Sunday, February 21, 2010

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
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I'm sitting here contemplating this latest round of snow. We receive another 5 inches today. More shoveling, only this time for two houses and 1 apartment. Hooray for global warming! How can any one believe in global warming? It gets warmer, it gets cooler. That's the way it is and that's the way it has always been. Forever.

House Plan 4
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Good news! We don't need a new roof, we just needed to repair the roof the inept previous owner put on. Seriously, it has a new Timberline roof, someone just wasn't skilled at roofing. So my brother and I were on the roof in 35 degree weather with a 10-15 mph breeze blowin' and the sky threatening rain or snow. Most repairs are done, at least the ones that can be done in winter weather. Spring weather will allow some other repairs. Any way, that was a load off my mind.

CPAC Results
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The Conservative Political Action Conference has held it's annual meeting this past week. They had an impressive list of speakers this year. Ann Coulter was on hand to offer her sharp, caustic wit, Judge Andrew Napolitano was there as was Mitt Romney. CPAC does a straw poll of all potential conservative Presidential Candidates. This year Ron Paul won the poll with 33 percent of the vote. Mitt came in second at 20 some odd percent. Since the last presidential election cycle, the one in which Dr. Paul was mostly ignored, he has become the go to guy for all things political by the news groups that dismissed him during the election. A person (professional asshat), from the Fox News network made the closing speech at this years meeting. I wonder what he thinks of the straw poll results as he thinks that Ron Paul is a kook and anyone that supports him is a member of the tin foil hat club.

The new poor?
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I read today that there is a new class of Americans that may be called the new poor. These folks, myself included, are the chronically unemployed. I personally have been out of work for over a year and thankfully, I still have 1 or 2 unemployment claims or extensions left. But there are millions (2.7 million to be closer) of people that are facing the end of any unemployment benefits by the end of April. The article went on to say that it may be years before people like me can find a regular job. Years! I can find work but it is intermittent, sporadic and low paying at best. And it is work that I drum up myself, not in an office, at a jobsite or in a factory. I have been told I'm not qualified to do the things I have done for the last 10 years(maintenance and construction management) and I have been told I'm not qualified to be a custodian. So if I'm not qualified for anything in between what do I do? Anything I can find that will pay me, preferably in cash. There are millions of people that are in the same position. Good, hard working folks that, at this time, have no real employment future. I want to personally thank past President George W. Bush for my job loss and Pseudo President Obama for continuing the unemployment cycle. It used to be said that a way to improve a failing economy was to go to war. Well, we're on two battle fronts and that hasn't improve the economy any. Maybe it takes a real World War to make real job growth. Truthfully, as intermarried as the world economy is, I don't think things will ever get back on track. Look at the latest ripple, Toyota builds some crappy cars, so the stock market drops and anyone that sells to Toyota or supports them or is supported by them loses their market value and it just goes down the line to the smallest provider of the smallest vendor to the car maker. Purveyors of nuts, bolts, uniforms, paint, steel, tires, glass, fabric, wire and so on all see a drop in their business and their market value. The entire world is tied together like this so a hiccup on one side of the world causes a rash on the other side.

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