I'm back from repeating a 4 day training session ("the midpoint") at Athens, GA for the Navy. I already took the instruction in July, but then proceeded to spend the next 5 months failing an exam known as "FS2". It is probably the hardest of all the exams, but it was ridiculous for me to have so much difficulty in passing it.
I'm confident I passed it this time, but that's the way it goes when you fail it twice and know exactly what to key into during the lectures. Unfortunately, I'm pretty far behind and will not likely be able to graduate with my class. Tentatively, I'll be graduating with the next class in August.
Down at school, the mood was totally different than it was when I did the midpoint in July. In July, the basic gouge was that we were all still going to mobilize, either immediately upon graduation, or most likely within a year of graduation. ("Gouge" is Navy-speak for "essential truth of the matter.")
I honestly felt as though this must have been what it was like to attend a military school knowing you were going to fight a war in the Pacific, or in Vietnam, etc. I felt a closeness and comaraderie with my classmates because we were going to war together. There was even a significant chance that some of us would not come back.
I honestly feel that it drew me closer to my classmates. That I wanted to get to know them. That I wanted to hang out with them after class.
Well, what a difference 5 months make! Right now, the gouge is that almost nobody is deploying. The mission in Iraq has drawn down, and with recruiting and retention of the active-duty force through the roof due to the bad economy, they're able to handle most of the requirements in Afghanistan.
Didn't have the same feeling at all. In fact, I've seen e-mails where they're asking for volunteers for mobilizations, and the current trend is that all the mob billets are being filled by volunteers. Figure if somebody is unemployed, $100,000 a year, tax-free, as a deployed O-3 starts looking pretty good.
The folks from California have said that when they're notified of mobilization opportunities, that they're seeing guidance like, "preferrence is being given to people who are currently unemployed."
Again, what a difference! We went from an environment where folks were being deployed no matter what, to one where so few people are deploying that folks are fighting for the opportunity.
Which brings me to some serious thinking on my own situation. As some of you know, this entire process started for me in 2003, when I was still employed at Parker. I tried to get into the National Guard as an infantry officer, and they worked with me a little bit, but then basically informed me that there was no way it could happen fast enough for me to meet the age deadline. (All training, through OCS had to be complete before my 40th birthday.)
Then, in 2005, I got a letter from a Navy Reserve Officer Programs recruiter and immediately submitted my packet. After that, they lost my packet for 8 months. Finally, they found it, and I was selected for a direct commission.
However, I had no idea the training would drag out for so long! I submitted my packet in the middle of 2005, and I won't be deployable until the middle of 2010! Literally, 5 years from the time I submitted my packet is when I'll be fully trained and eligible to deploy.
(And 7 years from the time I started trying to get back into the military! The time-frame is insane. I joined, served and was discharged from the Army in less time than it has taken me just to go from submitting paperwork to getting fully trained in the Navy Reserve! I honestly considered enlisting, again, in the Army back in 2005. I even had the MOS picked out: 13F, an artillery MOS. I sometimes regret that I didn't. I'd already be discharged by now!)
As for my motivation for doing this, as I've made abundantly clear to everybody, I wanted to do this to give back to a nation that has given me so very, very much. I struggled financially as a young man, but pretty much from about 1998 onward, I've been "over the hump" so to speak. Although some folks find it distasteful to use the word "wealthy", I consider myself wealthy in a world where most people barely scrape by.
It could have only happened for me in the United States of America, and it could only happen during an era like our current one. What chance would a person of mixed racial ancestry have had at almost any other time during our history?
For instance, I'm an Army paratrooper, but when you watch Band of Brothers, you'll notice... they're all white. That was the policy back then. Italians and Jews were okay, but Asians and blacks?
My modest success in life is only because I've stood on the shoulders of giants. Giants in the fields of civil rights and giants who stood to defend the country so it could become what it is, now.
My original goal was to go one tour of Individual Augmentation with the Army to Iraq or Afghanistan, and then request transfer to the VTU. (Which means I'd still be technically with the Navy reserve, but would not be drilling. It would be in the ballpark of submitting a resignation.)
I rehearsed the words I was going to say when I was ready for an assignment. "I want an IA with the Army, and not one in the green zone. Put me with a transportation company or an MP unit or some unit that is in harm's way. My preferrence would be that I don't spend much time behind a desk."
For a while, there were a ton of billets available as embedded trainers with the Afghan National Army... that would have been perfect, but we got the news sometime early this year that this mission was drying up as far as mobilization opportunities for Navy O's. In fact, they had a bunch of guys ready to go ETT to the ANA, and they cancelled the mission, the last time they were thinking of doing it.
This would be a winner in almost every conceivable way. I would get to do what I really want to do. I could serve with the Army, where I am most comfortable. With my parachute wings on my uniform, I could move past a lot of the typical hazing a Navy Officer might expect with an Army unit. Another Navy Officer, who might not be so happy about being with the Army, wouldn't have to. Ultimately, an Army officer, who probably has already got a combat tour, maybe two, could stay home because I'd be filling his place.
As a Navy Officer on loan to the Army, I couldn't work in a combat specialty, but fortunately, Navy Supply Corps covers a lot of different areas, including transportation.
There was also a selfish motivation behind wanting to serve. I have admired combat vets my entire life. From my grandfather who flew bombers for the Army Air Corps in WWII to my uncle Gary who died during the Tet Offensive in '68, to the millions of nameless and faceless many who answered the nation's call to service.
I want, quite selfishly, to be able to say that I did my duty and served my time just as they did.
When I left the Army in 1987, I did so with the belief that I'd always come back if the country needed me. It just never really needed me until this decade. The country managed to stay at peace until I got pretty long in the tooth for a military guy.
Now, the opportunity is still there, but in much smaller measure, and the door appears to be closing.
It has left me to wonder if I really want to keep doing this at all. The money is unimportant to me. With Logan turning out to be the biggest jock in my family in a generation, Saturdays mean a lot to me.
A funny thing happened on the way to leaving though. The first, which wasn't entirely unpredictable, is that I love drilling. I love participating in the reserve. I love serving with other servicemembers. I look forward to each drill and enjoy every moment of it.
On top of that, reservists are now eligible to get health-care insurance at what I consider an insanely low rate. I'm able to buy coverage for my entire family for less than $200 a month. It is, without a doubt, the best coverage I've ever had. My copays and deductibles are negligible. Of all the possible benefits they could offer, this one really hits the target with me.
So, I think I may have inadvertently found something I'll probably stick with. I love being part of the world's greatest Navy. Among my many blessings, I count the fact that I have been priviledged to serve in both the world's greatest Army and the world's greatest Navy. I am honored to serve.
A lot of folks will be relieved that my chances of an IA are now greatly reduced. It's not all bad for me, either. This gives me a chance to affiliate with a Navy unit. Navy units still deploy, but it's more likely that they'll deploy to someplace like Bahrain, not Bagram. And the deployments are shorter: 7 months, versus 13.
I had put a lot of my life on hold in anticipation of over a year overseas with the Army. Now, I can start focusing on some other aspects of my life. My business is launching a lawn-care business unit next year. If profitability is good (knock on wood) in the other business units, I'll finally be initiating the aircraft lease business unit.
I can get back to working on my golf game. Next year is the year where I'll teach my son how to golf. I've been holding back, afraid it'll mess up his baseball swing, but he's already one of the best players in the city. He'll figure out how to separate them both. I figure he'll probably play baseball until he's 18, but if I can teach him to golf, he can probably do that his entire life.
Honestly, the thought of not immediately deploying came as a substantial shock to me. I guess now I have to go about living a life that I'd been furiously putting on hold for the past two years.
Okay, those are my major thoughts for the day. Here are some minor ones:
1. The Navy screwed up my promotion paperwork. I'm supposed to be a Lieutenant Junior Grade, not an Ensign right now. However, when processing my security clearance, they saw I was born overseas and said, "Whoa! We need proof of citizenship." Ummm... yeah, the top of that birth certificate? Yeah, the part that says, "Consular Report of the Birth of a United States Citizen Abroad"... yeah, that's sorta the proof that I'm a United States Citizen... Anyway, the security clearance got straightened out, and I have my clearance, now. However, that caused a delay in the processing of my promotion paperwork. For those unfamiliar, this is pretty much an administrative promotion based on time in grade / time in service. Promotions for officers don't really get competitive until you go up for O-4 (Major in the Army / Air Force / Marines, or LT Commander in the Navy.)
2. Got my statement from my country club and man, it'll be nice once I pay off my stock fee. Basically, to belong to a country club, you have to become an owner of the club. These clubs are all owned by the members. In my case, I needed to buy several grand worth of "stock" in the country club in order to belong to it. Now, they made it painless by giving me an interest free loan, but it does suck to have to write out a biggo check every month when you can't even golf. I'll have it paid off in July. Once you pay off your stock fee, frankly, it's a bargain if you golf at all. For a guy like me with a boy who will start golfing, it's ridiculously cheap. I think I pay like $200 a month for my family to golf there. That pays for my locker and for them to keep track of my handicap, and for anybody in my family to golf as much as they want. If you're a golfer, you just can't beat it. Plus, the club is within walking distance of my house, and I'd much rather have Logan spending his Summer days out on the course than in somebody's basement smoking pot and playing video games. The club also has a gorgeous clubhouse and pool which is included in our membership as well.
3. I'm at the tail end of the worst sickness I've had in decades. I really got nailed hard. It was probably a sinus infection that went a little too far before I got meds, but now, I think there might have been a little of something else mixed in there, too. Two interesting notes: once you start blowing out day-glo yellow snot, that's actually a good sign. That's the final stage of your body killing off the last of the bacteria. Second, if you start having "digestive trouble", that's probably because the antibiotic killed off all the bacteria in your intestines. A lot of that bacteria is beneficial, and a lot of it is stuff you need in order for your plumbing to work correctly. I remembered some advice I heard a long time ago: to eat a yogurt the day after your antibiotics run out. Did it and honestly, it cured me within an hour or two. Amazing how sometimes the right cure is just a good diet.
4. Logan woke me up today to tell me that the Browns beat the Steelers. Huh? Really? Man, I feel so bad for the kid. He's the biggest home-town loyal sports fan I've ever seen. I just hate to see him have to go through the hardship of being a Cleveland sports fan. I've always said, "You wanna be a sports fan in Cleveland? You gotta be tough." When we were at Disney, he wore an Indians or Browns uniform item every single day. As always, I'm proud of my little man for being so tough... I just hate to see him suffer. I hope the Cavs do it this year.
Now, time to go in to work. It's been so depressing for so long, I just really need to get re-motivated. We started the year like gangbusters, with record sales and record profitability. However, the last half of the year has blown chunks. We've basically been a nonprofit since June. Time to turn that around. Those Country Club dues ain't gonna pay themselves!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
In Defense of George W. Bush
This isn't going to be MUCH of a defense of George W. Bush. He has the distinction of being the only Republican candidate for president I ever voted against. I think he was a man of limited ability, with few discernable accomplishments in life that weren't related to being politically and economically connected.
He campaigned dirty... I know this because John McCain's illegitimate black baby told me so. He had no qualms about besmirching the military service of a decorated war hero, like John Kerry, while soft-pedalling his own lack of service in combat.
He was fiscally liberal and socially conservative, whereas I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal. He was, basically, everything I didn't want in a politician.
Those are his faults, which have been pounded on again and again by the press. However, he wasn't without some redeeming qualities, and in contrast to the Obama administration, those qualities stand out more starkly.
First, he took his job and took responsibility for it. The statistics show that 9/11 wasn't actually much of an economic calamity. In fact, it was just the low point of the internet bubble implosion. Bill Clinton had the advantage of having the bubble of his presidency implode just a few months after he got out of office. I don't remember the Bush administration, once, blaming the difficulties they faced on the previous administration.
The Obama Administration? A year later is still blaming the Bush Administration. If you're not man enough to take ownership of the job, you don't deserve the job. Bush was man enough. Obama isn't.
Second, he won wars. With the smallest fighting force in generations, Bush deposed a murderous dictator, and changed regime in a country that facilitated the terrorist attacks of 9/11. When the Democrats screamed that the surge wouldn't work, Bush plowed ahead, anyway, and brought Iraq under control. When Bush left office, Iraq and Afghanistan were both under control, only waiting for an end-game that would tie up the loose ends.
Obama has actually managed to put the victory in Afghanistan in peril. That was the war Obama thought was a JUSTIFIED war! Imagine if Iraq hadn't been brought so soundly under control.
There is nothing more disheartening to a combat troop than to be half a world away, with your life in peril, while those at home do all they can to undermine your success. Bush won wars. Obama was handed two theaters of operation that were under control and has lost control of one of them, with little progress in the other.
Third, Bush knew how to run the congress. When Bush wanted something, he put his machine in gear and got it. A completely unfunded Medicare prescription bill? Against almost everything the Republican party stands for? He got it. Any vote related to Afghanistan or Iraq? He got it.
Right now, people are rightly frustrated that the Democrats control both houses of congress and still can't get anything done. The Democrats are basically offerring that yeah, numerically they control both houses, but they can't get the disparate political interests within their party to agree on anything. Bottom line: Democrats can't lead and they can't get things done.
Some older members of the Democrat Party speak wistfully of the time in 1980 when Ronald Reagan came into town and rolled the Democrat congress. Obama is no Reagan. In fact, he's not even George W. Bush. He can't even get his own party in line.
Want further proof that Bush could manage politicians? When the current economic crisis hit, he called McCain and Obama into the Oval Office, briefed them and both of them left, determined to continue Bush's policies in regards to the crisis. Now, I disagree with the handling of the crisis since all we did was mortgage our kids' futures to provide bankers bonuses, but you can't deny: on this issue Bush controlled McCain, and he rolled Obama.
Fourth, Bush was brutalized in the press, but ignored it. He plowed ahead. Never complained, never explained. The Obama administration, despite a completely gaga-infatuated press that loves him dearly, goes beserk any time anybody criticizes anything.
I recently read a very well-informed opinion by an auto industry insider that spelled out how the cash for clunkers program actually cost the taxpayer about $24,000 for every additional new car that got sold.
http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/press/159446/article.html
The Obama administration's response? Attacked the the piece, directly.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/10/29/busy-covering-car-sales-mars-edmundscom-gets-it-wrong-again-cash-clunkers
I was astounded. These guys are so used to the press simply rolling over and giving Obama anything he wants, they lose their minds when actual investigative journalism takes place.
(As a final note on the topic, here is Edmonds rebuttal:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/10/31/edmundscom-fires-back-at-white-house-cash-for-clunkers-slam/ )
Maybe not the same as Nixon's "Enemies List", but... well... along the same continuum.
Bush was able to accomplish all he accomplished in spite of an unfriendly press. Obama controls the media and can't tolerate dissention or analysis by the press.
Fifth, Bush had the good sense not to try and inflate his unearned accomplishments. Near as I can figure, his actual accomplishments in life were that his father got him into the Air National Guard and he got his pilot's license. He got legacy admission to Yale. He got into Harvard based on wealth and political connections. He used his family's money to run an unprofitable oil company. He used his family's money to buy the Texas Rangers. He was apparently, a competent governor of the State of Texas.
Of all those opportunities, he got in the door based on family connections and not because of merit. Yet, you never heard him mention anything about any of those things. Really, regardless of how he got those things, they're all pretty impressive. Fighter pilot. Yale / Harvard. Oil man. Baseball team owner. Governor.
Obama? Honestly, the way the guy wears his laurels is bordering on shameless. Bush may have gotten his leg-up in life the old-fashioned way, by buying it, but Obama came up during a time of the most eggregious uses of affirmative action. Obama is a Columbia / Harvard man. However, it's pretty clear that he was nothing but an underachieving pothead at Occidental college before being accepted as a transfer student to Columbia. That's a heck of a leg up in life.
Obama doesn't appear to have ever demonstrated any real professional success, but was given book deals as a law school student and as soon as he was elected to the state legislature, he was on speaking tours all over the country. America needed a poster boy, and Obama was it.
Even when he won the Nobel Peace prize, he and his followers shamelessly acted as though it was somehow based on merit. Months later, when he sent an additional 35,000 combat troops to Afghanistan, the irony escaped them.
Seems to me that both men got a lot of advantages in life that they didn't earn. One was based on wealth and political connection. The other was based on the color of his skin. Thing is, Bush never pretended that he earned the things he's gotten.
Sixth, Bush lowered taxes and that didn't contribute to the deficit. Yes, these insane Bush tax cuts that everybody complains about actualy INCREASED revenues. Throughout the Bush years, tax revenue kept pace with inflation. As a fiscal conservative, that's all I want tax revenues to do. It wasn't the tax cuts that caused the Bush deficits, it was profligate spending.
Obama has finally realized that small business is the key to full employment, yet his stated tax objectives will absolutely brutalize small business owners. You simply can't get people to put 100% of their financial and emotional well-being on the line if the only one who benefits is the government.
Bush understood: the money belongs to us. Obama thinks the money belongs to the government.
So, was Bush perfect? Good lord, no. I don't think he was a great president, or even a good one. However, he was, in many respects, a much, much better president than Obama is turning out to be.
I do feel that Obama is a much more intelligent man, but then, so was Jimmy Carter. I can only hope that Obama gets better as time goes along. So far, though, what I see is almost all the worst aspects of the Bush years. We're still bailing out the rich.
Under Obama we're rewarding the irresponsible at a far greater rate. Sorry, but we all have tight finances and things we want to buy. If you weren't smart enough to read or ask a few questions when you got your mortgage, or you treated your HELOC like a winning lottery ticket, you need to lose your house. The government shouldn't be rewarding your stupidity.
If you ran your car company so badly that you're going out of business, the union's pension and medical funds should be bailing you out, not the taxpayer who doesn't want your cars.
Yeah, this is change we can believe in. We're losing wars, now. Raising taxes. And yet still doing most of the bad stuff we did under Bush... like spending like there's no tomorrow.
There's time. Obama can get better and I think he will. So far, though, he'd have to improve to be as good as the man that many are considering the worst president since the Great Depression.
He campaigned dirty... I know this because John McCain's illegitimate black baby told me so. He had no qualms about besmirching the military service of a decorated war hero, like John Kerry, while soft-pedalling his own lack of service in combat.
He was fiscally liberal and socially conservative, whereas I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal. He was, basically, everything I didn't want in a politician.
Those are his faults, which have been pounded on again and again by the press. However, he wasn't without some redeeming qualities, and in contrast to the Obama administration, those qualities stand out more starkly.
First, he took his job and took responsibility for it. The statistics show that 9/11 wasn't actually much of an economic calamity. In fact, it was just the low point of the internet bubble implosion. Bill Clinton had the advantage of having the bubble of his presidency implode just a few months after he got out of office. I don't remember the Bush administration, once, blaming the difficulties they faced on the previous administration.
The Obama Administration? A year later is still blaming the Bush Administration. If you're not man enough to take ownership of the job, you don't deserve the job. Bush was man enough. Obama isn't.
Second, he won wars. With the smallest fighting force in generations, Bush deposed a murderous dictator, and changed regime in a country that facilitated the terrorist attacks of 9/11. When the Democrats screamed that the surge wouldn't work, Bush plowed ahead, anyway, and brought Iraq under control. When Bush left office, Iraq and Afghanistan were both under control, only waiting for an end-game that would tie up the loose ends.
Obama has actually managed to put the victory in Afghanistan in peril. That was the war Obama thought was a JUSTIFIED war! Imagine if Iraq hadn't been brought so soundly under control.
There is nothing more disheartening to a combat troop than to be half a world away, with your life in peril, while those at home do all they can to undermine your success. Bush won wars. Obama was handed two theaters of operation that were under control and has lost control of one of them, with little progress in the other.
Third, Bush knew how to run the congress. When Bush wanted something, he put his machine in gear and got it. A completely unfunded Medicare prescription bill? Against almost everything the Republican party stands for? He got it. Any vote related to Afghanistan or Iraq? He got it.
Right now, people are rightly frustrated that the Democrats control both houses of congress and still can't get anything done. The Democrats are basically offerring that yeah, numerically they control both houses, but they can't get the disparate political interests within their party to agree on anything. Bottom line: Democrats can't lead and they can't get things done.
Some older members of the Democrat Party speak wistfully of the time in 1980 when Ronald Reagan came into town and rolled the Democrat congress. Obama is no Reagan. In fact, he's not even George W. Bush. He can't even get his own party in line.
Want further proof that Bush could manage politicians? When the current economic crisis hit, he called McCain and Obama into the Oval Office, briefed them and both of them left, determined to continue Bush's policies in regards to the crisis. Now, I disagree with the handling of the crisis since all we did was mortgage our kids' futures to provide bankers bonuses, but you can't deny: on this issue Bush controlled McCain, and he rolled Obama.
Fourth, Bush was brutalized in the press, but ignored it. He plowed ahead. Never complained, never explained. The Obama administration, despite a completely gaga-infatuated press that loves him dearly, goes beserk any time anybody criticizes anything.
I recently read a very well-informed opinion by an auto industry insider that spelled out how the cash for clunkers program actually cost the taxpayer about $24,000 for every additional new car that got sold.
http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/press/159446/article.html
The Obama administration's response? Attacked the the piece, directly.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/10/29/busy-covering-car-sales-mars-edmundscom-gets-it-wrong-again-cash-clunkers
I was astounded. These guys are so used to the press simply rolling over and giving Obama anything he wants, they lose their minds when actual investigative journalism takes place.
(As a final note on the topic, here is Edmonds rebuttal:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/10/31/edmundscom-fires-back-at-white-house-cash-for-clunkers-slam/ )
Maybe not the same as Nixon's "Enemies List", but... well... along the same continuum.
Bush was able to accomplish all he accomplished in spite of an unfriendly press. Obama controls the media and can't tolerate dissention or analysis by the press.
Fifth, Bush had the good sense not to try and inflate his unearned accomplishments. Near as I can figure, his actual accomplishments in life were that his father got him into the Air National Guard and he got his pilot's license. He got legacy admission to Yale. He got into Harvard based on wealth and political connections. He used his family's money to run an unprofitable oil company. He used his family's money to buy the Texas Rangers. He was apparently, a competent governor of the State of Texas.
Of all those opportunities, he got in the door based on family connections and not because of merit. Yet, you never heard him mention anything about any of those things. Really, regardless of how he got those things, they're all pretty impressive. Fighter pilot. Yale / Harvard. Oil man. Baseball team owner. Governor.
Obama? Honestly, the way the guy wears his laurels is bordering on shameless. Bush may have gotten his leg-up in life the old-fashioned way, by buying it, but Obama came up during a time of the most eggregious uses of affirmative action. Obama is a Columbia / Harvard man. However, it's pretty clear that he was nothing but an underachieving pothead at Occidental college before being accepted as a transfer student to Columbia. That's a heck of a leg up in life.
Obama doesn't appear to have ever demonstrated any real professional success, but was given book deals as a law school student and as soon as he was elected to the state legislature, he was on speaking tours all over the country. America needed a poster boy, and Obama was it.
Even when he won the Nobel Peace prize, he and his followers shamelessly acted as though it was somehow based on merit. Months later, when he sent an additional 35,000 combat troops to Afghanistan, the irony escaped them.
Seems to me that both men got a lot of advantages in life that they didn't earn. One was based on wealth and political connection. The other was based on the color of his skin. Thing is, Bush never pretended that he earned the things he's gotten.
Sixth, Bush lowered taxes and that didn't contribute to the deficit. Yes, these insane Bush tax cuts that everybody complains about actualy INCREASED revenues. Throughout the Bush years, tax revenue kept pace with inflation. As a fiscal conservative, that's all I want tax revenues to do. It wasn't the tax cuts that caused the Bush deficits, it was profligate spending.
Obama has finally realized that small business is the key to full employment, yet his stated tax objectives will absolutely brutalize small business owners. You simply can't get people to put 100% of their financial and emotional well-being on the line if the only one who benefits is the government.
Bush understood: the money belongs to us. Obama thinks the money belongs to the government.
So, was Bush perfect? Good lord, no. I don't think he was a great president, or even a good one. However, he was, in many respects, a much, much better president than Obama is turning out to be.
I do feel that Obama is a much more intelligent man, but then, so was Jimmy Carter. I can only hope that Obama gets better as time goes along. So far, though, what I see is almost all the worst aspects of the Bush years. We're still bailing out the rich.
Under Obama we're rewarding the irresponsible at a far greater rate. Sorry, but we all have tight finances and things we want to buy. If you weren't smart enough to read or ask a few questions when you got your mortgage, or you treated your HELOC like a winning lottery ticket, you need to lose your house. The government shouldn't be rewarding your stupidity.
If you ran your car company so badly that you're going out of business, the union's pension and medical funds should be bailing you out, not the taxpayer who doesn't want your cars.
Yeah, this is change we can believe in. We're losing wars, now. Raising taxes. And yet still doing most of the bad stuff we did under Bush... like spending like there's no tomorrow.
There's time. Obama can get better and I think he will. So far, though, he'd have to improve to be as good as the man that many are considering the worst president since the Great Depression.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sometimes you just gotta stick with what works...
I've been fighting off a nasty, nasty, nasty sinus infection. I'm basically sicker than I've been since I was in my 20s. In fact, of the times I can remember being sicker than this, twice, I ended up being hospitalized.
How did things go this far? Oh, it's an interesting little story. My son came down with a cold, and while we were at Disney, he went mega-boogery. Seemed to me he had a sinus infection.
In the old days, when we had thick, green mucus, we went to the doctor to get antibiotics and we got well.
Now, the prevailing wisdom is that green mucus doesn't necessarily mean a sinus infection. So, as I was reading on the internet trying to figure out whether to trade a half-day at Disney for a half-day at some medical clinic to get Logan some meds, I decided to wait and let things run their course before going and getting antibiotics.
Now, I do think that antibiotics are overprescribed. People get them for common colds, and doing so just makes the bacteria we have that much more difficult to cure. Ultimately, it's how we get antibiotic-resistant strep and other bad, bad things.
In the past, I figured I knew the difference between a sinus infection and a cold. However, that was based on the thick green mucus diagnosis.
Logan would get better, then worse, then we'd pick up some OTC drugs and he'd get better. On the flight home, his ear started hurting terribly, and he complained that it had shut completely and he couldn't hear out of it.
So, on the way home from the airport, we stopped by the ER, which was the only thing open, to have them look at him. He had two infected ears as well as his infected sinuses. They gave antibiotics. He got better almost immediately. 2 days later, he was doing just fine and halfway through the course of his antibiotics, he was 100%.
Me? I had similar symptoms, and halfway through the day on Friday, the telltale green mucus showed up. I should have figured I had the same thing as Logan and gone to the doctor immediately. However, I wondered if there might be something to the new common wisdom and decided to wait and make sure it wasn't a common cold.
It wasn't. By Saturday night, I was sicker than I've been in a long, long time. I threw in the towel when not only had both ears started to close, but mucus started coming out of my eyes. Went to the ER at 2 in the morning, came home with a scrip.
Now, in hindsight, it is clear to me that I should have followed my instinct in both cases. Stuck to what has worked for me my entire life, and gotten scrips at the first sign of the green mucus trouble.
Sorry, but the new prevailing wisdom is wrong.
Which brings me to a couple of problems. Granted, I did this in the most cost-ineffective way by going to the ER, but that was pretty much my only option at the hours I needed care. Why couldn't I just get antibiotics on my own?
The answer, obviously, is that doctors want to control access to antibiotics to prevent superbugs from developing. And that, I'm afraid, is probably why they came out with this new "prevailing wisdom" on green mucus.
People, by and large, are pretty stupid, and left to their own devices, some things you'd probably take for granted, like the ability to determine if mucus is thick and green, is something a suprising amount of the population will screw up given the chance.
The only reasonable explanation I've seen for abandoning the thick green mucus diagnosis is that sometimes mucus can sit in your sinuses for a while before you expel it. So, even with a common cold, you might blow out thick green mucus first thing in the morning.
However, if that's not it, and you're consistently and constantly blowing out thick green mucus, it's an infection.
So, from now on, screw 'em. They don't know what they're talking about on this. If it's thick green mucus, it's a danged sinus infection. If I'd just stuck with what I already knew, I wouldn't be as miserable as I am now (3 days after getting the scrip) and my son wouldn't have been in excruciating pain on the flight.
It goes without saying that I'm not a doctor, and that this should not be considered qualified medical advice. I'm just saying that the next time I'm blowing frogs out my nose all day, I'm going to the doc, and if I don't walk out with a scrip, the doc is going to have a fight on his/her hands.
How did things go this far? Oh, it's an interesting little story. My son came down with a cold, and while we were at Disney, he went mega-boogery. Seemed to me he had a sinus infection.
In the old days, when we had thick, green mucus, we went to the doctor to get antibiotics and we got well.
Now, the prevailing wisdom is that green mucus doesn't necessarily mean a sinus infection. So, as I was reading on the internet trying to figure out whether to trade a half-day at Disney for a half-day at some medical clinic to get Logan some meds, I decided to wait and let things run their course before going and getting antibiotics.
Now, I do think that antibiotics are overprescribed. People get them for common colds, and doing so just makes the bacteria we have that much more difficult to cure. Ultimately, it's how we get antibiotic-resistant strep and other bad, bad things.
In the past, I figured I knew the difference between a sinus infection and a cold. However, that was based on the thick green mucus diagnosis.
Logan would get better, then worse, then we'd pick up some OTC drugs and he'd get better. On the flight home, his ear started hurting terribly, and he complained that it had shut completely and he couldn't hear out of it.
So, on the way home from the airport, we stopped by the ER, which was the only thing open, to have them look at him. He had two infected ears as well as his infected sinuses. They gave antibiotics. He got better almost immediately. 2 days later, he was doing just fine and halfway through the course of his antibiotics, he was 100%.
Me? I had similar symptoms, and halfway through the day on Friday, the telltale green mucus showed up. I should have figured I had the same thing as Logan and gone to the doctor immediately. However, I wondered if there might be something to the new common wisdom and decided to wait and make sure it wasn't a common cold.
It wasn't. By Saturday night, I was sicker than I've been in a long, long time. I threw in the towel when not only had both ears started to close, but mucus started coming out of my eyes. Went to the ER at 2 in the morning, came home with a scrip.
Now, in hindsight, it is clear to me that I should have followed my instinct in both cases. Stuck to what has worked for me my entire life, and gotten scrips at the first sign of the green mucus trouble.
Sorry, but the new prevailing wisdom is wrong.
Which brings me to a couple of problems. Granted, I did this in the most cost-ineffective way by going to the ER, but that was pretty much my only option at the hours I needed care. Why couldn't I just get antibiotics on my own?
The answer, obviously, is that doctors want to control access to antibiotics to prevent superbugs from developing. And that, I'm afraid, is probably why they came out with this new "prevailing wisdom" on green mucus.
People, by and large, are pretty stupid, and left to their own devices, some things you'd probably take for granted, like the ability to determine if mucus is thick and green, is something a suprising amount of the population will screw up given the chance.
The only reasonable explanation I've seen for abandoning the thick green mucus diagnosis is that sometimes mucus can sit in your sinuses for a while before you expel it. So, even with a common cold, you might blow out thick green mucus first thing in the morning.
However, if that's not it, and you're consistently and constantly blowing out thick green mucus, it's an infection.
So, from now on, screw 'em. They don't know what they're talking about on this. If it's thick green mucus, it's a danged sinus infection. If I'd just stuck with what I already knew, I wouldn't be as miserable as I am now (3 days after getting the scrip) and my son wouldn't have been in excruciating pain on the flight.
It goes without saying that I'm not a doctor, and that this should not be considered qualified medical advice. I'm just saying that the next time I'm blowing frogs out my nose all day, I'm going to the doc, and if I don't walk out with a scrip, the doc is going to have a fight on his/her hands.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
The 5 Year Business Plan
It's universal that during times in my life when I planned extensively, I made the most progress. The progress wasn't always in the direction of the plan. However, without a plan, it's easy to let inertia take hold. Once you're leaving yourself to the charity of the prevailing winds, you've relenquished a lot of control in your life.
Ever since my current business got off the ground, I really have lost a lot of fire in the belly. However, I'm a bit young to be retired in place and it's time for me to set some goals so that I won't be sitting here 10 years from now, in the same shape, business-wise, that I'm in right now.
I've decided that I need some very tangible goals for the next 5 year business period. Here they are.
1. To be debt free in my Servpro business. I've made what I consider prudent use of debt in my business. We grew quickly, from revenues of over $200,000 in year one, to revenues of almost $900,000 in year 4. As much as I tried, I simply could not acquire the necessary equipment using ongoing revenue as my only source of capital. However, from here on out, my goal is to pay for everything in cash and to pay off the notes I have remaining.
Part of me doesn't think this goal is very important. My debt service isn't that substantial, really. All told, maybe $3,000 a month. But to paraphrase an old saying, a thousand here, a thousand there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money. There are better things I could think of to do with $36,000 a year. Over a 5 year period, that's enough money to buy a house.
2. I just took some baby steps to establish a lawn care business unit. In 5 years, I want to make sure that thing is cash flowing enough that it would be a reasonable stand-alone business operation, even if I weren't trying to take advantage of synergies with Servpro. I have several contingencies based on how well this business unit performs, but I'll need to see what happens before I take it in any specific direction. This could just be a way to absorb overhead during down-times in my Servpro business. Or, it could take off and be something I could scale up. I won't know until I get in it, full-time.
3. Servpro has a level of operations that earns an operator a Rolex. Right now, it's given for $1.5 million in revenue in a calendar year. I suspect they'll change it (probably right before I hit $1.5 million), but sometime in the next 5 years, I want my Servpro revenues to be at whatever the prevailing Rolex level is.
4. We are currently leasing our warehouse. I love the arrangement. The rent is cheap and the warehouse meets all my needs. However, I would like to have some commercial real estate, and I think sometime in the next 5 years is a reasonable time-frame to reach that goal.
5. I want to establish an asset lease business unit that leases various vehicles (like the commercial trucks and vans we use in the business). In the next 5 years, I want to establish that as a separate business unit and include things such as aircraft leasing and disaster restoration equipment leasing under the same corporate structure.
If I can do all those things, the next 5 years will be really great. My son will also be 13 years old, then. So, the 5 year plan after this one will take up the years until his 18th birthday. Not long after that, I am looking forward to a business plan that brings him in as a partner in the business and transitions operations to him so I can retire.
Ever since my current business got off the ground, I really have lost a lot of fire in the belly. However, I'm a bit young to be retired in place and it's time for me to set some goals so that I won't be sitting here 10 years from now, in the same shape, business-wise, that I'm in right now.
I've decided that I need some very tangible goals for the next 5 year business period. Here they are.
1. To be debt free in my Servpro business. I've made what I consider prudent use of debt in my business. We grew quickly, from revenues of over $200,000 in year one, to revenues of almost $900,000 in year 4. As much as I tried, I simply could not acquire the necessary equipment using ongoing revenue as my only source of capital. However, from here on out, my goal is to pay for everything in cash and to pay off the notes I have remaining.
Part of me doesn't think this goal is very important. My debt service isn't that substantial, really. All told, maybe $3,000 a month. But to paraphrase an old saying, a thousand here, a thousand there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money. There are better things I could think of to do with $36,000 a year. Over a 5 year period, that's enough money to buy a house.
2. I just took some baby steps to establish a lawn care business unit. In 5 years, I want to make sure that thing is cash flowing enough that it would be a reasonable stand-alone business operation, even if I weren't trying to take advantage of synergies with Servpro. I have several contingencies based on how well this business unit performs, but I'll need to see what happens before I take it in any specific direction. This could just be a way to absorb overhead during down-times in my Servpro business. Or, it could take off and be something I could scale up. I won't know until I get in it, full-time.
3. Servpro has a level of operations that earns an operator a Rolex. Right now, it's given for $1.5 million in revenue in a calendar year. I suspect they'll change it (probably right before I hit $1.5 million), but sometime in the next 5 years, I want my Servpro revenues to be at whatever the prevailing Rolex level is.
4. We are currently leasing our warehouse. I love the arrangement. The rent is cheap and the warehouse meets all my needs. However, I would like to have some commercial real estate, and I think sometime in the next 5 years is a reasonable time-frame to reach that goal.
5. I want to establish an asset lease business unit that leases various vehicles (like the commercial trucks and vans we use in the business). In the next 5 years, I want to establish that as a separate business unit and include things such as aircraft leasing and disaster restoration equipment leasing under the same corporate structure.
If I can do all those things, the next 5 years will be really great. My son will also be 13 years old, then. So, the 5 year plan after this one will take up the years until his 18th birthday. Not long after that, I am looking forward to a business plan that brings him in as a partner in the business and transitions operations to him so I can retire.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
There but for the grace...
I have lived my life with very little empathy in most cases. Maybe I'm just hard hearted, but I've never been one who could look at various states of misfortune and think, "Oh, I'm lucky I'm not in those shoes..."
I mean, what are the odds that I would look at a drug-addict and think, "Wow, that could have been me!". The reality is that it couldn't have been me. I have too much respect for the rules. I have too little enthusiasm for tying one on. I don't even drink. Not that I never did, but these days, maybe once or twice a year, at best. I don't even finish all the pain meds the doctors give me. They do nothing for me. Even the ones that folks say are "the good stuff".
So, this plea has fallen flat on me for all my life. It means little to me. However, there is one exception. When I see a small businessperson fail, it tears me apart.
For some reason, seeing a business go under, and knowing the folks involved, is a hard emotional experience for me.
When I first bought my franchise, I became acutely aware of other small business owners. I struck up conversations with the guy who owned the local UPS store. I bought lunch at the local Roly Poly, not because the food was good (even though it was), but because I liked the owner who had told me a lot about his business and himself.
As I participated in various community organizations, I got to know folks who owned, say, the local car dealership.
I remember the time I talked with the guy who owned the Roly Poly and he said his store wasn't doing well. I could sense that he felt like there was a slow moving train bearing down on him. He just didn't know what to do about it. I ate there as often as I could, but it takes more than a $7 purchase to rescue a floundering restaurant. I doubt the total of the meals I bought there in a month amounted to more than 1% of his rent, alone.
I also remember the time I went there and the signs indicated that he was closed. Gone. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to him.
I felt so awful for him. He wasn't that different than me. He had a severance from GM and bought the restaurant with it. Now, it was all gone. A once in a lifetime windfall, gone in the blink of an eye.
That could have been me.
Back when GM was going through its bailout request and they announced that they would be cutting their dealership network, I never, ever imagined that the local Chevy dealer would be on the block. He had a large, succesful dealership, or so it appeared.
In the days after the closures were announced, he would say he was selling more cars than ever! He was upbeat and happy. I presumed he was spared the ax.
I would scan his inventory of Cadillacs and Corvettes and say to myself, "someday, when I buy one of those, I'll buy it from Tom."
With the current incentives, I figured I'd go there and get a new pickup truck and maybe an HHR for my business tpo help with my '09 tax bill. Not quite a caddy or vette, but combined, they cost about the same.
As I walked around waiting to speak to his son, the internet sales manager (who had stepped out for a moment), it became blatantly obvious that they had no new cars on the lot. Just used ones.
So, I came right out and asked what happened. He said that they were in arbitration trying to get their dealership back from GM. I'm guessing that's not going to happen, and even if it does, if enough time elapses, they'd be building their dealership up from zero.
He had a perfectly profitable business that employed his whole family. Of all the Chevy dealers to close, his seemed an unusual fit since there weren't, as far as I knew, any other Chevy dealers in Monroe, MI. I have never met a nicer person in all my life. Out of nowhere, his business is gone.
Such are the frailties of hanging out a shingle and going into business, yourself.
Once I returned from the dealership, I was so depressed I had to leave my business and go home.
It doesn't help that I'm an hour out of Detroit. California may have comparable unemployment, but hey, it's California. It'll bounce back. I just can't think of any driving force that will bring back Ohio and Michigan.
There's a feeling here like we're being picked off one by one. Even my business is having some tough times. Not so much because of the economy, but because of some extended, unusually mild weather.
It's just not much fun being in business right now. I'm just hoping that a harsh Winter can save us.
Small businesspeople are not a sympathetic lot. Half the folks think we're rich and the other half aren't aware that we exist. When times are good, we benefit disproportionately, but when times are bad, we suffer disproportionately.
Small business has been an endeavor where I can make 5 figures in a single month... and lose 5 figures in a single month just as easily.
More often than not, we finance our businesses with our life savings and the equity in our homes. Most small business people I know, myself included, financed at least part of their business with a credit card at one point in time or another. We have no financial backstop. When we run out of money, it's game over.
When we run out of money, it isn't like a person with a job who runs out of money. We don't run out of money until after we crater. When we crater, it can take a lifetime to dig out.
So, when I see a shuttered business, I see a memorial of one of my fallen brothers or sisters.
I also take a moment to say that, at least so far, I'm glad it isn't me.
I mean, what are the odds that I would look at a drug-addict and think, "Wow, that could have been me!". The reality is that it couldn't have been me. I have too much respect for the rules. I have too little enthusiasm for tying one on. I don't even drink. Not that I never did, but these days, maybe once or twice a year, at best. I don't even finish all the pain meds the doctors give me. They do nothing for me. Even the ones that folks say are "the good stuff".
So, this plea has fallen flat on me for all my life. It means little to me. However, there is one exception. When I see a small businessperson fail, it tears me apart.
For some reason, seeing a business go under, and knowing the folks involved, is a hard emotional experience for me.
When I first bought my franchise, I became acutely aware of other small business owners. I struck up conversations with the guy who owned the local UPS store. I bought lunch at the local Roly Poly, not because the food was good (even though it was), but because I liked the owner who had told me a lot about his business and himself.
As I participated in various community organizations, I got to know folks who owned, say, the local car dealership.
I remember the time I talked with the guy who owned the Roly Poly and he said his store wasn't doing well. I could sense that he felt like there was a slow moving train bearing down on him. He just didn't know what to do about it. I ate there as often as I could, but it takes more than a $7 purchase to rescue a floundering restaurant. I doubt the total of the meals I bought there in a month amounted to more than 1% of his rent, alone.
I also remember the time I went there and the signs indicated that he was closed. Gone. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to him.
I felt so awful for him. He wasn't that different than me. He had a severance from GM and bought the restaurant with it. Now, it was all gone. A once in a lifetime windfall, gone in the blink of an eye.
That could have been me.
Back when GM was going through its bailout request and they announced that they would be cutting their dealership network, I never, ever imagined that the local Chevy dealer would be on the block. He had a large, succesful dealership, or so it appeared.
In the days after the closures were announced, he would say he was selling more cars than ever! He was upbeat and happy. I presumed he was spared the ax.
I would scan his inventory of Cadillacs and Corvettes and say to myself, "someday, when I buy one of those, I'll buy it from Tom."
With the current incentives, I figured I'd go there and get a new pickup truck and maybe an HHR for my business tpo help with my '09 tax bill. Not quite a caddy or vette, but combined, they cost about the same.
As I walked around waiting to speak to his son, the internet sales manager (who had stepped out for a moment), it became blatantly obvious that they had no new cars on the lot. Just used ones.
So, I came right out and asked what happened. He said that they were in arbitration trying to get their dealership back from GM. I'm guessing that's not going to happen, and even if it does, if enough time elapses, they'd be building their dealership up from zero.
He had a perfectly profitable business that employed his whole family. Of all the Chevy dealers to close, his seemed an unusual fit since there weren't, as far as I knew, any other Chevy dealers in Monroe, MI. I have never met a nicer person in all my life. Out of nowhere, his business is gone.
Such are the frailties of hanging out a shingle and going into business, yourself.
Once I returned from the dealership, I was so depressed I had to leave my business and go home.
It doesn't help that I'm an hour out of Detroit. California may have comparable unemployment, but hey, it's California. It'll bounce back. I just can't think of any driving force that will bring back Ohio and Michigan.
There's a feeling here like we're being picked off one by one. Even my business is having some tough times. Not so much because of the economy, but because of some extended, unusually mild weather.
It's just not much fun being in business right now. I'm just hoping that a harsh Winter can save us.
Small businesspeople are not a sympathetic lot. Half the folks think we're rich and the other half aren't aware that we exist. When times are good, we benefit disproportionately, but when times are bad, we suffer disproportionately.
Small business has been an endeavor where I can make 5 figures in a single month... and lose 5 figures in a single month just as easily.
More often than not, we finance our businesses with our life savings and the equity in our homes. Most small business people I know, myself included, financed at least part of their business with a credit card at one point in time or another. We have no financial backstop. When we run out of money, it's game over.
When we run out of money, it isn't like a person with a job who runs out of money. We don't run out of money until after we crater. When we crater, it can take a lifetime to dig out.
So, when I see a shuttered business, I see a memorial of one of my fallen brothers or sisters.
I also take a moment to say that, at least so far, I'm glad it isn't me.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Jimmy's General State of Things 11-19-09
The biggest thing hanging over me right now is that the weather has remained phenomenally nice up here. This has pretty much been a year without bad weather. We haven't even had big rains.
Business-wise, that's been a killer. We started off the year like gangbusters, but are limping in to the end of the calendar year. Overall, we'll gross the same as we did last year. Considering the weather conditions, that's not so bad. However, we worked twice as hard for it and I ended up with about 40% less profit as a result.
I still see huge reasons for optimism, despite our losses in the 4th quarter. For one thing, we stayed steady despite the economy and lack of help from the weather.
So, when the weather breaks bad, we should do fantastic.
I finally submitted my paperwork to the State of Ohio to become a minority owned firm. It won't matter much as far as getting our disaster restoration work. However, it may come up huge when it comes to pursuing commercial cleaning and construction contracts.
One thing I'm doing to try and even out the cyclicality a bit is launching a lawn-care business in the Spring. There, the minority-owned thing may be a help when bidding on larger commercial accounts.
I'm not that convinced that it's a great idea from a stand-alone business model standpoint. However, it has nice synergies with my current business.
For instance, houses that pay to get their lawns mowed are also good candidates to have their carpets cleaned every now and then.
The main idea is to keep people on the payroll, and to engage them in something that at least covers the cost of their wages and perhaps absorbs some overhead.
We just got our brand-new John Deere 840 with the grass-catching system. The thing is a monster. It is capable of delivering a quality cut at 17 miles per hour and has a 60" mowing deck. Basically, it mows a swath that's almost as wide as I am tall, at a speed faster than I can sprint.
Like virtually all credit I get, this one came with 0% down, 0% apr, and a 42 month amortization period. It is sorta funny, when I think about all the debt I've accumulated, very little of it has been at an interest rate of over 3%.
I'm getting a little bit spoiled.
I may see about getting a pickup truck here soon so I can get the tax-writeoff. And yes, even those are coming with 0% terms. I'd really like a new Toyota Tundra extended cab, but since this will probably be used primarily for lawn-care, I'll probably be looking at something more like a Ford F-150, spartanly appointed.
For the Navy, I'm going back to Athens, GA to repeat my last 4 day midpoint worth of instructions. There are 3 food service tests. I passed one in July in Athens, but have failed the 2nd one, twice now. One more failure and I could be dismissed from the program and although that would mean no trip to the desert, it would also mean I would no longer be an officer in the Navy. Service to my country means too much to me, and serving with my fellow sailors has really been a great part of my life. I'm going to do all I can to keep up. The Navy isn't making me do this: I suggested it, myself, even if I had to go unfunded (meaning I wouldn't get paid for any of it.)
Next week, Logan and I leave for Disney so he can have some fun with all his Phoenix cousins.
And that's all I have to say about that.
Business-wise, that's been a killer. We started off the year like gangbusters, but are limping in to the end of the calendar year. Overall, we'll gross the same as we did last year. Considering the weather conditions, that's not so bad. However, we worked twice as hard for it and I ended up with about 40% less profit as a result.
I still see huge reasons for optimism, despite our losses in the 4th quarter. For one thing, we stayed steady despite the economy and lack of help from the weather.
So, when the weather breaks bad, we should do fantastic.
I finally submitted my paperwork to the State of Ohio to become a minority owned firm. It won't matter much as far as getting our disaster restoration work. However, it may come up huge when it comes to pursuing commercial cleaning and construction contracts.
One thing I'm doing to try and even out the cyclicality a bit is launching a lawn-care business in the Spring. There, the minority-owned thing may be a help when bidding on larger commercial accounts.
I'm not that convinced that it's a great idea from a stand-alone business model standpoint. However, it has nice synergies with my current business.
For instance, houses that pay to get their lawns mowed are also good candidates to have their carpets cleaned every now and then.
The main idea is to keep people on the payroll, and to engage them in something that at least covers the cost of their wages and perhaps absorbs some overhead.
We just got our brand-new John Deere 840 with the grass-catching system. The thing is a monster. It is capable of delivering a quality cut at 17 miles per hour and has a 60" mowing deck. Basically, it mows a swath that's almost as wide as I am tall, at a speed faster than I can sprint.
Like virtually all credit I get, this one came with 0% down, 0% apr, and a 42 month amortization period. It is sorta funny, when I think about all the debt I've accumulated, very little of it has been at an interest rate of over 3%.
I'm getting a little bit spoiled.
I may see about getting a pickup truck here soon so I can get the tax-writeoff. And yes, even those are coming with 0% terms. I'd really like a new Toyota Tundra extended cab, but since this will probably be used primarily for lawn-care, I'll probably be looking at something more like a Ford F-150, spartanly appointed.
For the Navy, I'm going back to Athens, GA to repeat my last 4 day midpoint worth of instructions. There are 3 food service tests. I passed one in July in Athens, but have failed the 2nd one, twice now. One more failure and I could be dismissed from the program and although that would mean no trip to the desert, it would also mean I would no longer be an officer in the Navy. Service to my country means too much to me, and serving with my fellow sailors has really been a great part of my life. I'm going to do all I can to keep up. The Navy isn't making me do this: I suggested it, myself, even if I had to go unfunded (meaning I wouldn't get paid for any of it.)
Next week, Logan and I leave for Disney so he can have some fun with all his Phoenix cousins.
And that's all I have to say about that.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Big Question on Bailouts: Why?
Why?
The government is only now starting to realize that the AIG bailout was a stupid idea, poorly executed, to the detriment of the taxpayer.
This, of course, was obvious last year to anybody who wasn't bought and paid for by special interests.
AIG should be out of business right now.
They're not.
They're rich.
You're not.
These banks? The ones complaining that they have compensation limits? The limit should be zero. Nobody in those companies should make anything because they should all be unemployed.
The banks that paid back the TARP money and are now back to giving multimillion dollar bonuses every year? They should be bankrupt, too. The AIG bailout was for their benefit.
So, I'm left to wonder, "Why?"
Why do I do it? Why do I have the sleepless nights owning my own business? Why do I stress on months when I lose money? Why do I take cash advances out on credit cards to keep this thing afloat?
It's not like rescuing the banks helped me. In fact, I'm worse off now than ever as far as the help I get from banks.
Small business lending is a joke. It's nearly non-existent and the terms are absurd. Yeah, you can sometimes get an SBA loan if you're willing to put up all your assets and the equity in your home. Seriously, giving somebody a loan at double digit interest and demanding that it be securitized at 300% of the value of the loan isn't exactly doing anybody a favor.
Our home equity loans have all dried up. That's how most business owners I know financed their businesses. No bailout for HELOCS for entrepreneurs, though.
So, why? I mean, yeah, I know the macro-level "why?". The macro-level "why?" is that Wall Streeters are rich and connected. Because of that, they own the government, and they tell the government to steal our money and give it to Wall Street.
No matter how much pain is endured on main street, Wall Street will use the government to step on our heads to make sure their party doesn't ever end.
But why? Why?
Why could nobody see that just giving money to the country's worst businessmen was a stupid idea?
Why could nobody see that it was morally wrong to give wealthy people the taxpayer dollars paid in by millions upon millions of middle class people struggling to get by?
In a country that decries partisan rancour, the only thing that both democrats and republicans could agree on was the fact that the little guy should get totally annihilated in order to benefit rich folks on Wall Street.
So, why?
I joined the military a few years ago as a reservist. I felt it was my obligation to a country that has blessed me so greatly. Now, I honestly wonder, why did I do that?
Why am I going to risk losing my life? Why would I subject myself to absence from my family?
To represent a corrupt government whose only purpose appears to be to victimize the citizenry for the benefit of the wealthy?
Why? Why pay taxes just to see the money go to Wall Street? Why support a system that has already bankrupted my son's and countless future generations in order to give millions and billions to people who were already multi-millionaires?
Why did I spend my life thinking that my government was basically good when in reality, it's just a corrupt means by which the struggling middle class is taxed to death for the benefit of the lazy and the greedy?
It is a testament to the civility of our population that we aren't taking to the streets with pitchforks right now. In any other age, these Wall Street bankers would be hunted down and beaten to death by angry mobs.
Sometimes, the modern, civilized ways aren't the best ways.
Ultimately, I'm left to wonder, why doesn't anybody, anywhere in government, care about anyone other than Wall Street bankers?
It is said that the East Germans, after the fall of communism, would say:
"Everything we were told about Communism was a lie. Everything we were told about Capitalism was true."
Recent times have borne this out.
However, this past episode was not a product of capitalism. In capitalism, those banks would have failed. Those Wall Streeters would have sufferred the financial consequences of their decisions.
If we were going to engage in socialism, why did we only do it for Wall Street bankers? For god's sake, we've got the worst of both worlds.
Where the working person suffers all the financial problems inherent in capitalism, but politically connected people are allowed to do anything and never have to suffer the consequences of their actions because the government will victimize the population in any way necessary to support the system.
Why?
The government is only now starting to realize that the AIG bailout was a stupid idea, poorly executed, to the detriment of the taxpayer.
This, of course, was obvious last year to anybody who wasn't bought and paid for by special interests.
AIG should be out of business right now.
They're not.
They're rich.
You're not.
These banks? The ones complaining that they have compensation limits? The limit should be zero. Nobody in those companies should make anything because they should all be unemployed.
The banks that paid back the TARP money and are now back to giving multimillion dollar bonuses every year? They should be bankrupt, too. The AIG bailout was for their benefit.
So, I'm left to wonder, "Why?"
Why do I do it? Why do I have the sleepless nights owning my own business? Why do I stress on months when I lose money? Why do I take cash advances out on credit cards to keep this thing afloat?
It's not like rescuing the banks helped me. In fact, I'm worse off now than ever as far as the help I get from banks.
Small business lending is a joke. It's nearly non-existent and the terms are absurd. Yeah, you can sometimes get an SBA loan if you're willing to put up all your assets and the equity in your home. Seriously, giving somebody a loan at double digit interest and demanding that it be securitized at 300% of the value of the loan isn't exactly doing anybody a favor.
Our home equity loans have all dried up. That's how most business owners I know financed their businesses. No bailout for HELOCS for entrepreneurs, though.
So, why? I mean, yeah, I know the macro-level "why?". The macro-level "why?" is that Wall Streeters are rich and connected. Because of that, they own the government, and they tell the government to steal our money and give it to Wall Street.
No matter how much pain is endured on main street, Wall Street will use the government to step on our heads to make sure their party doesn't ever end.
But why? Why?
Why could nobody see that just giving money to the country's worst businessmen was a stupid idea?
Why could nobody see that it was morally wrong to give wealthy people the taxpayer dollars paid in by millions upon millions of middle class people struggling to get by?
In a country that decries partisan rancour, the only thing that both democrats and republicans could agree on was the fact that the little guy should get totally annihilated in order to benefit rich folks on Wall Street.
So, why?
I joined the military a few years ago as a reservist. I felt it was my obligation to a country that has blessed me so greatly. Now, I honestly wonder, why did I do that?
Why am I going to risk losing my life? Why would I subject myself to absence from my family?
To represent a corrupt government whose only purpose appears to be to victimize the citizenry for the benefit of the wealthy?
Why? Why pay taxes just to see the money go to Wall Street? Why support a system that has already bankrupted my son's and countless future generations in order to give millions and billions to people who were already multi-millionaires?
Why did I spend my life thinking that my government was basically good when in reality, it's just a corrupt means by which the struggling middle class is taxed to death for the benefit of the lazy and the greedy?
It is a testament to the civility of our population that we aren't taking to the streets with pitchforks right now. In any other age, these Wall Street bankers would be hunted down and beaten to death by angry mobs.
Sometimes, the modern, civilized ways aren't the best ways.
Ultimately, I'm left to wonder, why doesn't anybody, anywhere in government, care about anyone other than Wall Street bankers?
It is said that the East Germans, after the fall of communism, would say:
"Everything we were told about Communism was a lie. Everything we were told about Capitalism was true."
Recent times have borne this out.
However, this past episode was not a product of capitalism. In capitalism, those banks would have failed. Those Wall Streeters would have sufferred the financial consequences of their decisions.
If we were going to engage in socialism, why did we only do it for Wall Street bankers? For god's sake, we've got the worst of both worlds.
Where the working person suffers all the financial problems inherent in capitalism, but politically connected people are allowed to do anything and never have to suffer the consequences of their actions because the government will victimize the population in any way necessary to support the system.
Why?
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