It is SO nice to make a trip and not have anything go wrong. The planes all left on time, our baggage made the trip and we had no problems with customs or immigration (my Brasileira doesn’t have a green card yet). We landed in Philadelphia on time and my son was there to pick us up. Travel doesn’t get much better than that.
Delta needs to move their seats back on their 767s. I am not THAT tall (6’2″), but I cannot sit in their coach seats without having my knees hitting the back of the seat in front of me. It’s difficult to sleep on an overnight flight if one is uncomfortable. To me, there’s no justification in making your customers uncomfortable is the flight is only 2/3 full anyway.
American Airlines flights to Rio definitely have more coach legroom. It’s a shame, because Delta does so many
other things better than American. Their food is better, you can have a (free) beer with dinner and I think that the service is nicer. The flight home from Atlanta was on a Delta MD-80, and it had more than enough legroom. Those MD-80s are nice planes – they have the T-tail with the engines in the back. They’re the quietest planes that I’ve ever flown, but they’re old and relatively inefficient. That’s a shame.
My work schedule had me working six 12 hour shifts in seven days. I finished last night and I have this weekend off. I’ve got some stuff to get caught up on around the house. The last two days have been pretty cold. It’s about -8C right now (17 F). Too cold to do much outside. Bonnie still needs to be walked, of course, I don’t think that the temperature bothers her too much. The wind has been making the cold even worse. Fortunately, we expect to see some warmer temperatures for the weekend.
News
Well. our government is about to spend billions of borrowed money. We’re being told that the spending is supposed to stimulate our economy, even though most of the pork spending won’t happen for a few years. The political party in power (including our new president) is telling us that if we don’t pass this huge spending bill quickly that our economy may never recover.
Are they telling us the truth? Here’s an analysis of just some of the wasteful spending in this awful bill. For example, 5.2 billion dollars for “neighborhood stabilization activities and commumity block grants” – this is nothing more than a political payoff to that fountain of electoral corruption known as ACORN. Their often questionable activities helped get this president elected, so it’s payback time. Could someone please explain what possible economic activity will come from handing out borrowed government money for “neighborhood stabilization”??
Look, we’ve been shoveling money at the auto companies (none to Ford yet, though) in order to keep them afloat. Is it helping? Perhaps. Who knows? If we want to keep the auto companies in business, I have a better idea. Let’s have the government send a $5000 coupon to every household (one per 1040 form). You could use your coupon for a discount on a new car or sell it (for whatever you could get) to someone else that would use it. The auto companies would put people to work making cars and the taxpayers would get a deal on a car. What’s happening to the money that GM and Chrysler are getting now? Auto companies are laying off people and the taxpayers are seeing no real value in exchange for their money – all we’ve done is help ensure a few more months of business as usual before the companies go under. My plan wouldn’t cost any more money. It would help the economy, it would help the environment (retiring older, less efficient cars) and it would likely cost less than what we’re doing now. All of the auto workers employed in building the cars would be paying taxes instead of collecting unemployment. Why aren’t we doing this???
Our new elected president had a meeting with the opposition Republicans early this week in order to try to get his party’s pork-filled spending bill passed. His argument for this DOUBLING of federal discretionary spending? “I won.” The president DIDN’T campaign on passing a huge pork-filled bill in the first weeks of his administration – as a matter of fact, he campaigned as a tax cutter. Remember that 95% of working people making under $250K would get a tax cut? Remember this?
The president wants this bill passed in a hurry because the more that people hear about it, the more they think it stinks. We need to slow down this pork express and examine it carefully. We’re committing future generations to paying the bills for this shameful waste.
Please consider that there are two sides to government spending. Before the government can spend a nickel, they have to take it from somebody. They can take it directly from the people (in taxes), they can take it from the future taxpayers (borrow it) or they can just print money and inflate the currency, devaluing the savings that families have accumulated over years and rewarding the spendthrifts in debt that get to pay back their borrowed money with cheaper, inflated dollars. Borrowing the money also has the effect of reducing the amount of money available for productive use. For this reason, we need to think carefully about how we use the people’s money. Is anybody doing that?
Are ALL of the Democrat senators (including both of the ones from my state) really convinced that billions for “neighborhood stabilization” is going to make one whit of difference to the economy? Every one of them? These people have been elected to be stewards of the people’s resources. Are they doing that? Can anyone say that this pork-filled bill being passed in a big hurry is anything but a blatant payoff to the special interest groups that helped them get elected? Shame on all of them.
The president has decided how much money that CEOs are allowed to make if their companies had a benefit from 
recent bailouts. Don’t these CEOs have contracts that spell out their compansation? Don’t we honor contracts here in the US? Can one man, elected by just 52% of the popular vote, wave his arm and make such a pronouncement? What about the law? Doesn’t anyone else think this is really wrong?? If the government can decree what the proper compensation for a CEO is, can’t they do the same for a mechanic or a nurse??
My grandchildren are going to be paying the bill for this wish-list payoff of the special interests that helped get Democrats elected. They will have to run their government burdened by the interest costs on this folly. I am ashamed to watch this. You folks that voted for change – well, did you get any??
’nuff about that.
Greg
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