That and this.......

I was riding along with one of my favorite sons, I have two sons and the one I’m with at the moment is my favorite one, and musing about life, investments, politics and whatever. In my plus eight decades, I’ve saved a few dollars but seem to have a problem getting any return. I well remember in the ‘70s during the Carter administration we were behind on commercial job printing and I planned to add a new press to our operation but found that even borrowing a part of the cost was not wise as interest rates were up to about 20 percent. I can’t afford to buy land; I’m too late to get into the gold market and of course sold my Winnebago stock at a loss many years ago when I should have just stuck it away. I mused about getting into the fabric market and introducing a line of “North Dakota Girl” swim suits, or perhaps “West Virginia Girl” cosmetics. Son Stu was in a very negative mood at the time and said, “Nah, it’ll never sell.” I came back with the fact that there was a lot of money to be made in television and suggested a production of “The Real Housewives of Iowa” or “The Real Husbands of Fargo” and of course he shot me down again with “Nah, it’ll never sell.” I don’t give up easily and suggested perhaps I could write episodes of soap operas and Stu said they (soap operas) would never keep up with politics, and he’s probably right. So of course we wandered into politics, on which we agree most of the time. I fail to understand the present occupant of the White House rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas. Wouldn’t that make a lot more sense than going to war to keep the Strait of Hormuz open? With a hundred pipelines (or maybe a dozen, I don’t know) going through the aquifer in Nebraska, what difference would one more make? Somebody is going to get the Canadian oil and if we don’t they’ll just build a pipeline to the Pacific and send it to the never ending Asian market. But then what do I know? I’ll admit that my thinking is to eliminate getting oil from the Near East and tapping resources in the North American Continent. In other words - Drill, baby-Drill! Of course I wouldn’t stop there, how about Steve Forbes appointed Fed-Hed and sending Mr. Ben Bernanke, the present chairman of the Federal Reserve, back to his bank? If Steve can’t leave his magazine, how about Bill Gates or Warren Buffett? They might work for a dollar a year. How about Oley North as head of the CIA and John Bolton as Secretary of State? Actually, I think that Leon Panetta is probably as good a Sec-Def as we’ve ever had, so keep him on the job. How about term limits for both the House and Senate, perhaps four for the House and two for the Senate. Pretty much the same old guys are back in Congress and to say they are kind of divided is the understatement of the week. In my opinion, (you’re going to hear it if you want to or not - probably not), we have a horrific spending problem, not a taxing problem. With a national debt of 15 plus trillion dollars we owe more than our entire gross national product for a year, and our tax rate, figuring federal, state and local taxes, is approaching 50 percent. If you don’t believe me, look at your utility, communication, entertainment, grocery or whatever bill. It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it, to want to build a pipeline from Alberta to Texas for Canadian oil and borrow the money from China? It’s a bit difficult to know which way to turn, being a fiscal conservative, a social moderate and someone who thinks we have enough anti-gun laws, anti-abortion laws and enough restrictions about same sex marriage. I just don’t want government to meddle in my social beliefs. Government should keep me safe, provide adequate roads, provide education for my kids and assist in things we can’t do for ourselves like clean water, healthy food and clean air. Of course I’m willing to pay for them. Well, you don’t have to agree with me and since the boss is gone don’t blame her. Come in and see me. I’m pushing 90 and hard of hearing (audio challenged) and pretty set in my ways but I’ll still listen to you. We’ll even let you write a letter to the editor, but be sure to sign it.

LOM