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04/08/10 09:45 AM

#416

Fred Thomas

There is a simple dichtomy in the world. Either you're a sailor or a power boater. The two groups see the world diferently and although there is an uneasy peace between the two, they had to be kept separated on the opposite sides of the Cleveland Yacht Club Island for safety purposes.

Sailors are at one with the breezes, the waves and the water. The way a sailboat goes with the forces of nature is very smooth and beautiful. Only a sailor can tell you what it's like sailing into the wind, heeled over with waves washing the deck and the feel of the helm through the rudder. Or the peaceful rolling feel of being pulled downwind with the mainsail on one side and the spinnaker on the other. Even a good squall has an exiting feel as the winds, waves and rain pound the boat as we head for port with sails reefed.

Power boaters on the other hand are a crude beer drinking lot who enjoy making lots of noise, burning lots of fossil fuel and smashing right through waves. Power boaters have no respect for nature as they throw their trash and beer cans in the water and then gun their engine and head straight from point A to B without regard for anything in between.

I'm glad that I'm a sailor. What are you?

04/08/10 01:16 PM

#417

Larry Gilbert

Power boater and proud of it! No time for sailing...

04/08/10 06:36 PM

#418

Randall Smith

I heard that most blow boats have engines. Is this true? If so whats the difference between power boats and blow boats?
I do cars and I am not really educated on boats.

04/09/10 01:28 PM

#419

Ellen Aspinwall (Templar)

Fred:

A sailor friend of mine says, "Whenever the wind quits or a sailboater gets in trouble, the first thing they holler for is a powerboat to tow them to shore."

Maybe we should just all be friends!

04/09/10 08:36 PM

#420

Fred Thomas

Gilbs,

Actually I'm not a purist when it comes to traveling on water. I love water skiing, jet skiing and riding on twin 38,000 hp motoized cruise ships, but at heart I'm still a sailboater.

John,

Even though I love sailboats, I will water ski off of your little putt putt boat if you pay for the gas. Burning fossil fuels is fun, especially if Al Gore and the greenies are downwind.

If my destination is 1000 miles or less, I drive rather than fly because it's faster and less frustrating watching all those fools storing their stupid shit in the overhead compartments and then struggling to take it out..

04/10/10 01:13 PM

#421

Fred Thomas

Time for a new rant:

While we pour billions into the low end of our educational spectrum with no results, the major losers are the gifted and talented students and society as a whole. First it was forced busing for integration, then it was curriculum, class size, school size, new math, magnent schools, charter schools, testing, kids learning in different ways, no child left behind and now according to the Obama Adinistration, it's the teacher's fault and the tax payers must PAT teachers more. Evertthing has been tried, everything has cost billions and everything has failed. Dummies can't learn!! Kids have to be willing and able to learn. The kids with the lowest aptitude are also the ones with the worst home enviornment for learning. The testing shows the same thing year in and year out. The same students and schools do well and the same students and schools do poorly. Do we need more testing to prove what we already know?

We should be pouring the money into the high end of our educational spectrum starting in elementary school. Gifted and talented children are the ones who will eventually improve society. They will make the new discoveries in science, engineering and medicine to make all our lives better. Spending our scarce educational resources on the low group is a complete waste.

04/14/10 02:41 PM

#422

Fred Thomas

Usually I get some arguments when I post on other blogs, but the silence here makes me assume universal agreement and encourages me to cough up another rant, Thanks.

No one in the Federal Government is willing to do what is necessary to deal with the deficit let alone the debt. Tax increases, spending cuts or a combination of the two are not possible in this political climate.

So, here are the only two possibilities: Defaulting on the debt or monetizing the debt (printing money). Defaulting is too disruptive in the short run, so monetizing the debt is the only possibility because it takes longer for people to notice, like a frog thrown in a pot of luke warn water on a hot stove. By the time the frog notices that he is boiling it's too late. Everything will inflate, including wages, prices, stock market, and commodities like gasoline but not equally across the board.

This pot we are in was set to boil over one year ago.

04/16/10 06:38 PM

#423

Alan Greenleaf

Hey Fred!

Regarding rant #1, I agree that the libs like to spend money on the poor, disabled, and hopeless, more than they do on the bright, the eager, and the gifted, but, you can't have all chiefs and no indians any more than you can have all indians and no chiefs! Certainly the way to "bring up" the lower end students is to NOT keep passing kids who can't read, and to TEST them before promotion, as we are seeing now. We need to keep ALL the kids busy, engaged, and not bored. The gifted programs we have had were terrific though, and I hope they will always have them too.

I heard some complain that this means that teachers will just "teach to the test". I'm still trying to figure out how it is a bad thing that "teaching to the test" assures that kids must have some minimum knowledge before promotion.

The trick is to keep it interesting for the kids (like RRHS, mostly) and to maintain an environment where teaching is possible. That's where Cleveland schools dropped the ball, fearing that punishment might make them feel bad about themselves, and therefore let them act out in class! Even boot camps have become sissified now, to it is harder and harder to "make a boy a man". Momma didn't do it, teachers can't do it, and now even the Marines can hardly do it, at least not like they used to.

Regarding Rant #2, you must be right. John, Randy and Bruce must be still digesting your most recent Great Truths, and will reply later! Let's hope!

Stay tuned for MY new rant....

04/16/10 07:01 PM

#424

Alan Greenleaf

Why can't we buy cheap drugs from Canada? Big Pharma contributions to politicians!
Why did Bush pass the 2003 Medicare prescription drug benefit? Big Pharma contributions to politicians!
Why was the 2002 farm bill passed, doubling agriculture spending from 1990 levels? The Ag lobby!

I think we ought to stop offering our politicans for sale! Here might be one way to stop such influence, and to make certain that Congress will have no trouble with campaign Finance Reform:

How about a Constitutional Amendment that says "If you give money to a politician for any reason, you go to jail"?

I'll bet Congress would find a way to budget money for campaigns, each candidate getting the same amount, and only from the government. What do you think?

04/17/10 09:09 AM

#425

Fred Thomas

Al,

It might be hard to get that Constitutional Amendment through the Congress but it's a good idea.

John,

It would help if you actually upgraded that Commodore 64 computer you have had for the last 30 years. Get a real PC or Mac.

04/17/10 10:12 AM

#426

Fred Thomas

Food or weeds?

It this new Obama economy it might be a good idea to learn about edible plants. In the wonderful Commie country of North Korea much of the population is living on "sam nam ul" (mountain vegetables). Even the layer inside the bark of trees is edible and if you get really hungry eat "mervy earth" (dirt) so that you can at least get that good full stommach feeling.

Start by letting those broad leaf weeds grow in your lawn. Many of those "weeds" were brought over from Europe by our ancestors because they knew about survival and edible plants. No more weed and feed!! Pretty soon your lawn will be full of FOOD!!! If you decide to go on an "all tree diet" though don,t strip the tree all the way around because you could kill it. You can buy topsoil at WalMart very cheap if you need the ultimate "mercy earth".

04/19/10 10:06 AM

#427

Fred Thomas

John,

It's amazing that you were able to upgrade your 1980's style TI-99 calculator into a calculating machine with 8K of memory, but you might want to upgrade your system with an off the shelf PC like Bruce did, and get a wireless keyboard and mouse instead of using your old mechanical typewriter.

04/20/10 09:34 AM

#428

Fred Thomas

Bruce,

Thanks for the tip. I'll get a security update on my PE Machine.

Mozart and MoTown

My favorite music includes the Greatest Hits of the 1700's. When I want to get fired up I play Mozart's 40th. I must have played it 10,000 times. It's safe to say that since it's been around for three centuries, that it will be around for at least another three centuries.

!950's and 1960's rock and roll, the music of our youth has been around for only a half a century, but is still going strong and I expect it to be around forever. Whenever I hear the Ronettes sing "Be My Little Baby" or the Temptations "My Girl" I get a warm feeling all over. Who could not enjoy the Supremes "Where Did Our Love Go" or Percy Sledges "When a Man Loves a Woman." What else could be as important as LOVE to sing about. That music of our youth was a mother lode but it started to taper off after MoTown died. What is your favorite song?

When I hear rap or any of the crap that is laughingly called music I am tempted to smash the kid's MP-3 player and kick him in the groin and yell, "That's not music you little shit!" But I usually resist the temptation. Ridiculing them is usually enough, but I wouldn't even go to the trouble of playing some Mozart or MoTown for them. They are too stupid to understand about LOVE. They may look somewhat like us but might as well come from another planet. Their music will never last.

04/20/10 11:24 AM

#429

Alan Greenleaf

So, nobody wants to vote for my Amendment? Geez. Wouldn't "politicians no longer for sale" solve most of our problems?

John, what was the name of that virus? While Norton is a strong program, it often does not stop such downloads. However they historically have has tools online to "repair" damage from new viruses. Just curious. PS - I like the Burro on the milk carton! LOL

04/22/10 09:18 AM

#430

Fred Thomas

Capitalism vs. Socialism

In case you guys didn't get the memo our economy is based on "capitalism" not "socialism", "welfarism", "bail-outism", "too big to failism", "quotaism" or even "sell your laborism".

It's time to retire and live off your CAPITAL, people. That's what makes America great.

04/23/10 01:55 PM

#431

Fred Thomas

Comic Books

As soon as I learned how to read, I was reading comic books like Superman, Batman, Archie and Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge was rich and had a vault full of cash and coins. That has been my goal ever since. Does anyone remember the four different kinds of Kryptonite? Everyone I knew had stacks of comic books. I remember that they used to cost ten cents each. What was your favorite comic book?

Sometime around the sixth grade, Jim Mcenteer and I started writing our own comic books. Like Jim said we were completely enthralled by our own cleverness. I wish I would have saved some of them. I taught my grandkids how to write their own books, design cruise ships , fighter jets amd birthday cards. I told them if you can put it on paper it gets a gold medal.

04/27/10 11:28 AM

#432

Randall Smith

Happy Birthday Fred

Thanks for the spell check Al.

04/27/10 07:20 PM

#433

Fred Thomas

Thanks for all the birthday wishes people.

04/28/10 10:09 AM

#434

Ellen Aspinwall (Templar)

Hmmmmmmmmm I think it's today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Fred!

Ellen

04/28/10 02:14 PM

#435

Fred Thomas

HMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAHHHHHHHHHH, yes it's today, April 28th.

Thanks for the hug, Ellen. That made my day.

04/28/10 04:25 PM

#436

Fred Thomas

Thanks John,

I can use that walker when I go down the mail box to pick up all my retirement checks, when I chase the kidsa off my lawn or just make the rounds of my gated community bitching about everything.

04/29/10 01:53 PM

#437

Fred Thomas

Who are we going to blame?

If you asked flamers like Bwany Fwank and Cwis Dodd who was to blame for the current economic crisis they would probably say greedy bankers and Wall Street types, particularly Goldman Sachs. Others would say that Bwany and Cwis are responsible because of their support for the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act). And what about corruption and incompetance at the SEC and other government regulatory agencies? Who were the people running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, buying bad mortgages and running those semi government agencies into bankruptcy?

Moodies and Standard and Poors did a terrible job of rating derivitives and mortgage backed securities too. What about phony property appraisals and realators selling homes to people who didn't have jobs? And who were idiots who bought homes without having income or jobs? What about people who took second mortgages and are now under water and people walking away from their obligation?

Obama blames Bush. Republicans blame Obama. Everyone blames the economists who never seem to predict anything correctly. The Fed is printing money, social security, medicare, and medicaid are on the verge of bankruptcy. It reminds me of the movie "Murder on the Orient Express", in which everyone on board the train conspired to commit the murder.

So when I wanted to know who was really responsible, I looked in the mirror and there he was, the greedy MFer staring back at me. This guy really thought that 30% annual returns on his IRAs would go on forever. Try looking in your mirror and you will see what I mean.

04/29/10 08:10 PM

#438

Randall Smith

Fred

You actually don't think that the price of gas had anything to do with the recession. That $4.00 a gallon didn't help.

04/30/10 01:24 PM

#439

Fred Thomas

Randy,

Yes certainly the oil bubble helped cause the recession and so did the real estate bubble, the stock market bubble and the credit bubble. Now we have a Federal Government bubble and a deficit/debt bubble. When will they pop and what will be the consequences?

04/30/10 07:48 PM

#440

Fred Thomas

JOHN,

Just because Reagan fired you, you shouldn't take it personally. Ironically I was offered a chance to train to be an air traffic controller but I turned it down and later went to work for the USPS. We, the (APWU) were ready to strike the same time that PATCO did but Reagan fired you guys first. We went back to work with our tail between our legs.

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