The Case for Precious Metals

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Day!

Yesterday, I paid a visit to my neighborhood coin/precious metals dealer. I picked up another 7 oz. of silver. I have been buying gold and silver incrementally on dips in price.

I have done gobs of research on precious metals. I frequently post some of the funniest videos on here. I thought what I'd do is explain some things about precious metals that you might have not heard before. My chief reason for buying precious metals is that I don't think most people understand precisely what Ben "Bernank" is doing. I also don't think most people understand why he can't stop doing it. The last great act of hyperinflation is money printing. That has happened in Zimbabwe, Weimar, Germany and other places.

The last great store of wealth in the United States is private and public investment accounts. Virtually everyone's wealth is tied somehow to the stock market. Real estate has taken it's haircut. If the stock market tanks, we all tank. Thus the stock market becomes the holy grail. All other investment vehicles within the U.S. have become dead money. The Bernank has tried to create the illusion of fiscal health within our stock market by essentially giving free money to member banks to invest. Hedge funds, fund managers, and banks are all that is trading this market. Of course it has been rising with inflated currency. Retail investors have been fleeing in droves to the tune of 100 billion this year- the catalyst for that was the May flash crash. So while 100 billion has retreated, the Bernank has managed to offset that with 600 billion worth of QE2. QE2 runs out in May/June. What happens when the Bernank runs out of dough then? That's the dilemma. The market will capsize. Thus the Bernank will have to announce QE3. Then QE4. Our currency, devalued already, will take more of a beating. In an environment where the FED is essentially robbing savers, to bail out debtors with cheap money- your money becomes more and more valueless.

If bankers could destroy one thing on earth- it would be precious metals. That is their competition. Precious metals are not "money." Precious metals are wealth storage. There is never a "bubble" in price. Their price is directly proportionate and inverse to worldwide currency and debt levels. The more they print worthless fiat, the higher the price goes. It doesn't hurt that the Euro is screwed- and that European countries are all broke. China is experiencing inflation. In fact, I think all of this builds a perfect scenario.

It takes a lot of money to mine, load, transport, and smelt gold and silver. About 600 bucks an ounce for gold. Silver is by and large, just a by product of gold mining.

Do not let anyone tell you that gold and silver will hit any specified price level at any time. That is just bullshit and not predictable. What is more predictable is that central banks will not stop shoveling non existent money at debt levels. State defaults will require bailouts. As currencies dilute, more and more people will drive precious metal prices higher. That's why I don't concern myself with any percentage rise in gold and silver that has taken place already. Precious metals are not stocks. They are not obligated to adhere to any bullshit measurements of value that equities are submitted to. It just doesn't matter. They have that inverse relationship.  

You shouldn't panic buy either. Buy dips in prices, buy when you have extra cash. I buy 1, 5, and 10 oz bars of silver. Gold in small gram sizes. Buy coins or bars with assayed purity levels. I like Canadian Maple Leafs or silver from Idaho's Sunshine Mine. You are going to pay a 5 to 8% commission. I also don't concern myself with any predetermined allocation of my assets to precious metals. Ideally I am shooting for something in the 25-30% range...but that is subject to change.

I love it when bankers call for a precious metals correction. They try to scare money back into the market or bank. If the precious metals complex takes a 10% correction- I will simply buy more. With absolute confidence. Why? Because I am betting the house on history. The same shit, over and over again, produces the same results.

We have enormous debt levels already that can't go away. The check is now due. Interest rates can only go up from here. We cannot GDP "grow" our way out of this catastrophe. We will have to refinance debt into higher interest rates. The FED has fired every bullet in the gun. The economy has not budged, and structurally there is nothing that can change that. Any number of events, a war, a bill re-enactment such as Glass Steagall, failed muni bonds, failed treasury auctions, (China just had one) a euro collapse, oil and other commodity increases... and folks are going to start looking for cover. Banks like JP Morgan are going to have to cover their silver shorts. The bull in precious metals is ON. After suffering a 20 year bear market can you imagine what this bull market might look like?

I want to thank the Bernank. Dude, you said you would drop money from helicopters and you have proven it. Say what you mean, mean what you say. So many things to like. Precious metals just look like an absolute no brainer and currently the only real safe way to protect your wealth. See you at the coin store!

Christmas Eve

There was a fundamental shift in my family this year. Now as I refer to family, I am talking about my brother, sister, mother, and significant others. They want to go to church tonight.

This is new. We have done comedy clubs, movies, and other things on X-Mas eve but church is something we haven't done for many years. My father is singing in his choir.

Last night, my sister and brother trimmed the tree. That is their annual job. My brother hung the tuna fish can on the tree. I watched and teased them about how shitty the tree looked. This always kicks off the usual "get your ass over here and help" rhetoric which I counter with I am the eldest and it is still my job to keep you guys in line. At 50, and after a few decades, you'd think they'd learn by now.

My family became a little fractured after my parents' divorce. It took us a long time to recover.  But we are recovering. Each year it gets better and this year I saw real spiritual progress and growth. So I don't find it particularly remarkable that our family wants to go to church tonight. In fact, it makes sense to me.

After church, unless we choose midnight mass, we will choke down my mother's oyster stew. We will pretend to love it. There will be wry and surreptitious glances cast about after my mother asks "how do you like it?" and we will all tell her it is fantastic. My sister refuses to eat the oyster stew and she is missing out on the real tradition. You see it is not the oyster stew that is the tradition. It is forcing yourself to eat it, conjuring up the most convincing and heart warming look, and selling the little fib to mom. Year after year, my brother wins this category. He is a true professional. I marvel at him as he casts that wry smile at me once mom looks away. There are acceptable lies in life and this is one of them.

Sometimes, there is dessert. I will not eat fruitcake. Fruitcake is some other family's horrible oyster stew invention. I am convinced that who ever invented fruitcake was a sadist. Having navigated the oyster stew thing, some ancient and anonymous family raised that bar and presented fruitcake as a higher test of courage and will. I am more than willing to accept defeat here. I simply cannot pretend to like that stuff as tears stream down my face. Given the choice of fruitcake or death in some horrible wilderness disaster where my survival depended on eating fruitcake- I would simply ask that my ashes be scattered at McKenzie Butte. That too, is family tradition.

Then it's on to the present unwrapping event. I will pretend to be shocked and thankful for the sweaters and books I receive each year. I think my sister generally wins this event. One year, I am going to wrap up a Bob Dylan eight track tape, just to see the look on her face. She will marvel about how she has longed for such a thing for many years. She too- is a professional.

I finally grasped the true meaning of Christmas a couple of years back. I am a slow study. It is about being grateful for the things you already have, not the wanting and despair of not having whatever it is that you think you might be missing. I am thankful that my family is all alive and in reasonably good health. I am thankful for knowing there is a power greater than myself and celebrating his birth and life at church. I am thankful for oyster stew and presents I don't need. I am thankful that I get to watch the academy award performances of my family as they clear these holiday hurdles. I am thankful that I can love this crew unconditionally and laugh about their antics. I am grateful that I can be present and take it all in. I am looking forward to it.

Pilot Commits No Crime, Thugocracy Seizes Firearm, Try to Connect These Dots

Think the government is running scared?

I just saw this posted at American Thinker. I looked everywhere for the pilot's videos and they must have been pulled. Lord knows, the only first amendment rights we have are the ones that our government masters give us. I am still trying to determine what illegal act this pilot did that allowed our THUGOCRACY to descend upon him. You decide.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/12/tsa_punishes_pilot_for_critici.html

How could this be a month old? This link is worth cutting and pasting anywhere it needs to go. Found a second link to the Channel 10 story. http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=113529&catid=2

The bottom part of the article answers many of my questions of why this has been a mystery. Because they wanted it to be.

PS 12/24/10...a big thank you to Jim at Conservatives on Fire for getting this Fox News link...apparently this story is now getting out. Like to hear what nanny government has to say...
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/24/attorney-criticizes-feds-using-force-critical-pilot/?test=latestnews

All the Investing Advice You Need- in 37 Seconds

In Other WTF! News, There Is This...

Be forewarned, there are some things in life that once imprinted on your brain, you cannot remove. And then there is this survey, way too funny to miss...http://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2010/12/dont-ask-if-you-dont-want-to-know.html

The Lost Quatrain of Nostradamus

While diligently working last night, and posting hateful comments, I stumbled across this lost quatrain of Nostradamus. I've been staring at it all morning but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Bats what be from moon start circling the great city,
Great plagues arise as hordes inhale the toxic guano fumes,
The printer tries to save the wretched city, but hordes remain steadfast
Crippled birds replaced by fresh fowl, bat shit stuck on brooms.

The Mighty Penny

One of the last acts of the Roman Empire, not unlike those acts of the current United States, was to remove valuable metals from coinage. First we saw gold coins disappear. In 1965, we saw silver disappear. In 1983, we saw copper disappear. We now make coins out of essentially worthless zinc and reclaimed Buick parts.

The last two coins of value, where the melt price exceeds their face value, is the nickel and the penny. In 2006, Congress passed a law preventing you from melting your own money. So as JP Morgan has essentially cornered the copper market (which is not illegal) and the price is ramping up, your pre-1982  pennies are now worth nearly three times their face value. It presents an interesting argument. What is worth more? A dollar that has lost 97% of it's value, or a penny that has tripled in price? Note the value of ten dollars worth of old pennies in the box below...

Base Metal Coin Melt Value Calculation Generated on December 22, 2010.
Values Used:
Total Face Value:	$10.00
Coin Type:	1909-1982 Lincoln Copper Cent
Copper Price:	$4.2541 / pound
Zinc Price:	$1.0495 / pound

Answer:

Total melt value is $28.07.

(exact value is $28.0691134406)

Black Swan

I've been trading stocks, a lot of options, for years. I learned everything the hard way. College classes, economics, business. I read every book in the library. Chart theory, random walk theory. I've done some exotic option buying, I've used options as insurance. And I am certainly not going to say I was victorious all of the time. I've made a lot of trading mistakes. Some were brutal. One Chinese shell corporation I bought was a horrible trade. Three years ago, I packed it in after I had my very own black swan event. Parked my dough in treasuries. I did ok in 2008, while the equity universe got a haircut. I cashed out in 2009.

I am getting ready to get back in. The reason is simple. I think that we are on the verge of a major black swan event. I think the odds are better than 60-40. As a gambler and an odds maker, I make a personal line for everything. And trust me, I am not going long.

The Black Swan Theory or "Theory of Black Swan Events" was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain:

1. The disproportionate role of high-impact, hard to predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology
2. The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to their very nature of small probabilities)
3. The psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the massive role of the rare event in historical affairs.

Now as I use the term black swan, I do not count war in Korea. I am not looking for a single gunman. That would have limited impact initially and at this point, war there is hardly a qualifying black swan event. It is fully possible that war could break out but I put that possibility at 10%. But war in Korea could in fact- be part of my much larger black swan event. Particularly from a financial point of view.

Europe is completely bankrupt. Forget the PIIGS. Take a look at Germany, France, and the UK's debt levels on US Debt clock. These are the guys bailing out the PIIGS? You'll note they are not much better off than Ireland. Check out Canada's debt levels. Interesting. http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

The Eurozone is in deep, deep, trouble. The euro will collapse before the U.S. dollar does. But I think that might have a triggering effect. As fools rush out, this will cause the value of a worthless dollar to go absolutely supernova. I can see it happening in 2011. An excellent read on the euro circling the drain...http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/euro-trashed_522123.html

China despite it's inflation woes, is going to be sitting "chilly" ready to pick up the pieces.

Stateside, I see no end to quantitative easing. I see no jobs, I have yet to see the 7 million pending foreclosures in the housing market get placed on the market. That supply, while hidden, continues to build. It is killing the housing market, it is killing lending,  and it is killing the construction segment. Who is paying the taxes on that vacant real estate? Municipal debt is exploding, states at least five of them- Illinois, California, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and perhaps Florida are in horrific shape. States are raising real estate tax levels and gouging the middle class even more. The dollar is also deteriorating. Oil is priced in dollars. That price is going up and will continue to go up, demand or not, as the dollar weakens. But it may plunge if the euro implodes. 

When you enter the stock market, they tell you to do so based on fundamentals. That's bullshit when they have rigged the "fundamentals." What you are really trying to do, is to predict human behavior at this point. There are so many triggering events building worldwide, that I think the odds for a black swan event are very good.

I want to finish with a balls to the wall story. In early 2007, I had shorted a little company in Colorado called Fuel Tech Inc. Their products cleaned up coal fired emissions. They were a feel good stock. Their earnings were barely existent, future earnings and I am talking years in the future, were simply not visible. The CEO was gifted at spin. This stock was trading in the mid twenties and was approaching the first quarter earnings report. I had loaded up, short side, expecting a significant miss. Then the miss. It was a significant miss. The stock immediately ramped UP nearly 35%. Shit, there went my new Cadillac up in smoke. I nearly needed heart bypass surgery. In utter shock, I could not fully explain what had happened. But I refused to cover my position which was way too large- almost 40% at that point. I was caught in a monstrous short squeeze. I went home that night and thought it through. I did the unthinkable. I began shorting FTEK even more. At the most significant point, I was nearly 80% invested in that POS company. Had I told my wife, I would not have survived. When it finally cratered to 20, I unloaded my positions. I made money on the trade but not enough to account for all of those sleepless nights I had. In fact, it was FTEK that caused me to exit the most ridiculous, inflated, and irrational market I had ever seen. FTEK trades now for something like 8 bucks and I had it fairly priced at 5 bucks in '07. FTEK rising 35% on missed earnings was a black swan. I never saw it coming. I examined that trade a year later and saw what had happened.

Where there is ruin, there is opportunity. So I try not to base my decisions on emotions or somebody else's opinion of what is good or bad. I look at what's going on, I evaluate it, and I try to decide as unemotionally as possible if this is something I want to get involved in. Sometimes it takes great courage. I really think 2011 is going to be an interesting year, not interesting in the way that many people had hoped. Just interesting.

Government Extorts More Money From Tax Payers, AIG Avoids Prosecution

Well after the government let Countrywide thief Angelo Mozilo out of jail in lieu of 67 million dollar in fines...I see they are at it again.

This time, they let AIG officials off the hook for stealing from workman's compensation pools.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-22/aig-will-pay-146-5-million-to-settle-50-state-insurance-probe.html

Apparently we no longer have any rule of law in this country. Commit widespread fraud and grand theft and buy your way out of prosecution. Post your bail and subsequent forfeiture with taxpayer funds. It doesn't cost you a dime.

Hey USG...what's the fine for a murder or two? You truly can't dream this shit up.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal-

Much ballyhoo over nothing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40777922/ns/politics-white_house

I have paid little attention to "don't ask, don't tell." I dealt with that issue long ago. It was easy. Like all things the libertarian way.

Years ago, I hired an openly gay man. Not because he was gay, but because he was the best man for the job. The macho guys, and the homophobes, gave me a fair amount of ridicule. I think the funniest part was watching them walk by my office with their hands covering their backside. They thought that shit was funny and it was. Lefties might gasp here.

I had a feeling it would stop when he came on board. It did. He turned out to be an excellent cop, nobody was molested, and the world didn't stop turning. I never had one complaint about the guy. When public servants serve together a weird thing happens. Battles, in any theater, tend to have a unifying effect on people. The small shit gets forgotten quickly. He only stayed with us a year or two and he moved on to a more lucrative career as a stock broker. The people that ridiculed him on the front end, missed him when he left. I saw that personal growth first hand.

I think Obama got this right. From the libertarian perspective, letting people live their lives, was the only way to decide the issue. In fact, having been forced to deal with this issue long ago, is probably one of the reasons I became a libertarian. The "Christian" right will just have to let the creator make the final analysis. I'm ok with letting God handle that. I got too many other things to do. 

If Obama Has Such a Lofty IQ, When Will He Unveil It?

I don't like bashing President Obama any more. At this point in his presidency, I think he has demonstrated what kind of man that he is. As I have written about many times before, he has an agenda which has nothing to do with what this country really needs. He lacks the capacity of perception and he lacks personal courage.

Late last night I was reading an article on "American Thinker." I like AT but I think the authors go overboard on Obama bashing. I think a lot of people feel deceived or angry. Like they bought a handsome lemon. Obama has not been any mystery to me. He was never properly vetted by any stretch of the imagination and let's face  the truth- this country was so angry at Bush that they would have voted for anyone. I'd like to introduce that AT article, "Obama's Problem as the Smartest Person in the Room."
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/obamas_problem_as_the_smartest.html

I commented on this article, 5 or 6 comments down, as "End the Fed."

Our country has some fascination, call it an obsession, with intelligence. They ASSUME that intelligence equates to success. Now I can't argue that Obama has enough intelligence to get elected. That he was able to dupe people into voting for him. The operative question is, "What benefit have we reaped from this highly touted intelligence?"

Intelligence, standing alone, can never get any job any done. Intelligence has to be coupled with intangible attributes. Strength of character, personal and moral courage, a willingness to tear a problem down to the smallest parts- and to rebuild. This is called project management. Define the problem and identify all of the problem pieces, identify the steps and processes that it will take to overcome the problem, involve experts and team build through consensus. Put together a flow or PERT chart and complete each step in an orderly and logical fashion. Everyone is aware of the processes and what every team member's responsibility is, efforts are not duplicated. It is efficient. As the project nears completion, we should have tangible and identifiable results. A goal.

This didn't happen with Obama. The greatest problem facing this country was economic collapse. Millions and millions of people had been victimized. Obama came in, ignored the greatest problem in the country, and set about his own agenda of government expansion. I don't know about any of you guys, but I was left scratching my head and wondering what the hell was Obama thinking?

Ignoring that problem doomed him. At this point in his term, it is doubtful that he can salvage any credibility. I want to contrast Obama against Governor Christie of New Jersey. Christie has great personal courage. He plays hardball, he deals with shit head on, and he talks in a very precise way. In short, Christie has a plan. He possesses all of the attributes of real leadership and he will succeed. He will pose a very real threat to the Democrats who have nothing like Christie. Unfortunately Christie has said, in no uncertain terms, that he will not run for President. You know what? I believe him. People with great personal courage say what they mean and mean what they say.

Obama may have been able to stumble to a few classrooms, take a few tests, and pass them. That is no great feat. Millions have done that. The qualities Obama needs have nothing to do with intelligence. I am convinced he has enough intelligence. Real intelligence takes courage. It takes rigorous personal honesty to admit that you don't have all of the answers and in fact, you may not even know the steps it takes to manage a project. Real intelligence recognizes it's own shortcomings. It fills those gaps with people who do know the answers. Until Obama does those things, it doesn't really matter what he scores on an IQ test. He simply cannot transfer what intelligence he possesses to any tangible, successful outcome. That's a shame. Obama just hasn't figured this out yet. That's why I can't get angry at him. I feel sorry for him in fact. He has squandered an immense opportunity to go down as a great one. The great ones, like Jefferson, Lincoln, Kennedy had great personal courage and enough intelligence to realize the utility and importance of that attribute. President Obama simply doesn't possess that most important quality right now- when we need it the most. That is not to say, that he is incapable of finding it. I'm just not expecting him to unveil it anytime soon.

11 Reasons Not to Buy a Chevy Volt

Just 4 days after writing my blog, "10 Reasons Not to Buy a Chevy Volt" out comes this report... http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1633/hyped-hybrid-the-chevy-volt-gets-average-mileage-for-a-hybrid/

This article makes comparisons to other vehicles but leaves out- perhaps the best in class hybrid.  http://www.hybridcars.com/vehicle/hyundai-sonata-hybrid.html

If you wanted a real electric car, with a one hundred mile range, and still a lot cheaper...here's the Leaf. It would save you a lot more than the Volt.

http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/index#/leaf-electric-car/specs-features/index

Here's the Prius. For 15 grand less. http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/trims-prices.html

The Chevy Volt. Overpriced, over hyped, ho-hum. GM never stood a chance once government got involved.

Young Cop, Old Cop

I thought I'd tell you  a couple of funny war stories today. I need a break from all of this government nastiness. War stories from small town America. Cops.  

Years ago, we hired this young, skinny kid. He didn't have a whisker on his face or maybe even a hair on his ass. You know the type. Nice kid, naive. I think he was 22 but looked 18 or so. Still had pimples and shit.

His situation was further complicated because we couldn't find a uniform to fit him from the storeroom. Cops aren't particularly known for being nutritional specialists or health nuts. Well not back then anyway. So after our guys died of weight related complications, we would nab their old uniforms. So it was, we found this kid a couple of uniforms that hung off him like a potato sack. We should have had them tailored while we waited for those special order- petite sizes to arrive.

Now older folks tend to take getting pulled over a little better than young folks do. But as nice as some of those older folks were, they could switch gears in a hurry when prompted to do so by a skinny kid with pimples that starts telling them how to drive.

Late one night, our field training officer was out with this young kid making traffic stops. They stopped this older gentleman, a hard knocker about 60 years old, for speeding. Their intent was to just give the motorist a warning. The rookie kid walks up to this guy and begins lecturing the driver on the evils of speeding. The field training officer was watching this whole episode and said the motorist was not taking much of a liking to the lecture. About the time he had finished, the motorist paused, looked this kid up and down- eyeing that baggy uniform. He spit on the ground, looked the kid in the eye, and said, "Boy, does your daddy know you got his uniform on?" Our field training officer said he had to absolutely wheel around and clench his teeth to keep from laughing out loud. He had tears running down his cheeks. The kid retreated back to the patrol car. The kid was so pissed off that the field training officer had to calm him down for a few minutes in the car. I nearly cried when I heard the trainer tell me this story. The motorist escaped unscathed.

That young skinny kid has turned out to be a pretty good cop despite that stumble at the gate.

My next story involves a guy who might read this blog but I doubt he'd give a shit anyway. I gotta use his last name because that is a key part of this tale. His last name, for the record, is Pidgeon.

Back when I met Pidgeon, I was one of those know it all rookie cops who was always on the look out for role models. I'll be damned if I didn't always pick the wrong ones. Pidgeon was my favorite. Now I love Pidgeon with all of my heart but Pidgeon had the bedside demeanor of a rhinocerous. He was old and cantankerous but had a heart of gold. He was one of only a few men capable of pissing off Mother Teresa. I think that's why I picked him. I loved working with him because some funny shit was always bound to happen. Pidgeon had logged more than a few complaints over the years. He was a veteran of such things. One last thing, Pidgeon hated it when anybody pointed their finger at him.

So one day, Pidgeon had taken this stolen pickup report and we were looking for the truck and driver. The guy that stole the truck was a former employee of the victim owner and he was from France. The owner just wanted the pick up back. We spent all morning tracking this guy down and finally stopped him in a restaurant parking lot. No guns drawn, no felony stop, none of that. We were just going to grab the pickup and let the guy go. Now Pidgeon's always been a little hard of hearing and he didn't really like the idea of just letting this guy go but he was honoring the owner's wishes. So the French guy gets out of the truck. I think his first question to Pidgeon was something akin to "what ees your problem?" From that point on, things went downhill fast. The interesting thing was that the French guy really didn't speak good English and I don't think he was actually trying to be a smart ass. I don't think Pidgeon quite heard it the same way. There was some back and forth, more back and forth, and then I think the French guy pointed a finger at Pidgeon. That's when shit went from bad to worse. There was yelling, cursing, mouth frothing and people looking at us from inside the restaurant. I knew Pidgeon desperately wanted to arrest this guy but he was a man of his word and the French guy was almost taking advantage of his good fortune. When the smoke finally cleared, Pidgeon told the French guy to beat it. The French guy, clearly an ingrate, looked at Pidgeon and asked, "what is your name?" Now Pidgeon, veteran cop of many complaints knew precisely why this guy was asking that question. He replied, "Pidgeon." The French guy looked at him and said "pee zhahn?" Pidgeon said "Pidgeon!" The French guy repeated, "pee zhahn?" Pidgeon clearly exasperated and pissed off at this point yelled, "No! Just tell 'em I'm the old motherfucker with the glasses on!

Nobody had cameras back then, or tape recorders, and sensitive community police officers had not been invented yet. I miss those days. Everybody broke clean. Doubt we even wrote a report. If we did, we might not have mentioned our field interview in it's entirety.

I told that story at Pee Zhahns retirement party. I had to clean it up a bit because there were kids there. Mr. and Mrs. Pee Zhahn...I miss you. Have a wonderful holiday season.

Is This the Worst Congress Ever?

Gallup says so.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/145238/congress-job-approval-rating-worst-gallup-history.aspx

A 13% approval rate?? Could it get any worse? I view this as very good news actually. It may mean that people are willing to set aside whatever partisan views they have and actually start seeing this crew for what they are. It makes you wonder just who those 13% percent were that approved of this Congress...where did they find those people?

Harry Reid is one of the biggest idiots in Congress. After barely retaining his seat, through some shady tactics that involved union workers literally being threatened and shuttled to voting booths, this moron has the balls to propose another gargantuan waste of money- the 1.2 trillion porkubus spending package. While the lame duck session is in, of course. Reid is either brain dead, contemptuous, or both. I wish he were retired. http://newsok.com/proposed-omnibus-bill-was-affront-to-u.s.-voters/article/3524531

I am not a partisan hack. I have plenty of contempt for the republican side as well. The bad ones. One other interesting fact- the guys I like the best, Jim DeMint and Ron Paul, are not lawyers.Weird, huh?

Senator Jim DeMint is demanding that the entire omnibus bill be read on the floor. Over 60 hours worth of listening. I love it. It's about time you bastards were actually forced to listen and comprehend what you are voting on....since we damn sure know none of you read those 2000-2500 page bills before voting. "Gone With the Wind" and "War and Peace" look like Cliff Notes compared to this leviathan sized garbage. No wonder nobody reads them. Pelosi, Boxer, and Reid probably think they can just catch the movie when it comes out.

It looks like Reid's giant pork project has been shelved today (19th) to be resurrected  in January after the new crew gets in.

Congress should have to pass a test, some sort of bill comprehension quiz, before voting. Like college finals. Flunk the test, abstain. Flunk too many tests, get ousted. How's that for progressive government?

Is this the worst Congress ever? Without a doubt. I honestly think we could throw darts at a phone book and do better. The working public, taxpayers, would finally get some representation that way. We'd just make sure and rip the attorneys' pages out of the phone book first.

I Fall in Love So Easily

Some things make me yearn for summer. Like the background in this photo, the green grass, the trees, the autumn colors- no snow. Oh yea, and maybe this absolutely gorgeous bike. Check out those ape hangers- a tad much even for me. Given a choice of Anne Coulter or this bike...well, let me think for a moment. After ten years or so, I'd still love the bike.