts that he is a member of the Liberty Union Party, an offshoot of the Communist Party of America. Yet those others who call themselves “progressives” within the Democrat Party reject the notion they are anything like the communist and fascist parties of the 60’s and 70’s yet they talk the same talk and with witnessed in their voting records, they walk the same walk. Those include but are not limited to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, James Clyburn, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Claire McCaskill, Mark Pryor, Barbara Boxer, Maria Cantwell, Al Franken, Tom Harkin, Jesse Jackson Jr, Sheila Jackson Lee, John Kerry ……… That is only some “progressives” that claim to be patriotic to America and believe in the vision of our Founding Fathers but vote to tear that vision apart. 

Democrats aren’t the only ones who embellish some fascist and communistic ideas. We always have the ever present RINO’s John McCain, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell and others who believe in big government, at least according to the way they vote, yet wrap themselves up in the flag so to speak to impress everyone who believes in liberty and freedoms.  

The Republicans listed above look, speak and vote like the 60’s and 70’s democrats. The democrats listed above sound and vote like they were listening to early speeches of Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin when they would whip up and captivate their audience with visions of grandeur for the country and the people, all the while wanting nothing more than centralized control of everything and everyone.   

Today it is easy to buy a vote in congress. The old rule, he who has the most gold makes the rules is hard at work in congress and the white house today. BILLIONS of dollars back the lobbyist in congress, the union leaders who frequent the white house and they all contribute heavily to those politicians who vote their way. There are at least 5 lobbyist businesses right now doing work in the capital building which are backed and financed by George Soros, the King of Capitalist Manipulation. The Union Leaders, The Heads of the Communist and Fascist Parties demand their members to support and vote for these bought and paid for politicians.  

The democrats want America not to just fall off the fiscal cliff they want America to crash and burn when it hits the ground. Is this the “emergency” for which Obama wrote all those Executive Orders dictating when Marshall Law can be declared and what agency of the federal government gains control of what in America? Is this the Fundamental Transformation of America Obama promised in 2008?  

It has been a little over 20 years now since I read “New Lies Of Old”. Like I said, it was written by the former #3 man of the KGB who defected to the United States. The former head of the KGB again sits in the presidential chair in Russia and we have a president who declared in his own book his friends and those who influenced him and he admired growing up were socialist and communist. It has been all but confirmed known communist and underground weather terrorist Bill Ayers was more than just a neighbor to the Obama’s. Perhaps I should read it again and possibly see what happens next.

Monday, December 3, 2012

And Now a Word From Our Sponsors - The Lenders

And Now a Word From Our Sponsors - The Lenders
Ron Boat

"Never a borrower nor a lender be." Remember those words? Polonius had it right. But seems like someone in government forgot because over the years they lent money to unstable situations which later defaulted or the US forgave the debt. AND... as we are all more painfully aware, they continue to borrow without any sense of responsibility, restraint or remorse.

Without the ability to create debt, no one would own a house or in some cases even a car. Debt is a part of business allowing it to grow sensibly and responsibly. Governments routinely borrow - even though they probably shouldn't - in order to make it through slow times or they issue bonds (which are in fact a debt) to get money so they can build stadiums, schools and new monoliths to their own self-believing government efficiencies. Unfortunately, borrowing has become looked at like taxes... "there's an endless supply of money so... let's spend it."

What irresponsible people and governments seem to forget is that 1) debts are to be repaid, 2) you need to plan and make sure there's a means of paying it back (like a job or tax revenues) and 3) there's a cost associated with the debt - the interest.

When you have too much debt, you should cut spending in order to pay it back. Something current lawmakers seem unwilling to do or are unknowledgeable about how. Let's see how the government's numbers translate to ordinary people:

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,380,000,000,000

* Fed budget: $3,793,000,000,000

* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000

* National debt: $16,330,000,000,000

* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $23,800

* Money the family spent: $37,930

* New debt on the credit card: $16,500

* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $163,300 (how high is your personal "debt ceiling?")

* Total budget cuts: $385

Got It?

If a husband or wife truly love their spouse and family, they don't make financial decisions that will cost them their futures and everything they own. I look at the country the same way. If the man (and men) in charge really cared about America, they would act responsibly in their duties and not overburden its citizens with ever growing piles of unrepayable, unsustainable obligations. And remember that the senate has not passed a budget in three and a half years and even the president’s own submission some years back was rejected… even by Democrats.

As a taxpayer and while reading this, you now owe, thanks to the government, about $150,000 – some have put it over $220K (about $8,000 to the Chinese). That's for the current national debt which stands at about $16,330,130,500,284 and is growing at the rate of about $179,000 every 4 seconds. (almost $4 Billion / day)

And who are our financial benefactors?
 
China (the biggest foreign lender), Japan, UK, Caribbean Banking Centers, Oil Exporters, Brazil, Russia, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Switzerland - and on down to the $128 we individually owe Chile, the $113 we owe Malaysia and the $108 we each owe the Philippines ending up at each other's aging grandmother because the America public holds the majority of the national debt.

What people keep forgetting and don't want to even think about is the scary little thing known as "unfunded liabilities (debts)." Those pesky little future payments for things like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and other very real obligations that have no current predictable and steady revenue stream but will come due at some point. Sit down and grab your martini because they make our current $16 Trillion dollar debt look like a car payment. Consider that number is now nearly $90,000,000,000,000 - Yes $90 Trillion. And some have even estimated upwards of $120 Trillion or more. (The numbers in all this keep moving)

The National Debt will grow an additional $9 trillion over the next decade, to around $25 trillion, as Congress tacks on trillions for health care, cap and trade, new federal stimulus programs, and other yet to be identified spending programs. The most recent Trustees' report puts unfunded Medicare liability at around $42.8 Trillion and Social Security around $20.5 trillion. In theory, the Medicare and Social Security trust funds have at least some money to pay a portion of the bills that are coming due. In actuality.... the cupboard is bare: 100% of the payroll taxes for these programs were spent in the same year they were collected. In other words, the money in the S.S. bank is Zero, Zip, Zilch, Nada.

And what happens when they're short to pay the bills? Normally, in exchange for the payroll taxes that aren't paid out in benefits to current retirees in any given year, the trust funds got nonmarketable Treasury debt. But now, as the baby boomers' promised benefits swamp the payroll-tax collections from today's workers, the government has to swap the trust funds' nonmarketable securities for marketable Treasury debt. The Treasury will then have to sell not only this debt, but far more, in order to pay all benefits and debts as they come due.

And the disappointing fact for taxpayers? To collect enough tax revenue just to avoid going deeper into debt would require over $8 trillion in tax collections annually. In 2011, we collected about $2.3 Trillion in taxes but of course spent over $3 Trillion hence.... we borrowed AND are still behind.

To pay the debt liberals are always willing to invoke the "tax those mean old rich people" mantra. But consider: The Gov't costs about $9.69 Billion a day to run and if we taxed Barbra Streisand, George Clooney, Michael Jordon and all the other rich at 100%... it raises $82.4 Billion a year or… resulting in only about 9 days of operating capital. Hummmm short again.

So the bottom line to this exercise? We're under a huge gun and the bullet is aimed at the America public. I could pull out my conspiratorial hat and say that any president that not only allows this to happen but facilitates it has an agenda which is not pro-American (Remember “overwhelm the system?”). But I'll save that for another time. We MUST cut spending, waste, fraud, abuse, loss, misappropriation, oh how I could go on but... without changes, the current mythical fiscal cliff in January is just a momentary diversion from the real fate that awaits America. And it's not a cliff, it's a chasm, a gulf, a canyon… an abyss beyond belief.

I ask myself where are all those real changes the newly elected conservative congressional members were to make when elected in 2010? Guess they missed that memo.

Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Cometh hither to me and bring thy checkbook.

Your own feedback is always invited, and God bless and help us.

----------------------------------------------------------------

And just FYI:

•Our national debt, in hundred dollar bills, would carpet Washington DC eight times, and you would still have enough left over to carpet Tiananmen Square over 40 times.

•Americans owe an amount equal in value to over twice all the gold in the world, even at today's record high prices.

•If you spent $11 million every day in payment of the national debt for the next 4000 years, you still would not pay off the debt. (forget about the interest)

•If you laid $16.5 trillion in $100 bills end to end on their side at the equator, the line would circle the earth 627 times.

•A child born today starts out life owing about $50,000 - about the price of two years of college, on average.

•How did our parent’s generation leave us? A child born in 1950 was on the hook for about $1700 at birth.