BobM – Granite Grok

The result of Democrats creating tax policies…

THIS SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR EVERYONE OF VOTING/WORKING AGE . . .

Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would d pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers?How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so (after the jump – bad things happen):

Liberals vs Conservatives (another example)

by BobM

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and had grown to be in strong favor for the re-distribution of all wealth in America. She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative, … Read more

Universal Health Scare . . .

by BobM

We frequently hear politicians bemoaning the fact that there are about forty seven million people without health insurance. Most Democrat Presidential candidates are espousing a national health care system, and one, John Edwards, is further demanding that everyone be required to see a Doctor at least once a year. The public is being led down a path to possible disaster.

There are two areas of concern. The first is what would a universal plan do to an already over regulated and under staffed health care system? The second has to do with the makeup of 47 million uninsured number.

Back in 1980, a study commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services predicted that there would be a surplus of doctors by the year 2000. That disastrous prediction resulted in reductions of openings in medical schools and a diversion of young people to other professions. Other governmental regulations literally drove United States trained foreign doctors, who used up some of those medical school seats, back to their homeland, further draining our physician resources. And the medical shortage isn’t limited to doctors. According to an article by Dr. Jack Cochran in the Denver Business Journal, the Government is now predicting a shortage of 800,000 nurses by 2020. Recruitment of doctors and nurses has become a big business. Doctors fresh out of their residency are receiving over fifty job offers each.

If John Edwards were to implement his medical wish list…

Free Will

by BobM

We have a "nutty professor" up here in the central part of NH. A lot of time, not a lot of respect flows from him. Just thought I’d let him chew on this, as even the "little people" deserve as much, if not more, than the "important people".

Life is all about "Free will", which I call one of God's gifts.

Using the animal kingdom as an example, the species were formed in such a
way as to have to prey on other, more vulnerable creatures in order to
survive. Big fish eat little fish. Lions and Tigers eat Wildebeests. The
strongest survive because they get more of the creatures to eat. They also
survive because their birth rates are geared to meeting those needs. Fish
spawn with thousand and thousands of roe, that turn into fry, that turn into
fish, that become meals for bigger fish. The more wily, and luckier small
fish survive and then they become the predators who eat the small fish.
Lions don't spawn but they do have multiple births. Often papa lion will
kill the male cubs because he doesn't want future competition, and because
it is the mama lions who go out and get his next meal for him. You can fill
in the rest of the animal kingdom, it's almost all the same.

What does all that have to do with "Free will"?

Imagine, if instead of free will, we were all made exactly equal. Everyone
was a smart and as ambitious as everyone else. We were all equally strong
and no one had an advantage. Without free will, how would we survive? Would
we be like the fish?, the lions?, or some other creature?, where, for our
survival, we had to do the other person in. If we don't have "Free will" and
we're all "equal", who is going to plant and harvest the garden? Who is
going to mine the coal or drill for oil or water? Who is going to work at
the grocery store or the service station? Who is going to mow the lawn or
take out the trash? And, oops, who is going to pick up the trash? Who is
going to humble himself for the benefit of his equals, because then he would
not be "equal".

Another person weighs in on President Carter…

by BobM

Insight of a Sergeant Major (The author, J.D. Pendry, is a retired Army Command Sergeant Major who writes for Random House.)

NO PUNCHES PULLED HERE

Jimmy Carter, you’re the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You’re the Runner-in-Chief.

Bill Clinton, you played "ring around the Lewinsky" while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses embolden the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You’ve accused our Soldiers of terrorizing women in Iraq. You called Iraq "the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time"… the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You’re a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam, is another war that you were for, before you were against it.

John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can’t win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof. And said we should re-deploy to Okinawa. Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert. Are you sure you didn’t suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You’re a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You’re not a Marine sir. You wouldn’t amount to a pimple on a real Marine’s ass. You’re a phony and a disgrace. Run away John.

Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned South East Asia to the Communists….

And the Democrats are speaking about raising taxes – how about getting rid of some?

by BobM

THIS LITTLE TAX DITTY WAS SENT IN BY AN OLD CLASSMATE. I WOULD LIKE TO ADD ONE CORRECTION. AT THE END OF THE MESSAGE, IT SAYS "NOT ONE OF THESE TAXES EXISTED 100 YEARS AGO . . .". ACTUALLY, THE TELEPHONE FEDERAL EXCISE TAX GOES BACK TO THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR. THE TAX WAS INSTITUTED TO HELP PAY FOR THAT WAR — IT WAS ENACTED ON JUNE 13, 1898.

What Happened?
At first I thought this was funny…then I realized the awful truth of it. Be sure to read all the way to the end!

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he’s fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries, then
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won’t be done
Till he has no dough.

The real difference

by BobM

Here’s a good article. I just can’t understand why everyone feels the need to kill everyone else in the world, why everyone can’t just live peacefully with other human beings that may be different from them!

Remarks of Brigitte Gabriel, delivered at the Duke University Counter Terrorism Speak-Out

I’m proud and honored to stand here today, as a Lebanese speaking for Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. As someone who was raised in an Arabic country, I want to give you a glimpse into the heart of the Arabic world.

I was raised in Lebanon, where I was taught that the Jews were evil, Israel was the devil, and the

only time we will have peace in the Middle East is when we kill all the Jews and drive them into the sea.

When the Moslems and Palestinians declared Jihad on the Christians in 1975, they started massacring the Christians, city after city. I ended up living in a bomb shelter underground from age 10 to 17, without electricity, eating grass to live, and crawling under sniper bullets to a spring to get water.

It was Israel who came to help the Christians in Lebanon. My mother was wounded by a Moslem’s

shell, and was taken into an Israeli hospital for treatment.When we entered the emergency room, I was shocked at what I saw. There were hundreds of people wounded, Moslems, Palestinians, Christians,Lebanese, and Israeli soldiers lying on the floor. The doctors treated everyone according to their injury. They treated my mother before they treated the Israeli soldier lying next to her. They didn’t see religion, they didn’t see political affiliation, they saw people in need and they helped.

This is something to think about. See any parallels?

by BobM

"Rome fell September 4, 476AD. It was overrun with illegal immigrants: Visigoths, Franks, Anglos, Saxons, Ostrogoths, Burgundians, Lombards, Jutes and Vandals, who at first assimilated and worked as servants, but then came so fast they did not learn the Latin Language or the Roman form of government. Highly trained Roman Legions moving rapidly on their advanced … Read more

God does work in mysterious ways….

by BobM

A Marine’s response: Well stated A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU. One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked … Read more

Gatorade is not the problem

by BobM

Received this in an email:

Toiletries don’t commit acts of terrorism.

Muslims do.

So why can’t I take my toothpaste on the plane? How is it that Gatorade is forbidden? Why can’t I have a bottle of water?

Because we aren’t really fighting a war with terror, we are losing a struggle with political correctness. It is not so much the evil of outsiders, it is the cowardice of Americans.

The cowardice that won’t let us call a spade a spade, that makes us all live in an alternate reality, that puts survival secondary to servility. We are fighting World War III with one arm tied behind our back.

Last week was a good example.

A group of two or three dozen fascist Muslims in England and Pakistan plotted to blow up 10 or 12 passenger-laden airliners in transatlantic flight. The purpose was to celebrate and reprise the attacks of September 11. The means was the detonation of explosive liquids disguised as common liquids – like Gatorade or shampoo.

The plot was discovered, followed and – hopefully – foiled by British intelligence with an assist from Americans and Pakistanis. Immediately, new restrictions were put on airline passengers. Because the plotters planned to use liquids, passengers were forbidden to bring liquids onto airplanes.

Not medicines, not crèmes, not drinks, not nothing. Untold hundreds of thousands of airline passengers immediately and indefinitely lost the right to carry liquids or pastes on themselves or in their carry-on luggage.

Which is stupid.

Pinpoint landing, anyone?

by BobM

Subject: Helicopter landing – awsome! Now, this be a PILOT!!! Even tho’ he’s not fixed wing. Awsome landing in Afghanistan. I’m sure all of you have seen many choppers make some daring moves, but this one is spectacular! The shot was taken by a trooper in Afghanistan. The Pilot is Larry Murphy, PA National Guard. … Read more

It’s Friday once again!

by BobM

[We here at GraniteGrok are not terribly Politically Correct (if you haven’t noticed!), so we are not afraid to tell jokes the old-fashioned way. We offer the following in the spirit they are intended – chuckle a little. Thanks Bob! -Skip] THESE ARE DELIGHTFUL A little humor from a Jewish friend in the midst … Read more

You do not have the right to….

by BobM

THIS HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A WHILE. JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT. The famed "Bill of No Rights" was written in 1993 by Lewis Napper, a self-described amateur philosopher and from Mississippi who ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 2000 as a Libertarian. =============== "We the sensible people of the United … Read more

Proportionality vs. rationality . .

by BobM

With this Posting, GraniteGrok is happy to welcome Bob M! We have enjoyed his Letters to the Editor in the local papers for a while now as they have been factually based and logically written. He will be seen here, hopefully, more than occasionally.

Thanks Bob! -Skip

==============================================

Concerning the response by Israel to the terrorist attacks by Hezbollah, there is much talk about “proportionality”. By definition, proportionality means that the relationship of one thing to another will remain the same, even as things change. In current terms, some are asking that the capabilities of Hezbollah be the same after this war, as they were before they kidnapped Israeli soldiers and indiscriminately fired literally thousands of rockets into Israeli cities. Pure pooh!

Since its rebirth in 1947, the people of Israel have had to fight against people who have continually initiated and waged war against them.