The Blog Less Traveled

Bailouts are stupid. With very few exceptions, they will only delay the inevitable. I can understand some government injection of money to keep the credit markets from completely freezing up and affecting the ability of businesses to conduct day-to-day operations. I can’t, however, see any rational reason to apply this to businesses in general. Businesses should succeed or fail on their own merit. If you can’t run your business profitably, then you shouldn’t be in business.

Bailing out the auto industry would be a huge mistake. The foremost reason for the auto industry’s current dilemma is labor cost. There’s an article by the Heritage Foundation that clearly and convincingly describes this. It’s almost unbelievable what the typical auto worker is making for a relatively low-skilled job. Overall compensation is almost $75/hour. Their healthcare benefits are beyond belief. For full medical, dental, eye care, etc., they pay only $10/month or $21/month for a family. That’s sickening! And get this. If they’re laid off, they get 95% of their pay not to work. Can you believe that? No wonder they don’t mind getting laid off. They’re basically drawing full pay NOT to work.

So what will giving the automakers billions in bailout money do for them? It’ll let them continue to operate on their current unsustainable labor contracts. Basically, the taxpayer is going to continue to subsidize the outrageous benefits package of the UAW. The Democrats control both Houses of Congress and the UAW and other labor unions own the Democrats. Do you hear any Democrats talking about letting the companies reorganize under bankruptcy law? The Democrats and unions don’t want anything to do with bankruptcy. Bankruptcy will allow the companies to reorganize and become competitive again by renegotiating their labor costs.

All you folks that voted for Democrats can blame yourselves when you see your taxes and wealth being redistributed to your poor old union laborers. Whether you want to admit it or not, you voted for Socialism and now you get to reap its benefits. What was the Democrat’s mantra for the elections, “Change You Can Be Deceived In”?

Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly gates.

“In honor of this holy season” Saint Peter said, “You must each possess something that symbolizes Christmas to get into heaven.”

The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. “It represents a candle”, he said.

“You may pass through the pearly gates” Saint Peter said.

The second man reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He shook them and said, “They’re bells.”

Saint Peter said “You may pass through the pearly gates”.

The third man started searching desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women’s panties.

Saint Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, “And just what do those symbolize?”

The man replied, “These are Carols.”

I was cleaning up my computer files the other day when I ran across the following letter I received from someone a long time ago. I think it’s worth passing on, especially with all that’s happening right now in our country and the world.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough “Hellos” to get you through the final “Goodbyes.”

I think too often we expect our lives to be perfect – taking for granted all of the good things that come our way. God never promised us a perfect life. But he does promise to always be with us through our trials and tribulations. We all need to remember that the bad things are as important as the blessings in life because they help to develop character and hopefully bring us closer to Christ. How would we appreciate joys in life without sorrow? We should be more content with what God chooses to place in our paths.

I wish you enough…

An Indian chief had three wives. The first wife slept on cowhide, the second wife a deer hide and the third on hippopotamus hide. The first gave birth to a baby boy, the second to a baby girl and the third had twins – a boy and a girl. Looking at what happened, the old chief declared, “The squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sum of the squaws on the other two hides!”

What did Frank Sinatra say when someone asked him if he had ever kept wading birds as pets? “Egrets, I’ve had a few.”

A man leaned to his right because his right leg was shorter than his left. He finally went to see a surgeon after much insistence from friends. Later, one of those friends saw the man walking down the street and noticed that the man’s legs were exactly the same length. “See, what did I tell you?”, the friend boasted. “You didn’t believe the doctor could fix your leg!” The man said, “I stand corrected.”

I went to the butcher’s the other day and I bet him 50 bucks that he couldn’t reach the meat off the top shelf. He said, “No, the steaks are too high.”

A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Ahmal.” The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him “Juan.” Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, “They’re twins! If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal.”

The dentist tells the patient that his upper plate needs to be made of chrome because of the patient’s penchant for Hollandaise sauce (which has a lot of lemon juice in it, and is corrosive to most dental appliances). Why chrome? There’s no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise.

Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, “Dam!”

The friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to “persuade” them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he’d be back if they didn’t close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.

I entered ten puns in a contest, and I thought I would win, but unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

The elections are finally over and it will be nice not having to watch political TV ads every two minutes. It’ll be interesting to watch the new administration over the next few years. As I can only base my observations on Obama’s actual voting record and political and personal associations in the past, I’m not overly hopeful.

Unfortunately, his first significant decision since the election bares this out. Obama has run his campaign under the mantra of change and NOT Washington politics as usual. So what does he do? His first political appointment to Chief of Staff is a hard-line, liberal political hack, Rahm Emanuel. Talk about a Washington insider. He’s a former political and policy aide to Bill Clinton. And guess what? He was also on the board of directors for Freddie Mac. Guess who gave him that job? Surprise, Bill Clinton! This is a guy who once mailed a dead fish to someone because he didn’t agree with him. There’s some real “change”, Obama style.

I don’t trust the guy. He lied when he said he would accept public funding for his campaign. He’s been dishonest when talking of his past and present associations with unsavory people and organizations. My guess is that he will continue to surround himself with more sleazy Chicago politicians and past Clinton hacks. I’m sure he’ll offer a token job or two to some Republicans so the liberal media can show how bipartisan he really is. Maybe it won’t be Washington-style politics. However, I don’t think Chicago-style politics is a whole lot better, either.

I hope I’m wrong. Maybe he’ll have some kind of epiphany and will govern in the best interests of the country. The liberal left-wing organizations and media had a big part in getting him this far. Does he have the intelligence and strength of character to do the right thing? Time will tell. Until then, many Americans will look at him with suspicion and distrust.