"Your U.S.
Specialist"
CRAIG SELIG
P. O. Box 11725
Fort Wayne, IN 46860 USA
Tel. 1-260-749-4995
1-800-735-0073
craigselig at pnc3.com
P. O. Box 11725
Fort Wayne, IN 46860 USA
Tel. 1-260-749-4995
1-800-735-0073
craigselig at pnc3.com
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CRAIG SELIG P. O. Box 11725 Fort Wayne, IN 46860 USA Tel. 1-260-749-4995 1-800-735-0073 craigselig at pnc3.com |
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Straight Talk, Straight Up |
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November 9, 2016
Reflections on an Upset A collector asked me how I felt about the election, and I replied as follows: How do I feel about the election, you ask. I told a collector in Germany today who was worried that we might have elected another Hitler, that no, we had not elected a Hitler or a Mussolini. Instead, we elected a Silvio Berlusconi. The German agreed with me 100%, that I was exactly right. Silvio's a billionaire skirt-chaser, very flamboyant, corrupt, dishonest to the core, with that goofy smile 100% of the time. That's who we elected yesterday, Silvio Trump. The election was truly an upset. Hillary has to be in shock, and will likely be very depressed for some time to come. Can you image, the entire country fired her before they hired her, for a job she knew was hers. Imagine 59,690,096 Americans telling you to go get lost, that they don't want anything to do with you: Virtually no one I knew said they were voting for Trump. Apparently enough people withheld this information from pollsters too, such that ALL the polls were wrong. Amazing. The Democrats are in shock too. The Republicans own the executive and the House and the Senate, a Triple Crown for them for the first time since 1928. They will likely set to work taking apart everything the Democrats built for the last 8 years, brick by brick. If the Republicans are smart, they will get the older right-wing justices on the Supreme Court to resign and pack the court with a bunch of young right-wingers who will then serve for the next 40 to 50 years. The Republicans CAN do this, and Democrats cannot stop them. And the irony in all this? Hillary won the popular vote based on the votes counted thus far, but she lost the electoral college. What a bitter, bitter pill to have jammed down her throat by the likes of a Donald J. (the Jerk) Trump. She can at least take solace in the fact that so far, Donald Trump is no longer saying, "Lock Her Up!" |
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May 30, 2016
New York World Stamp Show A collector wrote me recently, saying he thought I might be going to the Big New York Show. I replied saying: As far as the NY show goes, I am NOT a big stamp show person for one thing. It has been at least 5 years since I have been to an out-of-town stamp show, and then only to buy. I have never had a booth at a stamp show, something I say with some pride. I prefer the 24-hour stamp show that the internet is. And lastly, as a member of the ASDA, I received a couple ultra-expensive offers to "participate," one being a pass one could as non-booth-holder purchase to allow one to come in to the show 2 hours early and leave 30 minutes late for $1,500.00. Yes, that's $1,500.00, for the duration of the show. $1,500.00 for what is nothing more than "extended shopping hours." The show organizers should just offer extended shopping hours to everyone at no charge, in order to help the dealers who've spent $8,000.00 to rent one their booths for 10 days or so. Honestly. And then there was the 8-course dinner us ASDA members were invited to participate in at $260.00 a head. I don't spend that much on food in a month. The best food I get is off my own property, later into the summer, as things ripen. For $260.00 I could probably buy a half a side of fresh beef, slaughtered the same day, out here in the sticks. So, good luck and good riddance to all those New York Stamp Sity Slickers....Me, I'll save my money and spend it on the Tsunami of new issues the USPS just brought out, thankfully without any imperfs. |
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October 28, 2015
The USPS never ceases to amaze. I just learned that they're planning on jacking rates way up come January 17, 2016. And they didn't make it easy to get to the right webpage to see what they're doing to us, but I found it. Click on this link to learn more. Here's an executive summary, not that I'm an executive: Express Mail is going up 14.4% on average. Flat Rate Express Mailers are soaring from $19.99 to $22.95. Priority mail is going up 8.6% on average. Priority Rate Mailers are jumping from $5.75 to $6.45. First Class packages will be up 12.8%. Why, I wonder. The cost of fuel continues to hit record LOWS. Wage inflation is about zero. Our government just announced no COLA increases for SS recipients. Why in the world is the USPS jacking up rates? Folks, this reminds me of the Jimmy Carter years, where every time you turned around, prices were up, up, and away without end. As an aside: I noticed that they are eliminating certain priority mail packaging, for example the Priority Mail Regional Rate Box C. Those are those large priority mail boxes that they never have at the retail window for anyone to use. Their reason : "to simplify this product offering." What a bunch of baloney. And Express mail flat-rate boxes are being nixed as well. And these geniuses wonder why their revenue is declining? You eliminate product offerings, guess what, your revenue drops. Brilliant thinking. If you're gonna write the postmaster-general to offer him or her your input, better do it before January 17th, while you can still afford the postage. And on that happy note, I'm back to work, trying to get the mail out before January 17th myself. |
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December 16, 2012
The Latest School Shooting You know, ever since the latest school shooting, I've either turned the news off, or had it on and turned it off almost immediately, since I don't want to hear about it. One pleasant exception was Nightly Business Report, which only said a few words about it and then got back to business. It's not that I'm against reporting the news, don't get me wrong. What I don't care to hear is how all these supposed experts, both in the media and in academia, are going to drone on and tell us should've, could've, would've, won't happen again, we're gonna fix folks like that nut job. Well, really. How, I wonder, and how-so now, weren't all you smarties already working on this since the Columbine thing, and you haven't fixed a damn thing. You know, when I was growing up....(You need to write me and ask for your personal copy of what I have to say.) |
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October 26, 2012
The Best Obama Interview Ever Kyle Clark, a courageous local Colorado reporter, asked Obama some questions today, tougher than any questions Obama's had to face in DC. Obama chose to not directly answer Clark's question, "Were they (our Libyan Embassy personnel) denied requests for help during the [Libyan Embassy] attack?" Instead Obama says the minute he found out what WAS going on, implying he was informed AS THE ATTACK WAS GOING ON, he gave 3 orders: 1. Make sure we're securing out personnel, 2. We're going to investigate this, to make sure it doesn't happen again, and 3. Find out who did this so we can bring them to justice. Everthing other than KILL THE TERRORISTS. The terrorists killed 4 Americans, injured others apparently, and 2 brave Navy Seals went against orders to NOT defend the ambassador as the attack was in progress over a 7-hour period. Those orders to NOT defend the ambassador came from presumably the highest levels in DC. Fully 46 days since 9-11-12, Obama's still "gathering all the facts." Yes, I know, he's got other priorities right now, like fund-raisers the day after the USA was attacked, and that last round of golf before winter sets in. Be sure to check out the question the reporter poses at 4:57. No one in DC would dare pose that question to the President of the United States of America. We'll see if the FCC renews Denver's KUSA 9NEWs' broadcasting license next time around. |
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August 25, 2012
It was not too long ago that I was reading Charles Syke's newest book, "A Nation of Moochers," and came across his essay entitled "I, Piggy Bank." It very much struck a chord with me, and I hope it strikes a similar chord with you: "I, Piggy Bank * * * |  |
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"My 401(k) is down 30 percent, my employer just cut the match, and it looks like I may have to work until I'm seventy years old. I also pay for pensions to public employees who retired in their fifties. "I don't have enough money to go on vacation this year, but I paid my share of the federal government's $2.6 million grant to teach Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly. I pay for bridges to nowhere. "I drive a 1997 Honda Accord, but I had to pay for my neighbor's $41,000 electric car. I also bailed out the United Auto Workers. "I contribute to my children's 529 college savings plan, but since I don't qualify for financial aid, I pay for other people's kids to go to school as well. I also pay for sociology classes where I am sneered at for my lack of social conscience and denounced as the very essence of greed, racism, and environmental insensitivity. "I exercise regularly, watch my cholesterol, and pay for my own health insurance as well as copays and deductibles. I also pay for Other People's tonsillectomies, appendectomies, and occasional rhinoplasties. I pay taxes for Medicare, Medicaid, and various medical programs for poor children, and now I will get to subsidize the health care of several million more nonelderly, nonimpoverished Americans. "My small business just lost its line of credit, but I paid to bail out Citigroup, AIG, and Goldman Sachs, whose executives get bonuses bigger than my entire net worth. "I pay my mortgage, but I also pay to bail out banks that made risky loans and yuppies who have trouble paying $700,000 mortgages on their McMansions they bought with no down payments and adjustable-rate deals. "I pay for groceries for my family, but I also pay millionaire farmers not to grow stuff like rice. I buy dinner for more than 42 million food stamp recipients (although they now call it Food Shares.) I also pay for school lunches. And breakfasts, since other parents apparently can't be expected to feed their kids. I get red meat once a week, but I pay for urban hipsters to buy organic salmon at Whole Foods. "I pay my electricity and gas bills, but I also pay for other people's air conditioning, cell phones, digital televisions, new windows, subsidized rent, and remodeling. "I pay for my daughter's ballet lessons, but I also pay for universities to develop computerized choreography programs that will help create 'interactive dance performances with real-time audience interactions.' I probably won't be able to make the show, since I'll be working. "I'm trying to save enough money in case I lose my job, but I pay for more than seventy different means-tested poverty programs. "Because I work hard and am successful, I am in the 10 percent of Americans who now pay more than 71 percent of the total federal income tax burden. The top 50 percent of earners pay 97.11 percent. In other words, the bottom half of American earners - theoretically 50 percent of the electorate - pay less than 3 percent of federal income taxes. I pay for them. "I pay property taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, taxes on my phone, my cable, my water, state income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare taxes. I also help pay the bills for nearly half of households who no longer pay any federal income tax. I also pay the bills for the 60 to 70 percent of households who receive more from the government than they pay in. "I expect no gratitude for any of this; it has been years since the term "provider" was a matter of societal respect and personal pride. I understand that the transfer of wealth from makers to takers is seen as morally purer than the efforts of those who created wealth in the first place. "I know my role. "I am the piggy bank." My thanks to Mr. Sykes for writing this wonderful essay and for allowing me to reproduce and share it here. Here is a link to Mr. Sykes blog on WTMJ as well as to his interview on C-SPAN2's Book TV. | |
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July 16, 2012
Cspan's presentation, President Obama Campaigns on Two-Day Tour of Virginia I used to think I had to work hard to run this little business, but a few days ago the know-it-all-in-chief, El Presidente Obama cleared things up for me. He said that folks like me who have a business and work hard for a living, don't have to work hard, that someone else built that business, as he put it, or maybe just helped build it, like someone from the government. Really ?!?! That was news to me. |  |
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I thought about this for a bit and realized this idiot was dead-wrong, that during the first 4 months of the year I do work hard, so I can pay all these taxes to some bureaucrat to redistribute what used to be my money to someone who didn't work, period. And Obama might be right, after I'd worked hard those first 4 months of the year, year in and year out, for him and his ilk, I could head out to the golf course to play golf with the know-it-all-in-chief, Obama, sure, just like he does. What a jerk! I listened to Obama's entire July 14, 2012 Roanoke speech as I sat here and worked. It was sickening how he talked about "us" and "them," this man who claimed once to be the uniter-in-chief. This man has pounded away on the class warfare theme repeatedly. But think about this : all the spectators in Roanoke who were whooping it up for Obama, why the hell weren't they at work, what they hell do they do with themselves during the day? The folks that never show up at one of these Obama circus shows are folks like me who believe in working hard, rather than hardly working. And Obama's Roanoke circus was one of many daytime Obama events where folks are a'whoopin' it up when he's a'preachin' his "Screw the Rich" propaganda. Roanoke was no one-off, no-siree. I could go on about what's happened to this country in my short lifetime. This man and his henchmen are in some part only echoing a more generalized "You owe me" mentality that continues to permeate what was once the land of the free and the home of the brave. The only thing that makes me sicker than Obama himself are his acolytes in Congress and elsewhere who will remain once he has left the presidency, continuing to pre-suppose that they have some God-given right to the fruits of another's labors. Perhaps the most bitter irony of what Obama said in Roanoke is the simple fact that he, arguably the most successful man in a country of 300,000,000 people, having achieved the presidency of said land, stood up there and denigrated every successful individual, seemingly not aware of the fact that he is at the very apex of all those successful, hard-working individuals he was attacking. What insolence, what arrogance, what venom he spewed forth there in Roanoke.... At about 52 minutes into his diatribe, in a condescending, know-it-all, tone of voice he states, "Uh, If you've been successful, you know, you didn't get there on your own, yuh, yuh didn't get there on your own, I'm, I'm always struck by people who think, 'Well, it must be cause I was just so smart.' There are a lot of smart people out there. 'It must be because I worked harder'n everyone else.' Lemme tell you somethin', there are a whole bunch of hard workin' people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave yuh some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelieveable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. "Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, that, you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen. The internet didn't get invented on its own. Gov'ment research created the internet, so that all the companies could make money off the internet. "The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed, because, uh, of, uh, our individual initiative, but also because we do things together...." and Obama goes on to state: "We rise or fall together, as one nation, and as one people, and that's the reason I'm running for president, because I still believe in that idea, you're not on your own, we're in this together." While these are stirring words, he clearly subordinates the individual will, the individual accomplishment to that of the collective. While he might actually believe this, one wonders how and why he keeps coming back to his class warfare campaign, over and over again, going on to state at 55 minutes, "Now, uh, over the next 4 months, the other side's gonna to spend more money than we've ever seen in history, and they don't really have a good argument for how they'd do better, but, they're thinkin' they can win the election if they can just remind people that, a lotta people're still out of work, and the economy's not growin' as fast it needs to, and it's all Obama's fault, that's, that's basically their pitch. No, no, I'm just tellin' you, you've seen the ads, and they're gonna run more of'em. There'll be all kind of variations on the same theme, but, i'll be the same basic message over and over and over and over and over again. Now that, their, their ads may be a plan to win an election, but it's not a plan to put people back to work, it's not a plan to strengthen the middle class...." We're in this together, you say, Mr. President ?? | |
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January 6, 2012
Cspan's presentation, "U. S. Postal Service Public Meeting on Plans to Close Postal Facilities." I cannot recommend this presentation about the USPS on Cspan 3 enough. I will not criticize the USPS, but rather, let the citizens of Vermont do so. |
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January 6, 2012
Green Job Unemployment You know, oftentimes I sit here in the office filling your order and have Cspan 3 on to hear about what's going on in the world. Today they were having hearings about the abyssmal and abominable failure of the "green jobs" initiatives. I didn't exactly catch how many thousands and thousands and thousands of your tax dollars have been thrown at training folks for "green jobs." Even more upsetting was the employment rate of trainees once the government had trained them to do this green job or that. It was bad enough to make a person physically ill. My favorite green job is that of the plumber who has been trained on how to install those low-flow toilets that are going to fundamentally transform America. I will leave the tasteless jokes to others to dream up. Presumably some of the other training was teaching folks how to drive electric vehicles rather than conventional vehicles. Here's a link to the hearing on Cspan 3. Just listening to the first 5 minutes will give you a taste of when "fundamental transformation" is all about. |
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November 6, 2011
Could you imagine... that one day, in addition to changing our clocks twice a year, we had to change our address, or our calendar. Waking up today, I had a strange dream that my address had changed, had moved a block, that a package destined for me was now being sent to someone else since I had failed to change my address by one block on an item I ordered. And then I thought, what day is this anyway, it feels somehow like Monday, and then I realized, no, this is still Sunday. What if we lost a day in the fall, that there was no Sunday, and then gained it back in the spring, that there would be 2 Saturdays, one right after another. What sort of awesome confusion that would generate. You'd have a calendar that missed a day every fall, November 6th would have gone the way of February 29th, irradiated out of 2011, and in its stead there was March 13th once and March 13th again. And then I thought about all those people in the southern hemisphere and about how it would be if those people also had to "spring forward and fall back" and about how their seasons are reversed vis-a-vis our seasons, and that they should be springing forward and falling back, and that as of today their clocks should be 2 hours different than ours, and how that might lead to some confusion around the equator. Then I thought, nah, that just won't work, that if they did anything, they "spring back and fall forward" down there, and that if this were the case, isn't any claimed energy savings in the northern hemisphere thereby negated by folks down in the southern hemisphere, and that this entire changing-your-clocks circus that we all engage in twice a year is in actuality a zero-sum-game? And then I thought about how our governor Mitch Daniels made us change our clocks twice a year. It used to be the case that I could tell out-of-staters that here in Indiana, we were so conservative we didn't even change our clocks twice a year like the rest of the country did. Alas, Mitch put an end to that, perhaps as part of his "move to the center" in anticipation of running for vice-president alongside Newt Gingrich, in all likelihood. Yep, you heard it here first. And the point to all this...just be happy our politicians aren't forcing us to do still more things, like maybe what time to get up and what time to go to bed and what to eat and what not eat and to brush our teeth and not consume alcohol to excess and how slow to drive and so forth and so on, etc., etc., etc..... |
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September 14, 2011
attackwatch.com... This just out, Obama's gone flippin' paranoid. There's this nazi-like website that Obama's come out with called attackwatch.com where you're supposed to turn in granny if you see her say something bad about our dear president. I am not kidding. This is for R-E-A-L. Word is though that conservative Americans are mocking this latest creation from "Obama for Amerika," as well they should, as Al-Obama's attackwatch.com watches itself come under heavy attack. |
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September 6, 2011
Standby Time for the USPS... The testimony of Mr. Donahoe, our current PMG, wasn't the easiest thing to find on C-Span. Here's a link to the 2-hour hearing. I don't want to go into too much detail about what I think's wrong with the USPS. But here's the big picture. Congress has set the ground rules for how the USPS operates. They are responsible for this shape the USPS is in. Congress is full of lawyers who are perfessional uninformed liars and idiots. To expect that they can run anything is stupid, as has been demonstrated time and again in the past. Republicans are as stupid as democrats. That's the one problem. The other problem is the unions. They, like so many other public service unions, have pushed for more pay, more benefits, more this, more that, and still more of everything else, and gotten it, over the last 30-40 years, so much so that the postal workers are so well paid that folks stand in line just to get on the postal gravy train. Lately though, the trains been full to overflowing, and the engineer (the postmaster-general) has paid those folks along for the ride immense sums of money just to get some of'em to jump the hell off the gravy train, that is, to take early retirement. It's pathetic and it's ridiculous. I will allow myself one example of inefficiency, politely stated. You've got postal personnel confined to a little room at this post office and that, doing absolutely nothing, something the post office calls "standby time," while around the corner and down the hall you've got folks lined up out the door to mail all their this-and-that packages. Union Rules. It's absolutely absurd. And this phenomena I surely believe belies many, many other absurdities deep within the bowels of the USPS. What's likely to happen is that the USPS' unions will take it on the chin for the next 2 years, until the Republicans sweep into power in 2012/13, at which point the USPS' unions will then take it in the groin. My concern is that all those "Forever" stamps, in fact, all stamps, are nothing more than IOU's written to all of us by what seems to be an insolvent entity. Did I hear someone say "Lehman Brothers?" And an afterthought.... It was a little over a month ago now, the temperature outside was maybe 95, just another day in the hottest July on record in Fort Wayne. I'm in my un-air-conditioned car, heading to the recycling center. I witness my mailman walking back to his un-air-conditioned postal delivery vehicle, after dropping off a package at the front door of my neighbor's house. A perfectly normal scene. Ten blocks later I see a fedex truck, also un-air-conditioned, and witness the fedex woman running up to the house with a weighty package, or back to the truck, maybe both, I don't exactly remember, but I do remember she was sweating heavily, hustling in the heat, a real trooper. These contrasting pictures spoke a thousand words to me about why the USPS is failing. Not that they don't do a good job, bur rather, because others do a better job. |
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August 30, 2011
Made in Red China... I don't like advertising other sites, but I stumbled across a most interesting site today while doing some research about cedar lumber for a backyard project. That site is Alibaba. I don't know how much of this is for real versus how much of this is scam, but it was the first site I stumbled across purporting to offer massive quantities of this and that from our "friends" in Red China. If you want 20 metric tons of this and that, this looks like it's the site to go to. It looks like they've got pretty much anything a person could want, as long as one doesn't care about branding. I suppose though, that, given the fact it's Red China, they could label whatever you buy with whatever brand you'd like. Yes, welcome to the 21st century, now that you're unemployed or underemployed, you can spend all your time shopping Red China direct, where folks are employed. So what would you like to order? Let me suggest "stamp paper." I found this exceptional vendor offering their wares. They boast "We won one of The Best Stamp Printers in China, and exporting the stamps to many kinds of district, such as, europe, Austrilia, North America, Asia, Africa, etc." These guys sure sound like winners. Yepper, next time you need some stamp counterfeiting done, it looks like they're the "go to guys." They even speak English; they write "The Stamp can be valued or not." They apparently even know how to counterfeit cancels, besides counterfeiting stamps. You couldn't ask for more! By the way, it looks like you can get your personalized postage stamps there as well. Nothing like one-stop-shopping in Red China. |
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July 29, 2011
Really.... This debt ceiling circus never ceases to amaze. Here we sit on Friday afternoon, Barack Hussein Obama talking not about the debt ceiling but rather about saving money in 2025 on fuel for government vehicles. He has shown absolutely no leadership in solving the government's financial crisis, scheduled to commence on Tuesday, August 2nd. He has no plan, no proposal, no nothing, save blame for others. Most people think he's black. I would beg to differ. He's yellow, as in a yellow-bellied coward, afraid of leading this country in this time of a self-declared debt ceiling crisis. Say what you will about the Democrats "this," the Republicans "that." The facts are, Obama is not leading. This country needs someone to stand up and take a position and lead us through the process of compromise. Obama, now given the opportunity to stand above all the controversy and lead, chooses instead to talk about fuel savings in 2025. |
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July 21, 2011
Breaking News !! It has not been widely reported yet, but Barack Obama, in the middle of debt limit negotiations, and perhaps as a result of frustration with those negotiations, has played his best round of golf ever. His score, you ask... "Present." |
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May 8, 2011
Really... Well it's been one week since Obama Bin Laden was killed, either by the Navy Seals or his own security folks, in order not to be taken alive and spill the beans, and where are we at? 1. The media has reported that Obama's decision was "gutsy." For Obama, any decision is gutsy. According to Mark Levin, Obama waited 16 hours twiddling his thumbs before deciding to launch the mission. Going in with the Seals instead of bombing the the house might have been because Obama said, "Bring him back alive." It could well be his own security folks did him in, rather than let him be captured and spill the beans. It is likely they went in with the Navy Seals in order to recover all the intelligence they could, since that would have been blown to smithereens in any air attack. That's not "gutsy." That's just smart. 2. When a child is caught doing this or that, and one day he gives one story, the next day another story, and the day after that another story again, what do we call that child? A Liar !!! Our government and the folks in it have given us different stories about the whole mission day by day. Draw your own conclusions. 3. It is stated that he was buried at sea within 24 hours of his death. I know nothing about the buried at sea rules, but it strains credibility when our less-than-credible government claims burying an individual at sea who died on land is appropriate and proper, especially so when OBL's current wife, who was dead before she was resurrected by our government's changing stories, would have been the individual who ought to have decided as to the final disposition of OBL's remains. Based on what our government said it did, if your grandma dies, our government could ignore grandpa's wishes and take Grandma's body out past Catalina Island or out off Chesapeake Bay and feed it to some endangered species. Bon Appetit. 4. It stands to reason that the military in Pakistan knew exactly who was building a fortress next to what is their West Point. It is simply implausible that a building permit for a fortress next to their West Point would have been granted 5 years ago without their knowledge as to who was going to reside in that fortress. Having said that, it stands to reason that somewhere amidst all that intelligence our government recovered that there will be proof that the Pakistani military was fully aware of what was up. Looking at the matter differently, OBL could have built his mansion anywhere. $1,000,000.00 goes a long way in the third world. It would stand to reason that the military itself assisted in getting the zoning variances for his fortress. for example, high walls topped with a healthy dose of barbed wire. 5. OBL lived under de facto house arrest for 5 years. It is fascinating that the most feared man on the face of planet earth was himself afraid to go out and walk the streets. Our government brainwashed us (and maybe OBL himself in a disinformation campaign) into believing that this man walked the streets of some poor village up in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan (aka Talibanistan) with an entourage of what, 10-15 human killing machines with AK-47's and the like. It is fascinating just how far the myth of Osama was from the reality of Osama, evidenced if nothing else by Osama's use of "Grecian Formula 16" to "get the gray out." 6. I was heartened to see a film clip of some Moslem's burning the American Flag still on TV. Obviously Obama's "We love you," "We won't profile you," "We're better than that," propaganda has not trickled down into the backwaters of Talibanistan yet, and probably never will. The Crusades continue.... My reaction to the American government-media-complex remains, "Really...." |
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April 17, 2011
I think it is very telling that the left-wing, soft-spoken Marianna Huffington (or is it Arianna Puffington?) is being sued by her bloggers, wanting a piece of the $315,000,000.00 action she got for selling herself out to corporate America AOL. It seems obvious to me that this is par for the socialist left, believing that they're entitled to others' wealth, in this case, part or maybe mostly all of Arianna's $315,000,000.00. |
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April 13, 2011, When 2 + 2 do not equal 4
Chairman Obama gave his speech today about how he's planning to trim $4,000,000,000,000.00 (is that the right number of zeroes?) from the federal budget deficit. Believeable? You decide. He fought tooth and nail with the Republican patriots last week, up until Friday at 11.00 pm, literally the eleventh hour, when they reached a much-heralded compromise to cut $38 billion in spending in the second half of fiscal year 2011. There is absolutely no way on God's green earth that a socialist like Obama who dug in his heels to save a few billion of profligate, irresponsible, wasteful federal spending of the Chinese' money can have in less than one week a "born again" fiscal awakening. There is no way that this man fights for a few billion here, a few billion there last week, and this week, trims $4,000 billion (four thousand billion) of the anticipated federal deficit in exchange for nothing from the Republicans. No way, absolutely no way. It is just beyond comprehension, in the same that $4,000,000,000,000.00 is beyond comprehension. |
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April 10, 2011, Letter to Linn's Editor, re Feb. 28, 2011 Linn's, page 13, "Postmaster General Donahoe's Plans to Increase USPS Revenue" I read that the USPS is becoming increasingly dependent on junk mail to stay in business. I have a suggestion. My trash pickup is on Thursday. If the USPS would deliver all my junk mail on Wednesday, they could go to one-day-a-week delivery for all I care. In on Wednesday, out on Thursday, that's my motto. Nationwide they could co-ordinate with trash pickup services from Maine to Hawaii and from Florida to Alaska. Trash pickup runs 5 days a week, and letter carriers could co-ordinate with their cohorts at junk pickup, doing their rounds one day after junk mail delivery. Talk about going green, that should've been one of the new "go green" stamps that the USPS is propagandizing us with.... |
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April 10, 2011 And on a similar note..... For my money, if they ever resume putting a deposit on pop bottles, etc., etc. in order to facilitate their return to the grocery store whence they came, that's when I'll believe our would-be politicians do in fact believe in ecology. Until then, I can only conclude their lip service re being green and is lip service and nothing more. |
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April 10, 2011 Well, well, well, Mr. Clean Energy, Barack Obama, has reaffirmed his belief in that so-called clean power, nuclear energy, in the face of substantial radioactive contanimation surrounding what remains of TEPCO's Fuku-whatever-shima nuclear reactors in Japan. I'm suffering from a split personality, I don't know what's more abhorrent, the mess TEPCO has made in Japan, or the idiocy of Barack Obama in continuing to declare that nuclear power is supposedly the the non-plus-ultra when it comes to power generation. It will be the case in Japan that countless square miles surrounding those plants will be uninhabitable by humans for centuries on end. Areas less contaminated will be inhabited by those who lack the wealth to live in areas further away which are less contaminated. Plant, animal, and insect life will live on in the areas off-limits to humans, producing God-only-knows what types of mutated life forms. And who is to say to what extent those mutated life forms will migrate out of those off-limits areas and perilously disrupt what were once thriving, viable eco-systems. You know, you have folks who stay awake at night worrying about bio-engineering of new life forms in a controlled environment, while in Japan, we have set the stage for uncontrolled bio-engineering on a massive scale. Could this skid out of control in the same way the nuclear power itself skidded out of control? And as for the Obama, let me suggest that we take all the nuclear waste that Harry Reid didn't want to store in his home state of Nevada in Yucca Mountain and scatter that radioactive poison up and down the National Mall in Washington DC and see if that doesn't change some politicians' minds...before we change out those very same politicians. |
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April 4, 2011 I read Hotchner's article in the March 14, 2011 Linn's regarding the USPS' explanation for placing the year-date at the UL corner of the 2011 stamps....with disbelief. He stated that Roy Betts of the USPS said: "The placement of the year date is due to technical necessity. As you may know, the Postal Service has to account for 'postage in the hands of the public.' With an all denominated program, it is easy to attribute a value to a stamp. As such, Stamp Services was able to incorporate the year date inside the image area of commemorative stamp designs, and in a logical place on definitive stamps. However, moving to an all forever commemorative program, finance must be able to easily determine when the stamp was issued to determine at what price it was sold. We were asked to make the year date easily identifiable. For 2010, we place the year date in the Forever Evergreens in the upper right hand corner. For 2011, the year date will be placed in the upper left hand corner. In 2012, the year date will be placed in another corner. This gives us eight positions to work with over an eight year period, and instead of making the year date font size larger, the placement of the year date has assisted in solving the problem. Our intent is not to detract or distract from the art. As always, we are committed to maintaining the integrity and high quality of the art portrayed on U.S. stamps." Well, let me tell you, in my opinion, this is pure Washington double-talk. For one thing, it does not matter when a forever stamp was sold in determining the value of postage in the hands of the public, essentially a guesstimate-calculation in the end anyway. So all these words are simply obfuscation. What is this man covering up, one asks onesself.... It was clear to me in 1995 when the USPS intentionally increased the font size of the year date of the 32c Flag over porch convertible booklet of 20, as well as a few other issues subsequent to that, that they were setting the stage for the demonitization of US-stamps at a future point. They surely anticipate that the politicians will privatize the USPS in the future, as has occurred with some foreign postal administrations, in order to reap billions of dollars from the sale of the USPS. In such an event it would be incumbent on the government to wipe out all past liabilities, specifically to demonitize unused stamps held in private hands, likely in stages, based on the year date of the stamp. Now you may say, the USPS would never go back on its word to make the forever stamps good forever. Nonsense. Never have promises made by our government stopped our politicians from doing whatever suited their political purposes at the time. The Indians were the first to learn this as they signed worthless treaty after worthless treaty. Citizens who voted for FDR learned this when FDR confiscated their private property, namely gold bullion. Nixon cheated foreign central banks when he took this country off the gold standard. To imagine that the USPS would have anything against cheating the populace is simply naive. That's they way things look from here. |
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March 20, 2011 Filling an order, I stumble across this interesting bit of history. The Director of Civil Defense in about 1949 or 1950 is saying: "I personally believe that they're out to conquer the world and destroy free governments everywhere...." talking about the Russians. He's convinced they're gonna strike, and strike everywhere, and they're not going to wait: "An attack this year would be a likely time for one to come." (from the Russians.) Click here to view this terrifying piece of television history. It reminds me of Janey Incompetano, Director of Homeland Insecurity (the modern title for the "Director of Civil Defense,") telling us a terrorist attack is just around the corner (as well). For as long as I've been alive, folks have been predicting the downfall of civilization being just around the corner, and this is just one terrifying example of such....long before I was born. Time for me to get out in the backyard and start building my nuclear shelter now, tonight, before the enemy attacks.... |
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July 22, 2010 Well, you know, if it's not one thing, it's another, when it comes to those brain surgeons and nuclear scientists employed at the USPS. According to Linn's, Costco is pressuring the USPS to issue its Christmas stamps in coil format, and it appears the USPS is inasmuch as saying "No way Jose, get lost, go away, Costco!" Clearly, Costco believes that some of its customers want Christmas coil stamps, and surely demand for such would be sizeable. Yet the USPS appears reluctant to do what the public wants, and then sits there, twiddling their thumbs, wondering why folks aren't buying stamps and aren't mailing letters. And then tells the public, oh well, your letter needs to be not so thick, or we're going to charge more, or can't be so small, since then you can't even mail it, or we don't like you mailing those little packages, so we're gonna really jack you around on the rates for those, or hey, this one's got a cute little electronic musical box inside the card, so again, we're going to charge you more, or it's too stiff, so we're going to charge you more. "More, more, more," seem to be the only word the USPS understands. Get a clue, Mr. USPS, you need to give the public what it wants, not what you in your ever so finite wisdom decide to impose upon it. Suffice it to say, the USPS has an arrogance that at times defies comprehension, and this Christmas Coil Saga is one of those times. Give the public what it wants, for crying out loud, and quit your bellyaching, Mr. USPS!!! |
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July 20, 2010, Letter to Linn's Editor You know, all I could do was shake my head in disgust as I read the "USPS requests 2c letter-rate hike" article. "Big Jack Potter" states "These proposed rate adjustments are moderate and part of a fair and balanced approach to insuring mail service for all Americans well into the future." (I believe correct English would be "ensuring." As a former actuary, I can state with complete assurance that "insuring" is a bit of a different concept than the concept of "ensuring.") Later in the article, I read that, lo and behold, "Even with the increase, the Postal Service will face a likely deficit of $4.7 billion in fiscal 2011...." What sort of utter nonsense is this that we're being fed. Does Big Jack think we're moronic enough to believe this politically correct LIE about ensuring mail service for all Americans well into the future. Does he think all Americans flunked 3rd grade and can't dis-obfuscate this fib, this lie? Did he take his fibbing lessons from the likes of Barrack Hussein Obama, Joe Bite-Me, Dirty Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi-Mussolini. Apparently so..... If Big Jack says he needs a composite rate increase of 5.6%, I've got a simple solution for him. Cut wages 5.6% and you're there. You don't need to fret over falling into the feared death spiral of continually rising prices fusing with continually falling volume to form the nuclear meltdown of the USPS that benefits no one in the end. Dear Big Jack, cut wages, cut benefits, and get back to the job of delivering the mail, rather than running a welfare system for government employees with a mail delivery service attached as an afterthought !! |
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July 12, 2010, Letter to Linn's Editor I think a few additional points need to be made regarding the study that blackballed the rural post offices. The USPS is basically a junk mail distribution system, and as such, mail and its corresponding revenue comes in by the pallet at the bulk mail centers and is spread like fertilizer across America, politely phrased. The revenue is highly-concentrated, while the expense is distributed across all the rural post offices, obviously with no corresponding revenue. It is obvious this was a political rather than scientific study, designed to indict and then convict every rural post office in this country. Shame, Shame, Shame on the USPS and "Perfesser" Tony Yezer for their propagandizing. Shame! |