Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences

As always, click on image to enlarge.

• One million seconds will pass in the next 12 days.
• One billion seconds will take 32 years.
• One trillion seconds will pass in 31,688 years.

Time is money, right? If you make one dollar every second, you will have a million dollars in twelve days. You will be a billionaire in 32 years, but it will take you more than 31,000 years to make a trillion dollars.

Want to read about Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences?

$100 Bill

It's a slow day in a little East Texas town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day a tourist drives through town. He stops at a small hotel and says he wants to inspect the rooms and pick one for the night. The manager explains that he does not have the time to accompany him during his inspection and thus requires a deposit before he will give up a key and allow free range. So in agreement, the tourist slaps a $100 bill on the counter.

As soon as the man walks upstairs, the hotelier grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to reimburse his sales manager who puts up out of town suppliers in the local hotel while they are in town wheeling and dealing.

The sales manager rushes to the hotel and pays off his room bill with the hotel owner.

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, says the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looks to the future with great optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

Thanks for the enlightenment from my friend Andy

End of Year Observations and a bit of Advice

If you were, right now, on a ship in the middle of the ocean, with an unobstructed and undeniable view of black storm clouds in the direction of all horizons what would you do? With no knowledge of which clouds will intensify or dissipate if any, what would you do? My advice would be to simply prepare yourself for whatever you perceive is about to happen in the direction of your sails. Or if deemed necessary change directions and if you are not the captain of your ship, do whatever is in your power to convince your captain to change directions.

America is in a steep decline. Perhaps signaling a global decline? Our elected representatives who have taken an oath to uphold and defend our constitution apparently haven’t even read it or fail to comprehend its contents or meaning or outright defy it in opposition to their own corrupt interests. They no longer listen to their constituents through conventional means, i.e., telephone calls, letters or even email. I know, I’ve tried repeatedly over the past year. They conduct ‘town hall meetings’ as diatribes and lectures rather than listening to the voices of those they represent. The main stream media, paid for and acting as an arm of our corrupt representatives reports our voices as uneducated, ignorant, contrived, insincere, covertly organized, radical, ‘nut-winged’ and even militant.

We the citizens of this great nation are allowing this decline to happen. Who among us has the time or inclination to take on and solve problems that exist beyond the realm of our own little microcosm of life; our families and our jobs?

Do I need to say it? Do you need to be shaken by the shoulders to understand that if you don’t start acting beyond the boundaries of your little world that you and your children are soon to be buried in an avalanche of domination trumping perhaps the very core of your own personal beliefs?

The New Electronic Grass Roots

The rise of the internet and the subsequent birth of social networking and the blogosphere is the greatest weapon in defense of freedom since the inception and execution of the Gutenberg press, guerilla warfare as invented by and executed by American Revolutionaries and the American invention of the Winchester repeater rifle. The internet is again, undeniably, an American invention born from the roots of freedom resulting in unlimited and unabated innovation. The blogosphere is exposing severely biased news organizations, corrupt governments, fatal propaganda and politicians and mainstream media outlets for what and who they are.

Plant Your Seeds

First and foremost, balance your life. Actually, tip the scales on the positive side. Live, laugh and love, enjoy your life to the fullest but create enough weight to throw on and tip the scales to balance out an unexpected crisis or disaster, upon a moments notice.

Prepare yourself physically and mentally if you possess the ability to do so. Teach your children first and foremost the principle of good vs. evil and hone not only their minds but also their bodies. Encourage and teach them the technology needed to preserve social networking and the blogosphere and encourage them to use such tools to spread the truth and goodness. Teach them a trade, to use their hands. Teach them to understand that those dark clouds on the horizon have the potential to not only cause a crippling technological breakdown but also the destruction of our physical infrastructure. Stock up and store those commodities that enable you to not only sustain but enjoy your life.

The Top Three Planetary Threats

• The resurgence of Communism – world domination via the ultimate control of the individual, their rights and their possessions, as sought by power hungry, ruthless dictators and megalomaniacs overcome with evil obsessions.
• The Myth of Global warming – The 'Green Movement' - a cleverly disguised, sinister, feel-good path to world domination.
• Radical Muslimism – An epidemical off-shoot of the Islamic religion who’s conversion methods include strong armed terrorist actions and threats offering you the opportunity to live a life defined by their leaders in lieu of having your head cut off, slowly, or having your body blown to smithereens while shopping for a piece of fruit in an open air market. Those who somehow escape the aforementioned stark consequences of non-conversion are subject to an excruciating and prolonged, extremely perverse form of guerilla warfare and/or persecution, humiliation or life long submission.

The Top Three Purveyors of the Worlds Most Dangerous Threats

• Barack "It's not my fault" Obama – the source of the virus that will ultimately, without intervention, weaken America to the point of collapse.
  
• Al Gore – the planetary bully who the world forfeited their lunch money to because no one had the balls to stand up to him.
• Mahmoud Ahmajinedad – the mass murderer whose precursor lunacy went unbelievably undetected and/or was deemed too crazy to believe.

Test your political I.Q.

Here. I got all 12 correct but lucked out on the question about how much Americans spend, comparatively, on health care costs.

- Thanks to my buddy Gus for passing this on.

Mr. Smarty Pants?

Well, I'd say so. Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. seems to have a reasonable grasp on the reality that surrounds us. (Warning: you must have at least a two year college degree to read these op-eds):

• Washington's Suicide Mission - Banks continue to fail at an alarming rate, the dollar is under assault, and Washington is looking at a future of trillion-dollar deficits. One might have guessed it would take a decade of Obamanomics to produce European welfare state levels of youth unemployment, but at 18.5% we're there.

• The Economic Uses of Al Gore - Notice, for instance, after a decade in which the earth appears to have stopped warming and even cooled, that global warming advocates have rushed to embrace a computer simulation that predicts this cooling (in retrospect, of course) and allows for indefinite future cooling, even while assuring that the world is destined to face disastrous warming anyway. Isn't this what forecasters of doom have done since time immemorial when their deadlines for doom haven't been met?

The Defination of Tyranny

In the Federalist 46, James Madison wrote: "The accumulation of all power, legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." THE VERY DEFINITION OF TYRANNY!

It is AMAZING that the political party pushing Obamacare cannot say what part of the Constitution grants Congress the power to force every American to buy health insurance. And WHY NOT? Because they HAVE NO AUTHORITY to do so. NONE of the enumerated powers afforded to Congress by the Constitution support them forcing an individual purchase mandate.

An individual political liberal idiot, Senator Baucus, when asked about their Constitutional authority to force this on Americans called it, "a novel question." GEE! YA THINK!? In reality, the forcing of a health care mandate on us is nothing more than a tyrannical enforcement of power, which is a view 180 degrees OUT of what the Framers’ vision of the our government's limited and enumerated powers.

If we allow this to happen what will stop them from forcing us to, say, buying ugly hybrids fit only for neutered liberal men to drive? We're too fat? Why, Congress can mandate that we join health care clubs, run by their buddies, to burn off the fat. We can even be fined for failing to lose the blubber! Not eating enough broccoli according to the Health Czar? Not a problem.

Our fine politicians can mandate that each of us must choke down a certain amount of broccoli each week or face a fine! They can even create a new bureaucratic office to ensure we're good little sheep and grazing on that broccoli. (Kickbacks from the broccoli farmers can go directly to the Congress) Talk about your "shovel-ready" jobs.

At the bottom line is that this behavior in BOTH Houses of Congress and in the White House, is seriously un-American, it bypasses State's Rights, it trashes the Constitution, and it ENDS individual liberty and many, many Americans are sick and damned tired of it!

- The 'Gunny'

They shoot bloggers don’t they?

I should shoot myself in the head for this post.

There’s nothing worse than being called a racist, except for maybe being called a pedophile or a sex offender.

Nobody wants to be called a racist.

Which is exactly why the minorities in this country use the accusation to promote their agenda and silence their opposition.

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton realized this a long time ago and have perfected and massaged the technique into very lucrative professions.

Yes it can be said that whites, of generations past, due primarily to a disparity of numbers between the races (people abuse people everywhere) have abused blacks. Yet no people anywhere have done more to lift up blacks than white America.

America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known, anywhere in the world, even today.

The pendulum swings? Who exactly are the racists in America today?

I’ll say it. Primarily the blacks, and many Hispanics are foolishly following suit.

The largest group of illegal immigrants that ‘get it’ and are thus capable of showing respect for independence and personal freedom while working their way out of the shadows are the Asians. Perhaps it is because no race has been slaughtered in more significant numbers by dictatorial and oppressive governments than the Asians.

I can honestly say I’ve never met an Asian I didn’t like. Both Blacks and Hispanics should take note.

On the other hand, as an innocent adolescent I lived in the south and learned first hand that there was a marked difference between regular black folks and niggers. Niggers gave all black folk a bad name. Same as trailer trash and ‘crackers’ gave white folk a bad name, as well as white whores and drunk Irish thugs and Italian gangsters gave their race or heritage a bad name. In fact, where I grew up there were white folks we called niggers.

Yet for the reason I state above you can’t call a nigger a nigger anymore. Go figure.

I lived in the south, and later lived in the San Francisco bay area. As a result I’ve know and been friends with a lot of black folk in my life. I liked most all of them, they added a new perspective to my life and thus enhanced it. They all had a sense of humor no matter their situation and they all loved life in general. Based entirely on my personal experience I view them to this day as great musicians, dancers, athletes and thinkers. And that’s saying something. Again, as the numbers go, I’ve met a lot more ignorant, bad, stupid white folk as I have black folk.

Top of my list of niggers:

• The 'Reverend' Jeremiah Wright
• The 'Reverend' Al Sharpton
• The 'Reverend' Jesse Jackson
• The tax cheat Charlie Rangle

Ever see one of those guys dance, make an athletic move, sing, play a musical instrument, display a sense of humor or even think? Me either.

I could go on but I’ve already said too much.

- Me Self

P.S. - For the record I do not know the etymology of the word “nigger” so I may be out of line here. On the other hand, maybe not. The meaning of words change from generation to generation.

I have a beautiful sand covered campground with an awesome natural rock fire pit on my property with a creek running on its edge and all of my daughter’s twenty-something friends refer to it as “sick” because... they love it.

Also, there's three sentences above I plagiarized from a Pat Buchanan op-ed because he said exactly what I was thinking.

Traditional Americans Are Losing Their Nation

In their lifetimes, they have seen their Christian faith purged from the schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV. They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobs outsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.

- Pat Buchanan

The 'Nuge' for President!

Next election for POTUS I'm writing in 'The Motor City Mad Man' Ted Nugent.



"Not in all my years in Florida have I known of a gang attack by raccoons on an individual." That being said, had this woman been packing your basic squirrel gun this never would of happened.

Over at Reason, they reason about gun ownership. The comments following the article are as interesting as the article itself.

Credit to my sometimes brilliant friend Billy Bob for inspiring this post.

A Word to The Wise

In the late 1400’s there were some trees, some cotton, some hemp, some metal forming technology and the wind and the water. It all came together one day and people began to sail away from the European continent and discover new ‘worlds.’

In simpler terms there were boats and water and that’s how new land was discovered, new countries were created and how they were connected to one another.

Then came mining, electricity, the telegraph, lights, the telephone, automobiles, refining oil, chemistry, medicine, the industrial revolution, flight, plastics (light weight speed boats), aluminum (light weight jet airplanes) and a whole bunch of other mind boggling stuff including fiber optics and lasers. Maybe not in that exact order but now, as a result… everybody seems to be in the same boat.

You’re looking at China when you watch American Idol. You’re pulling Viet Nam (yes, Viet Nam) up to your waist, one leg at a time when you put on your pants. A good part of your breakfast came from Brazil and you drove to work courtesy of the hard working folks in Japan. Your after dinner drink came from Ireland, Mexico or Sweden and if you had any tech or financial issues earlier in the day you probably talked to someone in India.

That’s why you need to be concerned about Iran and Afghanistan and Iraq and Jews and Arabs. They are all right in your backyard.

- Me Self

Couric / Beck

I missed this when it was originally aired. You can find it all over the web but I’m going to post it here for myself as a matter of convenience, so I can come back and find it with ease because, I am going to watch it again.

It’s about a half hour long and Katie asks Glenn some tough questions...



...and he doesn't cry, even once (I cried for him).

Note: the audio on this video is not so good. I have searched various sites, including YouTube and they all seem to be the same. So, it's not your computer.

Regardless of who you think Glenn Beck is, to date, he’s had a huge impact on awakening the apathetic and stimulating a much needed debate in our society. Why else would Time Magazine put him on their cover? We’ve all been asleep for far too long.

Forget what Katie is asking this man, forget his answers. For conquering his own demons and having the courage to speak his own mind I see him as an incredible individual, at the very least an inspiration.

I'm an amoeba in the blogosphere. I have a verifiable audience of about 150 people and I’m getting hate mail just for playing around on my computer and venturing into the public with some of my thoughts and opinions. I can't even imagine what Glenn Beck has to put up with. He must spend hundreds-of-thousands of dollars in legal retainer fees alone and even more gobs of money for the personal protection of his very life for simply speaking his mind.

A sad comment concerning our society?

It is people like Glenn who risked their very lives to form this great nation. I take my hat off to him.

To all of you who want to criticize me for assisting in spreading Glenn’s wacko opinions let it be known I also take my hat off to Bill Maher for his courage to also speak his mind, even though I think he is a living, breathing oxymoron - a brilliant idiot:

“Beck's a bimbo and he's a crazy one. I'm telling you - it is not that long before we're going to find Glenn Beck dressed as a woman or playing with his feces or something." - Bill Maher

If you have some time to waste here's some more on Maher.

Don't be too judgmental. He appears to be in it for the money and that's OK by me. And, don't forget, first and foremost he is a comedian.

- Larry

More unbelievable meddling by government...

A DHS spokesperson would not comment on the specifics of the case but says they have no choice but to comply with state law, which is designed...

...wait for it...

...to protect Michigan children.

If only I had a gun...

I frequently get emails alerting me of outrageous bills being presented in Congress. Many of them are indeed, outrageous. However, the more outrageous they are the more likely they are to be DOA.

Here's a good article explaining why these bills exist and a good place to keep track of them.

The 10th Amendment

The federal government has no more authority to compel the states or the counties to do anything, no more so than the Prime Minister of Canada has.

This separation of the two spheres is one of the constitution’s structural protections of liberty. Just as the separation and independence of the coordinate branches of the federal government serve to prevent the accumulation of excessive power in any one branch, a healthy balance of power between the States and the Federal Government will reduce the risk of tyranny and abuse from either front.

What's wrong with this picture?

So much I don't even know where to start. In addition most would agree it's unfair. But it is fair to say the artist did an excellent job in getting across his point. I actually stumbled upon it after I composed the following:

When it comes to conflict between governments and their citizens the natural progression in ALL societies appears to me to be:

1. Discussion, debate.
2. Peaceful protest coupled with civil obedience.
3. Civil disobedience.
4. Violent protests.
5. Revolution and/or civil war.

In corrupt, oppressive and dictatorial societies, where the rulers have enough power, this progression is usually deterred somewhere between civil disobedience and violent protest or shortly thereafter. It is only when the people have enough power and the collective will to push back that the conflict(s) will erupt into a full blown revolution or civil war. After that, all hell breaks lose and the most powerful entity will prevail.

One of the methods used by evil leaders and corrupt governments to prevent this progression from even starting is to oppress their citizens and depress their economies to the point when just getting through a day takes up all of their time. The average man then has no voice or even the time for proper thought about such things. A good method of achieving this is through retaliation of speech and the redistribution of wealth and taxation. Suppress free speech or even more deviously, while lauding free speech, pass laws or use your authority to suppress at the very least, debate. Keep them down and certainly don’t let anyone get too rich to oppose you.

Enter Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.

A Republican Congressman from Wisconsin wanted to put up a bill stating all of Congress subscribe to the same healthcare Obama wants America to have. Pelosi would not let the bill go to the floor. NO DEBATE ALLOWED.

A ‘Common Sense’ bill introduced into Congress referred to as the RTBA (Read The Bills Act) has to date been prevented from being allowed on the floor by Nancy Pelosi. Perhaps she is bewildered by the term, ‘fiduciary responsibility’. NO DEBATE ALLOWED.

Here is the proposed bill in PDF form.

Barack Obama has not had an honest discussion with any Republican Congressman or GOP group since April 2009 concerning the formation of a bipartisan health care bill. That’s mainly because the Democrats currently control all branches of the government and feel they don’t need any input from an opposing party. They, including The White House itself are no longer OPENED TO DEBATE.

Last week-end Barack Obama granted interviews to no less than five mainstream news outlets. Yet he shunned by far the most popular and most viewed one, FOX News because FOX admittedly and openly question his health care reform philosophy. NO DEBATE ALLOWED by Obama!

I predict the backlash on these people is going to be huge come the next election cycle. Unless they can create a diversion like many accused the Bush administration of doing by toppling a couple of skyscrapers and causing thousands of deaths in some American city.

- Larry

The Broccoli of Logic

Makes me want to gag.

Mandated health insurance is now being compared to auto insurance. If you drive you must have auto insurance. I agree with that. Good idea. The flawed logic that follows is that if you are alive you must have health insurance.

This logic, 'spoon fed' to the masses by the Obama administration and propagated by the mainstream media, is like being forced to eat broccoli, or lima beans or in my case, asparagus. What's next, mandated life insurance? Burial insurance?

Many people don't even own a vehicle. Some who do never intend to drive them. Can you imagine the outrage of New Yorkers who walk, bicycle or use mass transit if they were forced to purchase auto insurance via a government mandate?!

Ironically, if you do own a vehicle and drive, your mandated auto insurance covers medical expenses for at the very least, someone you hurt in an accident (you can choose to exclude yourself).

The solid logic that follows the above is that not everyone needs or wants health insurance.

Here's a very enlightening video from Reason TV illustrating how some people, by their own free will, choose to spend their hard earned money on other 'stuff:'



- Larry