Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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$40 A$$

I use Yahoo as my web portal, partly out of habit, but mainly because I like their financial section.  I follow the market and my investments there.  The news section on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired.  Oh it touches all the key stories of the day, but then I have to wade through the celebrity gossip, the reality show buzz, and other such nonsense.  What really tears me up is that sometimes I find myself reading that garbage.

The other day for some reason still unclear to me,  an article on 10 styles of jeans trending currently caught my attention.  What really made my eyes pop were the prices.  The cheapest pair was maybe $60, most were over $100, and a couple pair were north of two bills.  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I still think a good pair of Levi’s should cost $20.  Of course, they don’t, but if I have to pay much over $30 or $35 for a pair of jeans I am not a happy camper.

The overpriced jeans reminded me of an incidence with my now grown daughter when she was in 5th or 6th grade.  This would have been around 1979 or 1980. That year we made the leap and bumped her up to Levi’s from Wranglers.  She was after all a little older now, and young women are very into fashion.  Given our budget at the time we thought this a generous move on our part. Continue reading “$40 A$$”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 9,742

…yeah I know you did not ask!

Am I the only one embarrassed, maybe even crept out a little, to see a coworker the morning after having had a sexual dream about them?  This is especially so when you cannot understand why you were dreaming about them at all, let alone with sexual content.

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Warren Buffett’s ingenious deficit idea

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes I’ve heard in all this drama about the debt ceiling:

“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he told Becky Quick. “You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.”

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9-9-9

I do have a question for presidential candidate Herman Cain with his 9-9-9 tax proposal.

If we institute a 9% Federal tax is that to be added on top of state and city taxes?  In Tennessee very little is excluded from sales tax. That would have citizens in this part of the world paying close to a 20% sales tax every time they buy anything.

Can you say regressive, and let’s tax the poor a bigger percentage of their incomes.  I suppose his argument would be to point to the 9% income tax, but many of the our poorest citizens pay little or no taxes now.  There is another whammy on this group.  Especially so since many of these folks are the hard core unemployable, uneducated, disabled, or facing other life circumstances keeping them down.  ( I know a lot of folks will argue with me, but I do not believe that the percentage of folks willing to not work and live hand to mouth is that large.)

Could there be some meaning to 9-9-9.  If you turn it upside down it is 6-6-6.

I ran across this little tidbit after I posted this article:

“Without bold alternatives, Americans desperate for big solutions are attracted to bold crackpot ideas like Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” proposal, which would raise taxes on the poor and cut them for the rich.”

The above quote is from an article by Robert Reich at commondreams.org

To see the whole article follow this link:  The Meagerness of the Republican Debates, the Smallness of the President’s Solutions, and the Need for a Progressive Alternative

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Banks, Breasts, Bamboozled

I quit Bank of America a while back as I decided I did not want to do business with them.  I have major problems with their business practices.  So I switched to Regions.  Now they have started charging customers for the use debit cards.  I decided to quit them and open up an account with the company credit union.  Dollars are votes after all.

To effectuate the change I went to the credit union branch just across from my office.  The branch manager is a young woman of maybe 30 years.  She invites me into her office to do the necessaries involved in opening up a new account.  She was an attractive enough young lady, but no knock out.  She was however wearing a top with a very low scoop neck and some sort of brassiere that barely covered her nipples.  I personally do not find this appropriate business wear, but maybe that is just me.  Just sitting talking to her I was getting an eyeful even though part of me was trying not to look.  She was seated at a rather large desk. Every time she leaned forward to have me sign Continue reading “Banks, Breasts, Bamboozled”

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Our Infrastructure in a Nutshell

There is a sidewalk in the area where I live and work.  It is well used if you consider that most folks will drive a ¼ mile rather than walk.  I frequently walk the 2/3 of a mile to work on this urban path. The sidewalk is in disrepair.  Some slabs have moved creating uneven surfaces between them.  Parts of the sidewalk are crumbling.  Generally it is in need of repair or replacement.

Instead of either option the city has sprayed areas that could be problematic to walkers with red paint.  This I suppose is to alert you to the potential danger.  It more or less works in the daylight hours.  Nighttime is another matter.  Of course, uneven sidewalks are the lesser of the dangers in this particular neighborhood.  I live where I live for the convenient nearness to my employment, but sometimes I wonder.  But I ramble.

The crumbling sidewalk is a good analogy for the general state of our infrastructure in the good old US of A.  We are not tending to basic maintenance.  We are pushing projects off to some future time.  We have this obsession with “No taxes”.  Well guess what, it takes money to run a society, to run a country.   As a single person making a better than average income, I pay a goodly amount in taxes.  The only tax that really galls me is sales tax, probably because it is so regressive.  I see high sales taxes as politicians failing to institute a fair tax system.

I for one would like to see some more taxes, but on those who have managed to avoid most of them thanks to our politicians.  It is time we taxed those who can really afford before our country totally degenerates into a third world nation covered with red paint.

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An INTENSE moment of TRUTH with MAINSTREAM Media

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War is a Racket

“War is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”

Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, in 1935

Who is Smedley Butler? Wikipedia starts off as follows: “…nicknamed ‘The Fighting Quaker’ and ‘Old Gimlet Eye’, was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, in Central America and the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in World War I. By the end of his career he had received 16 medals, five of which were for heroism. He is one of 19 people to twice receive the Medal of Honor, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only person to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions.”

If there ever was a man that knew war he has to be among the elite.  The quote is the start of his book, War is a Racket, published in 1935.  Continue reading “War is a Racket”

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Abe Lincoln and Eric Cantor

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There floats around a story of a trusted advisor of President Abraham Lincoln who recommended a candidate for Lincoln’s cabinet. Lincoln declined and when asked why, he said, “I don’t like the man’s face.”

“But the poor man is not responsible for his face,” his advisor insisted.

“Every man over forty is responsible for his face,” Lincoln replied, and the prospect was considered no more.

Personally, I think there is a lot of truth in the above story. Most folk can recognize a face that is habitually angry or happy or sad.  It does take living awhile for what has happened to you and what is inside of you to become stamped on your features.

I don’t like Eric Cantor’s face.  It strikes me as a combination of arrogant, angry and prudishness (picture someone sucking on green persimmons).   Every time I see a picture of this fellow it appalls me that he is a Congressman, let alone a leader in the not so august body.   I want to see someone with compassion and acceptance stamped on their face.

On the other hand John Boehner looks like he wants to fleece me.  Not so surprisingly that is exactly what he is doing to the middle class and poor in this country.