The Way I See ItBy cj pollickGlobal Warming? - Many reputable scientists never bought into the global warming alarms espoused by Al Gore and friends. In fact, most Americans wonder if Al Gore was not simply grandstanding in order to keep his name in the newspaper and make a few million dollars on the side. With this year's winter being recorded as one of the coldest in many years, you do not hear much about global warming (especially here in Florida.) Of course, with breaking news that a scientist has reported that one or more of their "ice-recording" sensors was not working properly when they interpreted data on the rate of ice melting in our poles, one can't help but question the entire concept of global warming. The winner with all of the global warming talk? Al Gore and friends. Ninth Circuit Court Again Overturned - When you examine the rulings of the Ninth Circuit Court and how many of their rulings have been overturned by the Supreme Court, it becomes obvious that those appointed judges have a radical political agenda. Again the US Supreme Court was required to hear arguments regarding a decision of the Ninth Circuit where an education association (union) wanted to utilize union members payroll deductions for political purposes without union members consent. Can't do that, said the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision. Workers, according to the Supreme Court, have the right to decide if they wish to give money to the association/union's political arm. Why is the Ninth Circuit so radical in the manner in which they interpret law? Perhaps one should look into who carefully picked and appointed these lawyers to this judicial position. Justices making law instead of interpreting law? Yes. Just The Facts, Please - Few people could disagree with the statement that President Obama is a smooth-talking politician. In fact, he might be one of the best pure political talkers of all time. Yes, a better talker than Kennedy, Reagan and/or Roosevelt. Smooth delivery, calm disposition, unflappable, and, yes, his delivery includes what people want to hear versus what they should hear. For example, Obama recently had a chat with the American people using the Congressional podium as his pulpit. He spoke about so many topics that it would be difficult to cover all of them at one writing. However, the one topic that all Americans were/are most interested is the nation's declining economy. Here are a few facts regarding Obama's spending plan:
The list of government spending and pork-barrel projects goes on and on. Yet, amazingly enough, Obama's speech to the American people was rated as successful. Yet, when anyone confronts the substance of what is truly inside the fiscal spending bill they are wrongfully attacked by supporters of Obama. Yes, Barack Obama is one gifted speaker, maybe one of the best ever, however, the substance of what is truly inside his spending bill of several trillions of taxpayers funds deserves to be made open and clear for everyone to review. If people support this type of government spending, then so be it. On the other hand, if people oppose this type of spending, they should not be personally attacked by some pundit in Washington who is paid by political action groups to perform such tasks. Why not have fair and open reviews of how elected folks in Washington are planning to spend the people's tax money. Some might say, Obama was elected to bring this spending change to Washington. True, he did allege to bring change. However, if this massive spending plan does not work and trillions of taxpayer dollars are "wasted," imagine how the next two generations of American taxpayers would be impacted. Maybe that is why about 75% of Americans do not favor Obama’s spending plan. More Financial Trouble - Even though President Obama would like us to think he has a plan to fix our nation's financial problems by essentially buying ownership of large banks and other large companies, another wave of financial bad news has hit the news. Life insurance companies that insure annuities and life insurance policies are in financial trouble. It was reported that large insurance companies such as Hartford, Principal, Lincoln National, Prudential, Genworth, Allstate, and a host of other big name life insurers are experiencing financial trouble due to bad investments. These insurers, as was reported, have risky investment portfolios and mortgage-backed securities (just like large banks in trouble.) It is probable, experts say, that many of these insurers may ask for government help in "shoring-up" their reserves in order to pay policy benefits. In fact, some insurance departments have recently allowed life insurers to use a lower standard in posting reserves than the financial standards that had been used for many decades. How many billions of taxpayer funds might be needed to bail-out the life insurance industry? Not known at this time. However, if the amount of taxpayer funds used to help save AIG (over $173 billion so far) from failure is any indication of the magnitude of the financial problem, then many billions of dollars might be needed to help the life insurance industry. Nationalize the big banks? Even though some people say no, such an event could occur. Nationalize big insurers? Perhaps, but imagine the cost to taxpayers aka AIG. It Passed Earth And Few Knew It Occurred - A few days ago a 115-foot asteroid passed within 44,740 miles of earth. That's not too far from one of our orbiting satellites. What is perhaps noteworthy about this near-miss, is that a similar-sized asteroid hit Siberia in 1908 and leveled an area of about 500,000 acres. All of the tall trees were literally knocked over like a nuclear bomb had hit. Scientists have reported that earth is hit by one of these asteroids about every two centuries; imagine if one ever hits a large city! Just think, while we were having our morning coffee this large piece of rock was headed towards earth and barely missed (in relative terms.) Video-Rental Industry Hurting – Blockbuster has reportedly hired lawyers to review bankruptcy filing. The stock dropped to 22 cents/share before trading was stopped. The message? Video rental industry is falling in popularity. Thanks – Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything. |