Just a few small Things

• How did Congressman Ron Paul get elected from Texas? He should be a left Coast guy and would do well there. He freely admits that Congress gave the President the right to wage war in Iraq and then says it was unconstitutional? At least he didn't use the term "lie" about the President, only that we were duped by the Intelligence Agencies. (Being from Texas he probably couldn't use the term lie) He overlooks the fact that the Israelis had to bomb a nuclear reactor in Iraq to keep them from escalating their nuclear weapons program and that Clinton signed a Presidential paper making Saddam a major enemy of the US. The UN had 18 sanctions against Iraq and did little that hurt Saddam. This guy is a Presidential hopeful and more mixed up than a bag of trail mix.
  
• The French have so many problems that it is inconceivable that a leader of any party will solve their problems. They have riots every time someone discusses changing the very thing that would fix the number one problem. Unemployment is at 22% of the 18-25 group and employers are hesitant to hire people from this group because of the fact they can't fire them if they don't produce. With the work week cut to 32 hours and the vacation time upping to six weeks, they get less production from a worker than about any other country. May sound like a utopia from the outside but it is a recipe for failure. The only good thing is they have a lot of great wine there.
  
• There are a lot of discussions about alternative fuels to the major use/dependence of/on Fossil fuels. We need to wake up to the fact that the very people that oppose Nuclear and wind energy are the very people oppose fossil fuel exploration in Alaska and off the coast of the US. Combine them with the Not in My Back Yard (NIMBY) section of the lunatic fringe that opposed wind turbines and solar panels and we have a quagmire of problems that Government just can't or won't fix. Just today there was an article about burning Turkey Poop in an electric generating plant in Minnesota. To be fair they do have more turkeys than any where else. If we really sat down and discussed what it cost to collect, transport and built a turkey poop plant, I'll bet it doesn't make economic sense either. But the alternative is to not eat turkey or be up to our necks in turkey poop. The EPA has banned using it as fertilizer as it is a runoff hazard to our streams. Lets make all the corn into liquor and sit around drinking and singing, "I don't care, I don't care, run out of fuel and go no where, cause I don't care".
  
• I want to know just who the hell is really measuring the inflation rate? Most of us pay more for medical insurance than they got in a raise this year. The cost of gasoline is over $3.00 a gallon (more like $3.25) and the price of groceries has skyrocketed. Hell, the cost of a hamburger (number 1 with mustard, fries and a coke) is almost five dollars at Sonic. If you haven't bought any building products at the lumber yard, be prepared for sticker shock. The new mildew resistant (their words not mine) Sheetrock is over $12.50 a sheet.
  

Now for those of you that read through this miss mash of things that set me off today, I want to remind you that I am probably the number one fan of the USA. I think our system, while it has problems, is the best in the world. We are one of the most generous nations. People forget that after freeing Germany and Japan from despots we rebuilt their countries. When the people of Europe were starving after WWII we fed them by the boatload. There is hardly an enemy that isn't better off after a war with us than before. But, with all that said, have a great day. MUD