Random Observations

Just watch - even though the very same thing has happened over and over and over again, when the storm destroys the apartment buildings shown in this picture, good old Uncle Sam will expect the taxpayers to pick up the tab for damages. And after they've done so, the very same idiot developers will rebuild new apartments or houses in the very same location, to be destroyed again when the next storm hits. And you can bet your booty another will.

This is what infuriates me - that taxpayers are expected to pay the tab for every natural disaster that comes along, year after year after year.

Whatever happened to the quaint idea of requiring people to buy their own insurance to cover these disasters? After all, I live in Tornado Alley and I'm required to carry homeowners insurance to pay for damages that may occur as the result of a tornado.

Another thing that irritates me is that every time they have one of these bad storms, you have imbeciles who insist on "riding it out" and invariably they have to be rescued at great effort and expense to the taxpayers.

Why don't they bill these idiots instead of expecting taxpayers to pick up the bill?

Quote from Stumpy

Another thing that irritates me is that every time they have one of these bad storms, you have imbeciles who insist on "riding it out" and invariably they have to be rescued at great effort and expense to the taxpayers.

Why don't they bill these idiots instead of expecting taxpayers to pick up the bill?

See what I mean.

Quote from Stumpy

Just watch - even though the very same thing has happened over and over and over again, when the storm destroys the apartment buildings shown in this picture, good old Uncle Sam will expect the taxpayers to pick up the tab for damages. And after they've done so, the very same idiot developers will rebuild new apartments or houses in the very same location, to be destroyed again when the next storm hits. And you can bet your booty another will.

This is what infuriates me - that taxpayers are expected to pay the tab for every natural disaster that comes along, year after year after year.

I have no sympathy for people who insist on living in areas especially vulnerable to hurricanes, merely because they want that ocean view. If they want to dance, so to speak, they should have no problem paying the piper...........er, the insurance companies.

I must confess that all of my life, "high finance" has been a mystery to me. Although I'm an excellent money manager, I've never been an investor, nor even taken much of an interest in Wall Street and/or big banking. To me, investing seems too much like gambling, and I'm not inclined to gamble with my family's welfare. (I know, I know....the "experts" advise that over the long haul, stocks return a consistent 5 to 10 percent on the money invested.)

But in reading this article, I see no mention of blame directed toward one of the main causes of America's current financial crisis, and that's Congress. Because it was Congress that encouraged lenders to relax standards for giving out loans to people wanting to buy homes. Meaning that folks who wouldn't ordinarily be able to qualify for housing loans were able to get them. And for awhile, this worked as intended by enabling more people to become homeowners. But as we've seen over the past year or so, the chickens have finally come home to roost because those living beyond their meager means were no longer able to make those house payments and the shaky edifice of bad lending practices came tumbling down.

During my military career, we had a saying and that was, "everything the government touches turns to sh-t". Obviously that's still true.

Quote from Stumpy

I must confess that all of my life, "high finance" has been a mystery to me.

Like I said earlier, the machinations described in this article are so much Greek to me. But it all sounds like that once again, the rich guys are off the hook and the taxpayers (and their great,great,great,great, great grandchildren) are screwed. Just like back in the Eighties when the Savings and Loans turned belly-up, old Joe Sixpack took it in the neck to bail 'em out.

That was all Congress's fault too, I've read, because prior to the S&L crash, they raised the amount of insured savings to 100 thou from about 20,000. earlier. Leave it to those clowns in Washington to make a mess of our country.

A must read, especially the original article and the comments that follow it.

Many years ago, I read a treatise that described how Antonio Gramsci, an Italian communist, had developed a concept for subverting the Western World and defeating it without a shot being fired. His idea was to infiltrate all the Western centers that most influence opinion, such as the schools, the news and entertainment media, the churches and the political arena, and for the infiltrators to slowly begin introducing communist ideas to people who were unknowingly indoctrinated with the ideas being promulgated. Voila, over time those listening to this garbage start to believe it and/or accept it as gospel and before they're aware of it, they've become communists themselves. I believed in the effectiveness of Gramsci's scheme then and still believe in it now. Let's face it, folks, we in the West have been subjected to leftist propaganda for many, many years and there are huge numbers of our people who aren't even aware of it, because that propaganda was spread by institutions and/or people the listeners trusted.

I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed by people in this column. Why should those of us who are financially responsible pay for the greed and poor judgement of those who aren't? I say to hell with bailing out Wall Street on the back of taxpayers.

I don't believe this.

I think a fairly large majority of Americans feel exactly as I do and that's total indifference to our standing in the world. I imagine the only people who worry about such things are liberals and since the majority of Americans are not liberals...........

When it came to this, I was in "way over my head too".

I had absolutely no problems with other subjects, including arithmetic done with actual numbers but for me, 3b times 5c equals 14z did not compute, then or now. :teeth_smile::teeth_smile:

Quote from Stumpy

That was all Congress's fault too, I've read, because prior to the S&L crash, they raised the amount of insured savings to 100 thou from about 20,000. earlier. Leave it to those clowns in Washington to make a mess of our country.

As usual, my favorite female columnist explains succinctly what happened to bring about the financial meltdown.

This is a bit of trivial information that I'd wager not more than 1 out of 100 million people cares a fig about. So what's the big deal that they offer a hundred large as a prize for coming up with it.