Dear Mr. President

As an entrepreneur and manager of a small business - like the small businesses that comprise some 99% of our nations employer businesses - I am concerned, first and foremost, with the bottom line financial implications of the decisions I am confronted with.

When salesmen contact me with products and services, the first question I generally ask is what is my ROI. Now, I'm sure you have some good explanation for your endorsement of the solar panels in Denver that wouldn't pay for themselves for 110 years, even though their estimated usage life is only 25 years (article here). That, however, is a very small issue compared to what you are proposing for our failed auto industry.

So Mr. President, I just have one question for you - what is our return on investment with these latest bailouts? Is there one? As far as I can tell, this just seems to be a donation for the sake of being able to say that we make cars in America. If my company fails, can I request bailout funds? If we fail there won't be any manufacturers of electric skateboards in America. That would be an absolute travesty to me and my 6 employees.


Sincerely,

Really pissed off about paying taxes to support crappy cars made by companies who allowed their executives run them into the ground.




-T

Let's cut the crap...

Ok, I have to rant about something...


I fly a lot. I went to China 5 times last year. I flew to Thailand, Dallas, San Fran a couple of times and to Portland.

This past weekend I went to Salt Lake City with the boys to get some late season skiing in.

I've finally had it. I am sick and tired of the "please shut off all portable electronic devices as they may interfere with our navigation equipment". I was listening to my iPod during the safety spiel and was politely told by the rather burly male flight attendant, "Please turn it off until we are at a safe altitude. You don't want us to land in the lake like those people in New York."

Really guy? REALLY?!?!?!?

Are you that dumb? Do you think that I am?

We landed on the damn moon 41 years ago! Since then we have come up with some insane technology, yet you would have me believe that playing my 1.5 volt iPod during takeoff could result in catastrophe.

Shut up already. There is no shot in hell that using my cell phone during takeoff could interfere with the avionics on the aircraft.

Now some might ask, "How do you know? It's POSSIBLE, isn't it?"

To which I say, "No, it's not."

How many people do you think have left their phones on in their pockets or left their iPods on during takeoff? Approximatel 1 BILLION people flew last year. If .5% of people that fly do that, every year there are 5 million chances for devices to interfere with the plane every year. 5 million. I'm pretty sure that at least that many people have done that and I think that's a big enough sample size to know that nothing is going to happen if I want to listen to my iPod instead of your ridiculous safety speech and the loud jet engines.

So I ask you, airlines, what the hell is the deal? Is this some ridiculous power trip? Do you really want us to be uncomfortable and annoyed on the flight? Sometimes it sure seems that way.

So let's cut the crap and shoot it straight... either tell us why you really don't want us using "personal electronic devices" during takeoff and landing, or shut up and let us listen to our music in peace because I'm not buying the "interference with navigation equipment" garbage anymore.


Also, to the Delta employee checking baggage in Salt Lake, when I have kids of my own I am going to tell them your story as a cautionary tale of what happens if you decide to be a complete and total idiot.



I'm out.


-T

Veganism and Abortion

I was driving home on Sunday when I was flipping through AM radio stations. Came across GoVeganRadio. For 20 minutes, I listened to some guy rant about the "horrors" of animal testing and slaughterhouses. I got home and did a little research on all the claims he made. Researched Veganism and vegetarianism and looked up the mission statements of PETA and some other fringe animal rights lobbyist groups. I was pretty fascinated. One question continually came up in my head, "Can you be adamant about animal rights and also coherently support abortion?"

I contend you cannot and here is why:

Tom Regan, Philosophy PhD and teacher at NC State, wrote a book called The Case for Animal Rights. I browsed the book and it can be briefly summarized here Vegan Ethics


The basic premise of Veganism (and vegetarians who don't eat animal products because they disagree with the methods of killing animals) is that animals have inherent moral worth and deserve the same treatment that humans do. "Any being with a complex mental life, including perception, desire, belief, memory, intention, and a sense of the future --among other attributes -- is a subject of a life. Considerable evidence leads to an understanding that most animals indeed are subjects of a life, as opposed to biological beings without such subjective worlds."

Fair enough. I think you would be hard-pressed to call someone crazy for believing something like that. You may not agree, but you should be able to see that it's a fairly rational way of thinking.

This brings me to abortion...

I am making one assumption in my argument and it is this: Vegans and vegetarians would have a major problem with people killing cow (or other animal) fetuses.

If this is untrue, then my argument fails.

Can you see where I'm going with this? Vegans and vegetarians (and PETA members) would have a serious problem with killing calf fetuses, but don't necessarily have a problem with human abortion. There is no mention of human abortion is Veganism or PETA doctrine.

The only way to reconcile this would be if Vegans argued that humans and human fetuses have LESS inherent value than animals and animal fetuses.

This is clearly not rational and would be virtually impossible to make a valid and sound argument in support.


What does this mean? Not a whole lot unless you're a Vegan or PETA supporter. But it is yet more proof that people don't spend nearly enough time understanding their own beliefs and the logical and practical consequences of those beliefs.




Happy St. Patrick's Day


-T

Bravo Charles Krauthammer, Bravo!!!

'Yet, unlike President Bush, who painstakingly explained the balance of ethical and scientific goods he was trying to achieve, Obama did not even pretend to make the case why some practices are morally permissible and others not.

This is not just intellectual laziness. It is the moral arrogance of a man who continuously dismisses his critics as ideological while he is guided exclusively by pragmatism (in economics, social policy, foreign policy) and science in medical ethics.

Science has everything to say about what is possible. Science has nothing to say about what is permissible. Obama's pretense that he will "restore science to its rightful place" and make science, not ideology, dispositive in moral debates is yet more rhetorical sleight of hand -- this time to abdicate decision-making and color his own ideological preferences as authentically "scientific."

Dr. James Thomson, the discoverer of embryonic stem cells, said "if human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough." Obama clearly has not."

This could not have been written more perfectly.

Every one of you should read this article. Pay particular attention to the last paragraph.

Morally Unserious in the Extreme

Viva la Moustache

-T

Salutary Interference...

...We need some.


DC Examiner Article


Also, can someone please tell Nancy Pelosi to shut up already? Seriously...



-T

Noble intent, terrible outcome

"Unfortunately, our history suggests new government programs, however noble the intent, more often wind up delivering less, more slowly, at far higher cost than projected, with potentially damaging unintended consequences. The most recent case, of course, was the government's meddling in the housing market to bring home ownership to low-income families, which became a prime cause of the current economic and financial disaster."


I am officially terrified

Obama's Radicalism is Killing the Dow






-T

Compassion for the poor and needy?

You be the judge


Assault on Authentic Compassion


Oh and this one too...

Transferring the Wealth?



-T