Southern Reports: The Warrick Blogger

2003-01-05T21:34:00.000-05:00

Editorial on Saving Social Security
Good Morning; its time again for coffee and conversation.

This morning lets think about SOCIAL SECURITY. We have suffered
monumental amounts of anguishing about the dangers to the system.
Conditions making Social Security a necessity for our country's
security have changed; most Americans did not live through the
"Great Depression" - some did. As early as the 1960s the system
showed signs of stress and need for change. Changes made could
have kept the system effective indefinitely; unfortunately, in
1980, "Boobus Americanus" elected the "Great California Dunce"
and everything went all to H--- (i.e., perdition).

Perfectly well aware that his political policies were creating an
catastrophic national deficit and national debt, "The Great
Prevaricator" raised the Social Security payroll tax on the poor
(capping it for the rich) to usurious levels and added the money
to the "General Funds", trying to mislead and cheat the American
people. His policies robbed the lower socio-economic 70% of our
people of TEN TRILLION (ten million million) DOLLARS, and gave it
to the upper 1/2% of our population; we wonder why the economy
won't work). The national debt is held largely in Government
Bonds by 1/2% of our population, and the FOUR HUNDRED BILLION
dollars of interest is paid to them - and increases every time
Alan Greenspan raises the "Federal Funds Rate". There ought to
be a bumper sticker which reads: IF YOU HADN'T VOTED FOR REAGAN
WE WOULD HAVE A FOUR HUNDRED BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS INSTEAD OF A
DEFICIT!!. Social Security is in danger because the "Reaganites"
raped and gutted the fund and gave it to the super-rich. Let's
consider how the Social Security System can be saved.

A first step would institute a HEAVY tax on funds accumulated by
the super-rich in the last 15 years, levying a progressive tax on
the bond income WE are being taxed to pay. Secondly, recover all
monies borried by the Government to obfuscate the budget and put
all Social Security surplus, and all "super-tax" income into
tax-free Municipal Bonds (i.e., build roads, schools, hospitals,
dams, and public buildings, and repair our neglected infra-
structure, and meet other social necessities at the lowest
possible cost) into a SPECIFICALLY Social Security Fund, legally
untouchable by any other governmental entity, and not to be
considered in any Federal Budget. Third, impose the 15% Social
Security Tax upon ALL income with no cap on the maximum tax owed;
benefits would be reduced by 1% for every $1,000.00 of the
recipient's gross annual income above $50,000.00 per year. The
fourth step would be to educate all our population as to the
tremendous obligation owed all of us by the super-rich for
providing the safe and secure environment which provided the
opportunity for them to get rich and stay rich - that economic
chasm between poverty and the super-rich is the rot which
destroys the "rotten door which Revolution kicks in", and the
"Ancien Regime" of France who were guillotined could, if alive,
explain some of this to you. Given the finite limit to life and
the average age of our population, the best investment possible
today is stock in "Funeral Parlors". With pressure diminished,
Social Security can be saved if anyone has the political courage
to follow the outline above.

2003-01-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

Editorial on National Debt Elimination

Good Morning: its time again for coffee and conversation.

This morning let's take a look at what our Government has accomplished
since 1930. In 1930 our national debt was twenty-five billion
dollars; in 1967, when one dollar bills were converted from
Silver Certificates to Federal Reserve Notes, the national debt
was just under four hundred billion dollars; in 1995 the national
debt exceeds six TRILLION dollars and total debt in this country
has grown from just less than one trillion dollars in 1967 to
just less than TWENTY TRILLION dollars today. Lets take a look at
what's happened to the value of our money since 1930:

DOW-JONES AVERAGES $1930 $DATE BELOW lB STERLING

10/14/29 = $350.97 $1.00 = $1.00 in 1940 1 = $5.00 in 1940
10/28/29 = 260.64 1.00 = .44 in 1967 1 = 2.19 in 1975
10/29/29 = 230.07 1.00 = .26 in 1975 1 = 1.63 in 1980
10/30/29 = 258.47 1.00 = .13 in 1980 1 = 1.53 in 1987
11/14/29 = 257.58 1.00 = .0617in 1987/$1.00 = 0 .01 in 2000
01/31/80 = 875.75 (x.13 = 113.85 in 1930 dollars)
01/23/87 =2,101.52 (x.0617 = 129.66 in 1930 dollars)
01/20/93 =3,241.95 (X.04536 = 147.05 in 1930 dollars)
01/17/95 =3,930.66 (x.04391 = 172.59 in 1930 dollars)
07/10/95 =4,727.93 (x.04303 = 203.45 in 1930 dollars)
02/04/98 =8,129.71 (x.03916 = 318.36 in 1930 dollars)

A dollar was worth 100 cents in 1930; 42 cents in 1967; 26 cents
in 1975; 13 cents in 1980; and 4.30 cents today. On Black
Tuesday 29 October 1928 the Dow Jones dropped 30 points to
$230.07; on Thursday 30 October 1928 it rose again to $258.47; on
17 January 1995 worth $172.59, on 10 July 1995 worth $203.45 and
on 4 February 1998 worth $318.36 in 1930 dollars.

This represents REAL progress; in 1930 dollars our current SIX
TRILLION DOLLAR national debt is $263.46 BILLION DOLLARS, more
than ten (10) times more than when Franklin Roosevelt campaigned
on the platform "Throw the spendthrifts out!", and five (5) times
our national debt when Reagan was elected. I do not believe that
the national debt is intractable; consider my solution. A one-
percent national sales tax will produce sixty billion dollars a
year in revenue off our six trillion dollar Gross Domestic
Product. The second year two percent would produce 120 billion;
the third year three percent 180 billion, and so on. By year
five the congress could gradually begin to restructure the
current tax practices toward a form approximating (with
absolutely NO deductions, and on total income): One-half percent
tax on the first $10,000.00 of income($50.00), and increasing
one-half percent on each additional $10,000.00. For example,
$20,000.00 would be taxed 1% ($200.00); $50,000.00 @ 2.5%
($1,250.00); $500,000.00 @ 25% ($125,000.00); up to a maximum of
50% for $1,000,000.00 and above.

Money and capital can be accumulated because the democratic
structure of our society provides order and security, and permits
such accumulation. Those who have accumulated did not do by
their own strength and abilities - to think such is sheer vanity
- and they owe the society which permitted their success.
Industrial corporations should be taxed 1% of their GROSS.
Service and financial entities should be taxed 3% of their GROSS.
Energy companies should be taxed 10% of their GROSS because of
their destruction of our environment, and cost of reconstruction.
Tobacco companies should be taxed 15% of their GROSS, and a $3.00
per pack tax levied on cigarettes; it would raise no extra tax
revenue, but would reduce our Medicare and Medicaid cost by
between 20% and 30%, to say nothing of decreased absenteeism and
decreased efficiency which reduce industrial costs.

This nation suffers a moral cancer. More dishonesty and
crookedness has been promoted by "tax exemptions" than by
anything else except the buying of Congress and State
Legislatures by special interests such as banks, and insurance
and energy companies. Reagan & Co. gave away $10 trillion of our
money to the upper one/two hundredth of our population through
deregulation and dishonest taxation exemption for the rich.
Those "Christian" people don't care squat about what kind of
world their children and grand-children live in, whether their
air or water is poisoned and their environment toxic, as long as
they make their PROFIT. "Verily, I say to you, a man cannot
serve two masters." "The love of money is the root of all evil."

2003-01-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

Editoral on Grammar

Good Morning; time again for coffee and conversation.

This morning, let's talk about two new words in the language; the noun
is "a bork" and the verb "to bork". These terms arise from the
name of a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Washington, D. C.)
judge nominated by Ronald Reagan for membership on the Supreme
Court - Robert Bork. Most Americans did not even recognize the
name of Robert Bork, and even fewer could state his legal
philosophy with any clarity; but then, very few Americans enjoy
reading legal decisions to analyze the thinking of those who
write such decisions. Almost all Americans became aware of the
battle in the U. S. Senate over Bork's nomination. The intensity
of the battle should have come as a surprise to no one since the
nomination was sent foward by America's premier Constitutional
Terrorist, Ronald Reagan.

The legal philosophy of Robert Bork is simple and clear: The
constitutional civil rights of any individual MUST NEVER be
allowed to stand in the way of a rich man making a profit! This
is quintessential Republican philosophy. Any real historian, or
anyone who has read THE POLITICS OF RICH AND POOR, will know that
Republican deregulation (banking, stock market, manufacturers)
and refusal to tax the super-rich led to the Depression of 1893,
the Depression of 1929, and the collapse of the late 1980s. It
doesn't matter if a product kills you, or you die from the
pollution produced by the manufacturer, or you have to pay ONE
HUNDRED SIXTY BILLION DOLLARS in taxes to bail out those in the
upper one/two hundredth of our population who have robbed you
blind (particularly in interest rates), or that your
grandchildren inherit an unliveable wasteland and a national debt
of a thousand Godzillion dollars or more. The important thing is
that the upper one/two hundredth of our population should never
have to pay any taxes, that you should have to pay taxes for
them, and you should never complain of any injury (financial,
physical, or emotional) done you by them. H. L. Mencken sure had
it right when he called us "Boobus Americanus"; I'll bet YOU
voted Republican.

Your laws are made by the best Congress money can buy, and it
ain't your money; every law Congress makes is to your
disadvantage and hurt unless you are of the super-rich. You
surely don't think that Congress will permit any health plan
which will prevent the pharmaceutical companies or doctors or
hospitals or insurance companies from robbing you blind - but you
believed the advertising lies, didn't you?; you just loved Harry
and Louise didn't you? Think of the public lands with hundreds
of billions of dollars worth of coal under them sold, forced by
law to be sold, for something like $10.00 per acre, or the
trillions of dollars worth of oil more or less given to the oil
companies by the government - and who do you think got part of
the profits? Kevin Phillips wrote ARROGANT CAPITAL as well as
THE POLITICS OF RICH AND POOR, and you really ought to read them
both. You, I, and all of us have really been BORKED!!!

2003-01-05T21:26:00.000-05:00

Editorial on Breast Feeding Children

Good Morning; its time for more coffee and conversation.

This morning. let's talk about a simple way substantially to decrease
health costs for our nation - breast feeding babies. Experience
indicates that most people are blind to the benefits gained from
doing something completely natural. When God designs something,
and ordains a proper way of doing something, one seldom flouts
such a design with impunity. Nonetheless, this is not the only
divinely ordained activity that "Christians" have stigmatized and
considered to be "dirty". Our corporations, in a completely
unchristian way, have promoted the use of "formula" at the
expense of breast-feeding, and have placed profit above community
welfare; consider the millions of dollars spent by the coalition
of health insurance companies, the American Medical Association,
and the pharmaceutical companies to buy advertising to convince
you of lies, and to buy all possible members of your Congress.

A major benefit of breast-feeding is reduction of the chances of
breast cancer by 80% in those who nurse their babies as compared
to women who have never breast-fed. A second benefit is the
mother's immunological mechanism passed on to the infant by the
mother's colostrum. A third benefit results from the composition
of the mother's milk and the shape of her breasts (minimizing the
amount of air sucked in with the milk) which doesn't upset the
infant's digestive system, virtually preventing "colic". A
fourth benefit is the chemical composition of mother's milk
designed to enhance and promote the development of the
neurological/mental development of the infant which promotes much
improved mental functioning and intelligence. A fifth benefit is
the "skin-to-skin" contact of nursing which creates an ionic
interchange further promoting and enhancing neurological/mental
development of the infant. Healthier, brighter, thriving infants
with less sickness and absenteeism, in combination with decreased
incidence of breast cancer - all resulting in less medical and
hospital costs for illness - can reduce national health costs by
twenty (20%) percent, and improve the results of our educational
process immeasurably.

Breast-feeding in public is considered by many dirty-minded
people to be "repulsive". It is difficult to see a perfectly
natural act benefitting mother, infant, and community, and
designed by God, as "repulsive". We need an intensive
educational effort to make breast-feeding in public socially
acceptable, and, indeed, socially approved. This would mean that
women were released from the necessity of hiding when nursing,
and could breast feed at work, while shopping, and even at
church. There have been choir members at churches where I was a
choir member who nursed their babies during choir-practice
through the simple expedient of covering baby and shoulder with a
baby blanket, and no one expressed outrage. Since breast-feeding
also would simplify some child-care problems and reduce health
costs for the poor markedly, it would be wonderful should we, as
a nation, for once, do something which made good sense and worked
wonderfully well for our benefit.

2003-01-05T21:03:00.000-05:00

Letter to Sharon

25 May 2001

Hon. Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister
c/o Israeli Embassy
3514 International Drive, North West
Washington D C, 20008

Minister Sharon:

For decades I have supported the necessity for Jewish people to
avoid genocide, and the presence of the State of Israel in the
Middle East. I was horrified by the Holocaust perpetrated upon
Jews by the NAZIs. My intense sympathy for Israel began to
evaporate during the tenure of Netanyahu. It evaporated totally,
leaving not a trace, when you violated the Al Aqsa Mosque using
the IDF as body-guards. Your idiocy effectively has murdered a
thousand innocent poeple, and it is my considered opinion that
Minister Barak should summarily have arrested you for treason,
tried you, and shot you. I fail to understand just why it is not
just as evil as the NAZI perpetration of the Holocaust upon you
for you to perpetrate a like Holocaust upon the Palestine people
whom you displaced from their legitimate land.

Ehclosed herewith you will find a copy of a summary of
archeological research which demolishes utterly any right or
claim to ERETZ ISRAEL. The fell fruit of this specious claim
include: (1) The assassination of Lord Moyne by the Stern Gang
on 6 November 1943; (2) The bombing of the King David Hotel in
Jerusalem on 22 July 1944 by the Irgun, leaving 91 dead and
dozens wounded; (3) Between 1 November 1945 and 30 June 1946 the
murder by the Irgun of 40 British Officers, soldiers, and police,
and the wounding of 200 more; and (4) The Holocaust perpetrated
by the Irgun/LEHI on Dayr Yasin on 9 April 1948. Menachem Begin,
David ben Gurion, and Yitzshak Shamir were deeply involved in the
terrorism of the Stern Gang, Irgun, and LEHI. It ill behooves
you to whine about Palestinians being terrorists with this kind
of Israeli background. It is absolutely certain that EVERY
SETTLER should be removed from any territory outside the pre-1967
boundries of Israel. Family land belonging for TEN (10)
GENERATIONS to the family of a fellow worshipper at my church,
who also is my close friend, lies under the Tel Aviv
International Airport, and not even an iota of payment or
recompense has ever been made to them; is this Israeli justice?

With regard to the "Jerusalem Solution" which I proposed to
Richard Nixon in 1968, to all my various Representatives and
Senators, and to every President except Reagan (who couldn't read
words over 3 letters long), it still holds that the Middle East
is going to remain in turmoil until the problem of Jerusalem is
settled. The "Dome of the Rock" and "The Wailing Wall" are both
in East Jerusalem and they are not going to go away. The problem
therefore must be depolarized by assertion of Christian rights to
sacred sites within the city thereby introducing a third party
with rights of intercourse, and U. N. declaration of Jerusalem as
an International City. There should be establishd a six (6)
member international/interreligious commission made up of:

1. A prominent Sunni Mullah from Saudi Arabia
2. President Khatami as a Shi'ite member
3. A prominent fundamentalist/Orthodox (Sephardic) Israeli Rabbi
4. An American or European Ashkenazic Reform Rabbi
5. The Archbishop of Canterbury (as a Catholic/Protestant)
6. Either The Rev. Mr. Billy Graham or Demetrios II of Istanbul
(Evangelical or Eastern Orthodox)

The ex-officio chairmanship would rotate each month by religion,
and any action would require a two-thirds vote under at least two
Chairmen; it is probable that they would fuss and squabble for
about six months, and finally realize that they have to do
SOMETHING and finally work together. This is the only
arrangement I can conceive which would circumvent the
determination of both the Israelis and Moslems to keep Jerusalem
for themselves, except my emerging conviction that the only true
answer to the safety of our planet would be the total eviction of
the State of Israel from the current location and restoration of
the territory to the tortured and abused original residents.

In the hope that this epistle might stir some decency,
compassion, and intelligent compromise, I shall remain

Yours Most respectfully,

elw,sr

encl.

cc: Hon. Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor
THE WASHINGTON POST
1150 15th Street, North West
Washington, D. C. 2007

2003-01-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

Bush the Bully

George Bush reminds me of nothing so much as a 3rd grade school-
yard bully playing with his toy soldiers in the sandbox. He is
joined by 2 of his 3rd grade "bully" friends, Cheny and Rumsfeld.
None of the 3 have the slightest grasp of the consequences of
their actions, and since they have thermonuclear bombs to play
with, they want to see them go "BANG"!! Never having worn the
uniform of our country, nor having been shot at, there are many
things beyond their intellectual grasp. Intensive research and
study of the presidency and history of the presidency since the
1930s have revealed no one to me in these 2 centuries who sought
the Office of President who was so utterly unprepared to fill
that office. The greatest danger to this country still consists
in Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and the al
Queda, but Saddam has been so weakened that they think he can be
bullied.

2003-01-05T20:31:00.000-05:00

CRITIQUE OF BUSH HOMELAND SECURITY EFFORT

Critical analysys of the careers, failures, education, actions,
and communications of George "Wimpy" Bush force the conclusion
that no one who has sought the position of President of the US
has been more unprepared for the position than Bush. All major
members of the administration, with the exception of Colin
Powell, are equally incompetent. There seem to be at least four
(4) purposes behind the "Homeland Security Bill" and the push to
assault Iraq.

1.

To impose the AMERICAN TALIBAN agenda on the entire country.
The Chief American Taliban, the Executive Director so to speak,
is John Ashcroft. The "American Taliban High Council" is
composed of Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, James
Dobson, Gary Bauer, and Don Wildmon. Of all these war-mongers
George "Wimpy" got his daddy to get him into the Air National
Guard, where he never made a drill, and Pat Robertson, as many of
us will remember, got his daddy (i.e., Senior U. S. Senator,
Virginia) to prevent his being sent to Korea. Both men really
didn't want to be shot at; the rest of them (i.e., Rumsfeld,
Cheny, Wolfowitz, Adelman, Rice, Ashcroft, Wildmon, Bauer,
Roberts, Falwell, Dobson) have ever worn the uniform of the
nation's armed forces. The most important purpose of the
"Homeland Security Bill", the American Taliban, and the
administration is to create a theocracy here (like Iran, or the
Taliban's Afghanistan), and to abolish completely the "Bill of
Rights".

2.

George "Wimpy" can't defeat the al-Queda, or find Osama bin Laden
or Mullah Omar, or even neutralize Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Being a
bully, Bush has decided that Iraq is so weakened that He can whip
Saddam. This deflects public attention from his failues in
Afghanistan. Twenty-five billion dollars should be put into
Afghanistan immediately so as to recreate the infra-structure,
create an adequate educational system, provide employment for the
idle warriors so they would not have time to plot the Taliban
return, and create an adequate heterogeneous army to provide a
nationwide reach of influence for the national government we have
started. This, however, would restrict the disasterous tax-cuts
with which Georga "Wimpy" hopes to repay those who bought him as
their puppet with THREE HUNDRED MILLION ($300,000,000.00) DOLLARS
in compaign funds.

3.

Get control of Iraqi oil, cancel the Russian and French contracts
already in force, and give the oil to his "puppet-masters" who
have bought him. Cheny should be forced to confirm or deny,
under oath and penalty of perjury, whether War on Iraq was
considered as an option in his committee on energy policies.

4.

Deflect public attention away from the theft of two million
dollars from Charles Keating"s Silverado Savings and Loan by Neil
Bush, his brother (for which taxpayers had to pay), the apparent
corruption of Cheny at Halliburton, Bush's apparent corruption at
Harken, and the purchase of Bush as a puppet for big oil and the
top one (1%) percent of our population for $300,000,000.00.

2003-01-04T23:25:00.000-05:00

First test