Why Ron Paul Gets My Respect, But Not My Vote

Ron Paul is the kind of guy you want to cheer for. He is the proverbial underdog who has caught a huge wave of young energetic support. He is the Howard Dean of the 2008 campaign. In fact I sincerely admire the man and the fact that he has stuck to his convictions over his 20+ years in public service.

For those of you who don't know who this Ron Paul guy is, he is running for a the Republican nomination for President. He has run in the past under the Libertarian banner. He is a strict constitutionalist, favors no income taxes, getting out of Iraq and a return to the gold standard. Now you may ask why the traditionally liberal JD has any interest in the man. The reason is simple, he is a man of honor. This is something that is seriously missing from the capital these days, no matter what side of the isle you look.

His views may not be the same as mine, but he has had the same views for 20 years and has ALWAYS voted that way. He opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, and still does. He voted against the Patriot Act, and still opposes it. He has always said that the government is too large. This is such a rare quality in and of itself it deserves note. Besides that I like him because like me, he takes seemingly opposing viewpoints on issues and explains them as common sense. This is refreshing. I still cannot support the man, but I respect him more then anyone I plan on voting for.

I encourage anyone who finds his views attractive to go to his website and support him and find out more about him.

Thanks for listening. JD

Another Senseless Product: Odor Alert Cat Litter

So one of my goals in this blog is to point out the amazing variety of useless products that get presented to the American public every year. I pointed out a great product called Colonblow in a blog a while ago. Now I bring you the latest and greatest to hit our store shelves: Odor Alert Cat Litter.



Yes, that is correct, this is cat littler the alerts you to the fact that there is an odor by turning color. Now pardon me if I just don't see the point, but one would think that the fact that there is an odor would be readily discernible by the odor itself. Maybe this product will be marketed to those who have lost their sense of smell, but that seems like a very small market. So apparently, Arm & Hammer has come to the conclusion that what America really needs is a cat littler that tells us it is smelly by turning colors. Until next time...happy smelling/seeing.

Canadian Dollar Parity...oh my!

Well folks, the Canadian Dollar is worth the exact same as the US dollar. Is this scary or what? For all of us Michiganders, we used to make fun of our neighbors to the north for having such a laughingly cheap dollar. When I was in high school, you could routinely get $1.50 Cn for $1 US. So this idea that it is all the same is quite strange.

The reported reasons for this vary from the recent interest rate cut here, to the value of Canada's oil and gas reserves. I am going to go out on a limb and say that it is because they maintain a crack team of Canadian Mounties ready to invade the Us unless we make our currency weaker. See the picture below for verification of this theory.

Scary...Huh.

On the serious side of this debate is the current global climate tand the way in which the US and our currency plays a role. Needless to say, we could be on the brink of a serious recession, if China and Japan stop investing in Billions of dollars as a hard reserve and instead go to Euros. If our currency continues to fall, we could see a run away form the dollar and the chaos would ensue. Now, none of this would be a problem if we could just contain out federal spending to what we bring in. Something that me and you have to do every month (unless you live off credit cards and follow our governments example. So shame on us, maybe this is something that we deserve. I guess I could always move to Windsor.

JD

Buy American Fruit

Quite a while ago, I watched a movie about an apple farmer in Washington titled "Broken Limbs: Apples, Agriculture and the new American Farmer." This was an excellent documentary that pointed out the plight that many apple farmers face from new stiff overseas competition. It also dove a little into agribusiness, and how hard it is for these guys who have 20-200 acres to even get their fruit to market. They have to go through packer, who then goes through wholesaler, who then sells it to the supermarket chains who then sells it to you. Think of that 25 cents apple and how much of that gets back to the actual farmer.

So I would encourage all of you out there to see this movie, and also to purchase American fruit whenever possible. People might laugh and say this is the natural evolution of the market, but I say it is a literal matter of national security. We must produce our own food. If we lose that then we lose all ability to be self-sustaining and self-reliant. Lets not let what has happened with oil also happen with our food. So check those labels, and if you can get American, please do so.

Midsummer Blogging Blues

I have to admit, I have been unmotivated to blog as of late. It is not for lack of interesting or weird things taking place in these United States of ours. It is strictly the same thing felt by many American's this time of year... a midsummer lull. It has been so very hot up here in MI (take that global warming skeptics), that all you feel like doing after work is coming home and laying around on the couch. The flip side is that when it is nice outside you want to be...outside! So there has been a severe lack of blogging going on around here the past few weeks. Hopefully I will remedy that when I come back from vacation recharged and refreshed. The Wife and I are heading to Jewell Lake National Forest Campground for some good ole' fashioned rustic camping.

For all those out there looking for a good inspirational story to help get you through the day, check out this article from the Detroit Free Press about a kid with a disability and his triumph at baseball. That should make just about anyone feel better about America!