Autumn Leaves

Yesterday Annie and I drove to Hill City to view the autumn leaves and eat lunch at the Alphine Inn. We were about a week too early on the changing of the leaf colors. Probably less than half the leaves had turned color.
We stopped at Pactola Lake and were pleased to see the water level as high as it it, 89.5% of capacity. A year ago it was down to about 50% of capacity. We were gratified to see how green the Black Hills looked on this last day in September.

We had a fabulous lunch at the Alphine Inn, as usual. I ordered a smoked pork chop, the best pork chop I have ever tasted. Their German potatos were, as usual, wonderful. We took a stroll up and down main street and were surprised to see how many stores were closed for the season already.

Today's political thoughts:

A couple of weeks ago I watched Charles Gibson interviewing Senator Biden. Gibson's first remark to Biden was "This is the 57th time we've had you on our show." I bet no republican has ever been on their show more than a few times. I never watched the entire interview because I couldn't stand the sugary sweetness Gibson showed toward Biden. It was "old pal" week. I never heard him ask Biden a single hard question.

A week later: Gibson intervied Sarah Palen. He was downright cruel in his attempt to break her down and get her to make a mistake or say something she didn't want to say. He was snippy, petty and obviously upset at his inability to shake her which prompted him to try all the harder.
I had always had a certain amount of respect for Gibson up to that point but no more. I was truly amazed at Sara Palin's coolness and her ability to make Gibson look like an idiot. He totally blew it as far as I am concerned, showing his true colors. I had watched ABC evening news about half the time up until that day but now I refuse to even turn to that channel, which only leaves me Fox News. I absolutely refuse to watch the other major network and CNN news because of their incrediably obvious bias against Republicans, the church, the business world and the oil industry.

Why do I believe and trust Fox News.? First of all, their motto is "Fair and Balanced coverage" and they come the closest to that by a wide margin. Nearly half their news hour anchor people are liberals. Both the Fox News conservative and liberal reporters and anchor people make no bones about their political leaning and often come right out and say what their political beliefs are.

When a political or business person is being interviewed, they are never overwhelmed by two reporters and a guest of the same political persuasion . It is always one on one or two on one with both a conservative and a liberal reporter asking questions of the person being interviewed.

The three network and news channels tell us in their words what some Republican or business person has said. Usually they twist it around in such a way they have the person saying something he or she didn't say. If they run a news clip, the tendency is to clip it in such a way as to change or distort what the person said.
An example of this was about ten or twelve years ago when Newt Gingrich (sp?) was Speaker of the House. He gave a speech in Florida in which he was commenting on the intelligence of the black people. I don't remember his exact words but they were to the affect that "there are those people who believe blacks are less intelligent than white people but I am here to tell you, there is no difference in the intelligence of the two races." I know that is what he said as I was listening to his speech. The Associated press took that statement and clipped it in such a way as to make him appear to say "blacks are less intelligent than whites". All the major news outlets picked up this AP story and presented it to the public as the AP people presented it. This episode was one of the major reasons his political career was destroyed and he was forced to resign as Speaker of the House. How would Fox News have handled that story or any story showing what a political person, democrat or republican, liberal or conservative said? They would have run enough of the story so no one would have any doubt the person was saying what he actually said.

More about the sub-consious mind

Yesterday I talked about how the liberal news media is playing with your sub-consious mind. I talked about how most of the time, with favorable news stories about a republican and a democratic canidate, the liberal news media invariably places the democrat's name first or shows a photo of the democrat being on the left and the republican on the right most of the time. Why do they do this?
Our subconsious mind tells us in a favorable story, the person listed first or the person whose photo is on top or on the left is perceived to be of greater importance and, or more believeable.

Well, today's Rapid City Journal switched directions on me. It was almost as if they had read my blog and decided to show me up. There were numerous McCain - Obama stories in today's paper and in almost every case, McCain's photo was on the left and his name was listed first. Of course, in yesterday's blog I did say, "most of the time". We will have to wait and see if this current trend continues. I doubt it will. I think they just threw us a bone to pacify us.

In today's Rapid City Journal there was a highly negative story about our national leaders, democrats and republicans, members of congress as well as leaders in the financial world, the news media and the public all being responsible for our present financial mess. Guess whose photo accompanied the negative story: President Bush's. Again they are playing with your sub-consious mind. When there is a negative story and there is a photo of an individual accompanying that story, the sub-consious mind is telling you that individual is mainly to blame even if the news story says other wise.

Playing with your mind

Today I am going to talk about how the news media plays with your mind; that is, gets you to think the way they want you to think.

I suspect most people don't even notice how, most of the time, when there is a favorable news article about both of our leading presidential contenders, Senator Obama's name and, or photo appear first or is on top or on the left side and Senator McCain's photo is below or on the right, as well as his name being after Obama's.

On the different news media sources I normally read or watch, that is true at least 90 percent of the time, with the exception of Fox News. They make a great effort to make it as close to 50 50 as they can.

Accidental? NO. According to the alphabet? No, McCain's name comes before Obama. Age? NO. Seniority in the Senate? NO.

So what is the reason. It is a case of the liberal news media trying manipulate your thinking by playing with your subconsious mind.

Any first year journalism student, or psycology student learns these facts about the sub-consious mind.

First, in any favorable story about two or more people or enities, the one listed first or or whose photo is above or on the left is subconsiously considered to be of greater importance or better than the one below or or the right or listed second. This is not accomplished by a one time action; it has to be repetitive, again and again and again until it is implanted in your subconsious so that you are not even aware you have become biased toward one over the other because your subconsous has been maniputlated.

This attempt by the liberal news media to manipulate and control your thinking is not limited to McCain and Obama. Any liberal news story about any two politicans from both parties is going to be the same, showing a photo of the democrat on the left or top, and the republican on the right or below. The same is true of their names, democrat on the left or first, republican on the right.

Conversely, in any adverse or negative story about a democrat and a republican, you will almost always find the republican listed first, again because they want your subconsious mind to think the republican is of greater guilt.

One other little trick they use. If there is a highly negative article about any Republican, you will find the word Republican or Republican party in the headlines, the sub heading, the first paragraph, a couple of more times in the body of the story and in the last paragraph. If it is about a Democrat, if the word Democrat is used at all,it will be in the last paragraph. Why the last paragraph? Because the media knows most readers read no further than the first two or three paragraphs in any news story and never get down to the last paragraph. If there is no mention of party affiliation concerning a politician, you can take it for granted the individual is a democrat.

Taxing the wealthy

One of the favorite themes of liberals is the need and desire on their part to heavily tax the wealthy. Sometimes I think not a single one of them ever took a course in economics.

The liberals in Great Britain tried that approach in the 1950's. They nearly taxed the wealthy out of existance. What happened? Britain's economy plummeted. It wasn't until the conservatives took control and greatly lowered their top tax rates, were the former wealthy able to make a recovery. Along with their recovery, Britain's economy was able to make a return to it's former level.

Naturally, our liberals never learned a thing from that lesson.

Why is it important to the economy of a country to to maintain a wealthy class of citizens?

It is nearly impossible to maintain a healthy economy without the ability to create large numbers of new jobs. How are most new jobs created? By high risk venture. What does that mean? It means most new jobs are created by companys and corporations who are involved in businesses with a high risk factor.
Who has the money to invest in high risk ventures? It is the wealthy class of people. One of the reasons why they become increasingly wealthy is they can afford to invest in high risk businesses. Take away their wealth and you take away their ability to invest in high risk ventures.

I find it curious liberals take the attitude they do toward the wealthy. There are far more multimillionaire liberals in congress then there are politicians who are not millionaires. Or at least there was the last time I saw any figures on that.

A President's Control over the national economy

Today I am going to write about what control a President, any President, has over our national economy.
You will find most non-political economists will tell you a Presdent has very little direct control over our economy.
He can propose to congress but a congress controlled by the democrats is going to pay very little attention to what a Republican President proposes. I expect the same is true of proposals by a Democrat President to a Republican controlled congress.

The President can also sign into law or veto economic laws passed by congress but congress has the perogative of overriding his veto. If it goes into law either way, a President is required to administer and carry out those laws regardless of how he feels about them.

A Presdent can urge the various committees concerned with the economy to take certain actions but he has no direct control over whether they follow his advice or not.

He can also urge action by the Federal Reserve Board but again, he had no control over them so can only recommend and advise.

He can go before the public and try to aleviate their concerns but this only works if the news media will carry his message. Democratic Presidents seem to have no problem here but Republican Presidents have great difficulty in getting their message heard.

When an economic downturn is caused by a single situation such as a shortage of oil, a President can order oil to sold off from our country's oil reserves. This usually is only a very temporary fix and involves great dangers if a national emergency develops right after the reserves have been depleted.

A President can order an investigation into a situation causing econmic problems but most of the time all this accomplishes is to postpone any actions which might improve the situation. It also takes the burden off of Congress which is usually where the problem needs to be fixed in the first place.

In most cases a President does not have the power to start issuing orders and the problem is solved. This is just not the way it works. It doesn't matter whether the President is a Republican or Democrat, I repeat, their powers to control the eonomy, for good or bad, are very limited. Again I say, "The President Proposes; Congress Disposes"'.

Congress's influence on the economy

Today I am going to talk about the influence Congress has or can have on our country's economy.

You may remember back in your civics class you were taught that:
The President proposes; Congress disposses.

Just what does that mean. It means the President send proposals to congress on what he would like the congress to do about certain issues and problems. That is all they are, proposals. The President's budget is an example of a proposal. You've heard people say with contempt, "the President cut the budget", meaning he cut spending in a certain program. The President does not have that perogative, to cut spending. The Presdent's spending and taxation proposals are sent to the House of Representatives where they are considered and debated in various committees. What finally comes out of those committees and sent to the floor of the house seldoms reflects what the President proposed. The one period of esception to this was the first six months after Lydon Johnson was sworn in as President after President Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy had spent his entire three years in office trying to get a raft of social programs passed. These were not from his ideas but were Harry Truman's. Truman never made any attempt to get them passed as he knew they would go no where. Kennedy found that out when each of his social programs were rejected by a congress controlled by his own party. As a tribute to Kennedy, Johnson rushed one proposal after another of these social programs to congress. At the time, Congress was overwhelmingly controlled by the Democrats. Under pressure from Johnson, each of these proposals were rushed through Congress so fast Republicans complained they were not even given an opportunity to read them before they were expected to vote on them.

Most, if not all, of these proposals (programs) were written in such a way they would not go into affect, and their vast cost would not show up in Presidents budgets until several years after they were signed into law. When the financial affects did start showing up in huge amounts, a Republican was in the White House. There was a sudden huge increase in Federal spending and he was blamed by the Democrats and the liberal news media for those huge increases, even though thinking people were well aware they were caused by all those expensive social programs rushed through by congress and President Johnson.

Our economy was doing great up until a year and a half ago. Despite the huge tax cuts pushed through by President Bush, taxes collected by the IRS had increased to their largest amount by the end of the 2006.
Then the democrats regained control of both houses when congress was sworn in in January 2007. Within six months of their taking control, our economy started going down hill. Were they to blame.
Consider my statement of yesterday to the affect that what happens to our economy depends a great deal on consumer confidence. When consumers lose their confidence in the economy, they slow way down on their spending and that, of course, causes the economy to go down hill. Starting a year a half ago, did consumer confidence go down because the consumer had no confidence in the democratically controlled congress? I don't know. This possiblily has never been raised by any editorialist or politician that I know of. But control of congress was the one major change in our national picture which took place in the last 1 1/2 years, a time corresponding to our economy going down hill.

Congress's control over the economy has as much to do with inactivity as with being active. When a problem is developing in our economy and congress takes no action and does nothing about it, they must accept the blame for what develops because of their inaction. Problems with the housing and the banking industry had been developing over the past two years but the democratically controlled congress ignored these pending problems.
The tax cuts pushed through by President Bush are due to expire in the near future but congress has failed to do anything about this. In fact, democratic leaders have mostly talked about increasing taxes. This has had to have had an affect on consumer confidence.

Tomorrow I will enlarge on what are within the perogatives of a President in regards to our nation's economy. Either tomorrow or the following day, I will also talk about the affects greatly increasing taxes on the so call rich has on the economy.

News Media and Congress

In yesterday's posting, I said I would say more in today's blog about Congress and the news media having far more control over the economy than a President.

First I will tackle the news media and the control they have over the economy.
Consumers make up nearly 65% of our economy. How the consumer is made to feel about the economy affects their spending and that has a tremendous impact on the economy. Americans are very impressionable people. When they are told over and over again what terrible shape the economy is in, they began to believe it and start cuttting back on their spending. Now this really gives the news people something to jump on. They pound away at how the economy is slipping, scaring the consumer even more and they cut back even more on their spending. If this is kept up long enough, they cut back in their spending to the point the economy slips into a recesssion. A good example of this is what happened in 1991. In June of that year the economy was in great shape; consumer confidence was very high, President Bush's approvel rating was also very high. In that month my son in law and I both noticed the different network news departments were putting on leading Democrats on a daily basis to tell the public about how the economy was going to start going down hill. We were both alarmed about this. My son in law said "My God, they are going to talk us right into a recession". I started switching from news channel to news channel day after day to see if this was going to continue. Sure enough, all three networks, CNN and Public TV were all doing the same thing, every single day, often allowing five minutes or more out of their daily broadcast. If they didn't feel the Democratic leader was coming on strong enough the tv anchor person would ask leading questions to make their pitch even stronger. I started going to the library and checking the weekly news magazines to see if they were also making this same pitch. They were. Obviously this was a well organized effort by both the national news media and the top Democratic leaders to talk this country in to a recession.
Their efforts were not rewarded during the rest of June nor the month of July. There was very little negative movement during August but in September, the consumer confidence level started dropping as did President Bush's approval rating. As soon as the Democrats and the national news media saw this they really started turning on the heat. As consumer confidence dropped, so did the economy. Within a few months the economy dropped into negative territory. Six months later we were in a recession. President Bush tried to talk to the country about the economy to restore people's faith in it but the networks refused to carry his speeches, saying they would just be polical speeches. Talking to the people to restore their confidence is one of the few tools a President has in controlling our ecomomy but that only works if he is allowed to reach the people. (By the way, four years later, all the networks were carrying President Clinton's speeches right up to election day with out any regard to whether or not they were political. I don't think Clinton ever gave a speech in his life which was not political). By the summer of 1992 offically we were no longer in a recession but leading Democrats and the national news media continued to try to convince the public we were still in a recession right up to election day. Of course, President Bush lost his bid for re-election, primarily because we were talked into a recession by those opposed to him. This, I believe, shows you the kind of power the news media has on influencing the direction our economy takes.
One thing that amazed me was how few people I talked to had taken any notice about what the Democrats and the news media was doing to this country. They were so obvious and blatent in what they were doing, I still don't undersant why the whole country wasn't in a uproar. In my opinion what they did was downright criminal because there were people who lost their lives because of that recession.

By the way, this might be a good time to explain to those of you who do not know, just what constitutes a recession ( I mean offically, not what the democrats and the national news media wants you to believe it is, when a Republican is in the White House. Their definition does not apply when a Democrat is President).

We are in a recession when the country experiences two or more consequtive quarters of negative economic growth.

I am continually hearing people, news editorials and Democratic politicians talk about our being in a recession now. We are NOT! During the second quarter of this year (January 1 through June 30) our economy experienced a 3.3 per cent growth. I have not seen any reports of what our economy did during July and August but even if they were both in negative territory, we would still be four months short of being in a recession.

I had planned to cover how Congress has a great deal of control over our economy in today's posting but I believe today's blog is quite long enough so will take that up in tomorrow's posting.

It is time to add some thoughts

It has been quite some time since I have added anything to this blog so will bring you up to date on happenings in my family. I will also add some thoughts to the political situation.
First, my wife and I are great grand parents again. A little baby boy was added to the family last week when our only grandson and his wife gave birth to him. We are thrilled.
A month ago my wie had a total hip replacement operation. It was kind of rough going for a while but, last night we went to a dance and she (we) danced to walzes, going clear around the floor.
Also since my last entry, I had a case of pneumonia which laid me low for a while. Apparently I have a dsiposition for pneumonia since this is the third time I have been afflicted.

Now to to political thoughts.
To say I am thrilled with the selection of Sarah Palen to be Senator McCain's running mate is to put it mildly. With all the wild charges being brought against her by the liberals, I sense they are becoming desparate.

The following statements by Obama and Sen. Biden were gleaned from their speeches at the recent democatic convention. I find most of them to be downright frightening.
Obama said:
1. A lifetime of hard work entitles you to a retirement with no financial or health care worries.
2. You should never be on your own: government should always be there to support you.
3. People should not be personally responsible for themselves financially.
4. Economic strenth is not measured by profits. (huh?)
5. Government has a moral obligation to provide every person a world class education.
6. Children's needs come before parent's needs/
7. Companies pay their CEO's bonuses before paying retired persons their pensions.
8. It is the obligation of those who are rich to give to hard workers who have nothing.
9. Allowing people to control their own retirement investments will result in financial diseaster.

Here are exerpts from Sen. Biden's Convention speech:
1. The President controls whether you get a pay raise, the price of gasoline and natural gas, health care benefits and the price of your home. (None of these are with a president's capability or responsibilty. If Sen. Biden has such a poor grasp of what is within a president's capabilities, we certainly do not want him one heartbeat away from the presidency.)
2.If the President is doing his job correctly, you should not have any financial worries. (Almost any economist will tell you a president has very little control over the economy. Both congress and the news media have far more control over the economy that a President has. More about this in tomorrow's blog.)
3. If you work hard and play by the rules you should have no financial worries.
4. It is wrong to give tax breaks to companies that earn profits.

Another New Opportunity and Unique Products

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Today's thoughts

I hope you will take the time to read all my previous posting. I started these many months ago and they cover a wide range of subjects, including topics on use of the English language, information on the communities in the Black Hills of South Dakota, politics, high lights of the Black Hills, comments about my four books, three fiction and one, the story of my life, and much more.

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This and That

My main entry for today will be providing a link back to http://www.fm4b.com

I would also like to take this opportunity to make a comment concerning the treatment of our good president by the liberal news media and the liberal politicians.

I don't think we have ever had a president subjected to more lies, distortions of the truth and enuendos. It is no wonder his approval rating is below 30 per cent when the American public is bombarded day after day by such hatred. It is somewhat comforting to see his approval rating is several points above our congress which is controlled by that same liberal bunch. If you take offense with these remarks, I suggest you take each of the bad things said about George W. Bush and do a search on the internet to see if there is any fact to them. If you do an honest research I am satisfied you will find there is no truth or fact behind any of them.
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Merle's thoughts and home work opportunities

Thoughts for today:
The last two or three days I vented my thoughts on the energy shortages and high prices, the decline of our economy and who
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here to apologize. Rather I am here to urge you to use the search engines to check out my version of events leading up to today's state of affairs in the fields I have outlined. I think you will find everything I have said is based on the truth.
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Thoughts on our economic situation

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Yesterday I said I was going to lay the blame of the current state of our economy squarely where it belong.

There is little doubt in my mind where that blame belongs. Consider these facts:
In 2006 and the first half of 2007 the economy was riding high. Consumer confidence was high; unemployment rates were low;
interest rates were low; production of goods and services was high. Oil and gas prices were relatively low. I could go on but I believe the above information is sufficient to prove my point.
What changed? What happened which was different?
The DEMOCRATS took control of both houses of congress in January 2007. Within a short period of time consumer confidence began to plummet.
Also, the present high price of oil and oil products is directly linked to actions taken by the 1965 Democratically controlled congress, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, Tom Daschle (all democrats) and the democrats in the 2005 congress who blocked drilling on huge tracts of Federal lands. Go back to my yesterday's blog for a more complete rundown of the actions by these people which led directly to our present state of economic and oil product affairs. Because of the shortage of oil and it's high price, hugh amounts of cropland has been used to produce corn for the production of Ethanol to replace gasoline. There is little doubt in my mind, despite contrary statements of some people within the industry, our soaring food prices are directly a result of this great increase in the production of Ethanol.

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Today's thought:
We wouldn't be suffering from $4 plus gasoline, nearly $5 diesel fuel, and a poor economy if former President Clinton had signed the broad based energy bill sent to him by the Republican controlled congress in 1995.
The same is true, if, in May 2001, former Senate majority leader and Democrat Tom Daschel had sent the broad based President Bush sent to Congress and the House of Representatives overwhelmingly on to the various Senate committes. Instead he stuck it in his desk drawer and there it sat to the end of the term. The very same thing happended in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In 2005 the Republican controlled congress was forced to revise the broadbased bill they successfully passed that year which left out drilling on additional Federal lands and off shore drilling.
In 1965, the overwhelming Democratically controlled congress passed and sent to Democrat Lyndon Jonson a bill setting new regulations for the construction of new oil refineries and nuclear electrical energy plants. These new regulations were so strict not a singe new oil refinery nor nuclear plant has been built since then. Since the extremely high price of diesel fuel is due almost entirely to a shortage of refinery capacity, that is the primary cause of the extraordinary high price of diesel.
If nuclear electrical plants had been allowed to be constructed. we also would not have any where near the shortage of oil as we have. A very large amount of oil products have been used in the various stages of producting electricity with the use of oil fired and coal fired plants. Yes, even the coal fired plants as a very large amount of oil products is used in the mining, and transportation of coal to the coal fired electrical plants.
So I say, let us put the blame for the oil shortages, high gasoline and diesel prices and present poor state of our economy where it belongs, squarely on the back of Lydon Johnson for signing the strict regulations bill, Bill Clinton for vetoeing the 1995 energy bill, Tom Dashle for pocketing the 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 energy bills. We need to also blame the 1965 Democrats in congress for passing the strict regulation bill, the Democrats in the 1995 congress for not helping the Republicans over ride President Clinton's vetoe and the Democrats in the 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 congress for not forcing Tom Daschle to send those year's energy bills on to the various committees. We also need to blame the Democrats in both houses in the 2005 congress for not backing the drilling of oil on additonal Federal lands. After all, what is the purpose of the government restricting the use of the 43% on the land in this country by placing them off limits to oil drilling. Much has been written and said about preventing oil exploration and production of oil on the northern slopes of Alaska. The land has been described both those who have never seen it as being pristine. Many who have seen it say it is an ugly stretch of land good for very little. Much has been made of the demise of the caribeau herd but the same charge was made prior to the construction of the northnern slopes pipeline yet Alaska biologists say the numbers have actually greatly increased since the pipeline construction.
Those opposing drilling on this wildlife preserve land established by President Clinton say drilling there will despoil the land. Apparently they visualize it looking like much of Oklahoma did in the 1930's and 40's. Actually, very little of the land would be despoiled. One ten acre site can provide all the space needed to drill out as far a four miles in all directions from that one ten acre site. They drill down several thousand feet and then drill out in all directions to a distance of 20,000 plus feet.
I say it is time to loosen up on the use of Federal lands for purposes which directly benefit the people of this country.
It is also time to return the control of congress back to the Republicans so they can solve our energy and economic problem.
This would be futile if a Democrat is voted into the white house.

Tomorrow I am going to lay blame for the current economic situation, squarely where it belongs. Stay tuned to see who that is.
Merle

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More on misuse of the English language

One misuse of the English language which never ceases to disturb me is the folloing statement:
"I could care less". When I hear that I usually ask, " how much less could you care?" Look at that prase carefully. You will see the person is actually saying, without realizing it, they care quite a lot. The correct pharse is: "I couldn't care less".

Another misuse is the phrase: "there weren't no 'etc'. This, of course, is a double negative, making the statement a positive statement.

The cause of high diesel prices

Truckers in this area are protesting the high price of diesel which, I suppose, you can't blame them. However, their protest comes a little late.

The cause of the sky high prices is very simple. There is a shortage of refineries for refining diesel. The demand for diesel is exceeding supply the supply of diesen.

Why is there a shortage of refineries?

The cause can be traced back to 1965. The Democratically controlled congress passed a bill and sent it to President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, for his signature. This bill is the root cause of the diesel refining shortages. It is also the cause of refining of all petroleum products. The bill contained provisions so strict for the construction of new refineries, not a single new refinery has been constructed since then. The same bill included restrictions on the construction of nuclear electrical generating plants, also so rigid and strict, not a single new nuclear plant has been constructed since that date.

The lack of new nuclear plants is very significant. Our country's demand for electricity has continued to grow very rapidly singe 1965 and that demand had to be met by the construction of oil and coal fired plants. The demand for oil for this purpose has been very significant, even from the coal fired plants. It takes a tremendous amount of oil products, diesel mainly, to mine and transport this coal to the coal fired plants. This particular use of oil, again mainly diesel, is another important reason for the shortage and resulting high price of diesel fuel.

In 1995 the Republican controlled congress passed a broad based energy bill, backed by many of the Democrats in congress. This bill was very wide ranging and would have loosened up the restrictions and regulations enough to allow the construction of both refineries and nuclear plants.
President William Clinton, a Democrat, vetoed the bill. There were not enough Democrats siding with the Republicans to over ride the vote. No additional attempt was made to enact a new energy bill until 2001. Early that winter the new president, George W. Bush, sent a new broad based energy proposal to congress. It covered every part and phase of energy used in this country. It was first introduced in the House of Representatives, which was controlled by the Republicans. The bill sailed through all the committees and was backed by most of the Democrats on those committed. It then sailed through the house floor with overwhelming support, again including most of the Democrats. The bill was then forwarded to the Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle. His role should have been to forward the bill to the appropriate Senate committees for their consideration. He did NOT do that!. Instead, he stuck it in his desk drawer and that is where it sat until the end of that congressional term.

In January, 2002, President Bush again sent basically the same energy proposal to Congress. What happened to his proposal was an almost exact duplicate of what had happened the year before. When the bill, again receiving overwhelming approval by the House, arrived on Senator Tom Daschle's desk, he did the same thing he had done the previous year.
2003 and 2004 were repeats of the 2001 and 2002 energy bills with the same results.

One man, the senator from South Dakota, was able to prevent any remedies to our energy shortages. Some people applaud his actions. I think they border on treason. Had he forwarded the bill on to the various committees in the Senate in 2001, there is little doubt it would have sailed through the Senate as it had in the south. Seven years have passed since then. Most of the provisions in that bill could have been carried out by now. A great many new refiners and nuclear plants could have been completed or well on the way to completion by now. Large areas of new oil fields on federal lands could be pumping oil by now. The federal government owns about 43 per cent of the land in this country. There is no reason what so every why it should not be used for the good of the people of this country. One provision of the bills passed by the House all four of those years called for exploration of oil on a game refuge in northern Alaska. This land was made into a game reserve by Bill Clinton, the preceding president. Much talk by opponents of this provision maintain it is a pristine landscape and should be kept that way. Most of these oppontents have never seen the land. It has been described by others as some of the most ugly land in our country.
Another argument used was that it would destroy the caribou herds. The same arguments was used to oppose the Alaska pipeline which has been in operation for many years. Alaskan game biologists state the size of the affected caribou herds has doubled since the construction of the pipeline.

Another argument against the exploration for oil in this particular area claim a massive amount of oil rigs would totally despoil the entire area. These people have totally lost touch with what has been happening in the oil fields over the year. Drilling rigs are set up on a small area consisting fo a few acres. From that one small spot, the drillers are able to drill down and then out in all directions, with dozens of wells going out at far as 20,000 feet in every direction. These small drill areas would be seven to eight miles apart, one small area of a few acres every 7 or 8 miles, hardly the despoiling described by oppontents.

Had that bill been allowed by Tom Daschle to be signed into law by President Bush, it is doubtful we would have any oil shortage by now. Enough years have passed, oil from that field could be flowing to the States by now, and refined by many brand new oil refineries.

In 2005 the Republican party took control of both houses of Congress. The good people of South Dakota had the good sense to give Tom Daschle the boot. President Bush again sent a broad based energy proposal to congress. By this time there was much opposition built up among the Democrats, the only way enough of them would agree to back the rest of the proposal was if the provision for opening up oil exploration on that Alaska game reserve was removed from the proposal. With great reluctance the Republican leader ship agreed and the provision was removed. The rest of the proposal then sailed through both houses and was signed into law in the summer of 2005. Since it will take many years for most of the provisions to have much affect, it will be some time before we see many results from that bill.

So!!! if you feel like throwing some blame around for our country's diesel fuel shortage as well as the sky rocketing prices of oil and gasoline, I trust I have been successful in directing your ire in the right direction.

######################################
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Printing Money or Currency?

I am continually hearing people make the statement "when the country needs more money, they just crank up the printing press and print more money". Apparently this is a common misunderstanding of how our money system works.

I will come right out and make a flat statement. The supply of money in this country is not increased by cranking up the printing press. First, it is necessary to distinguish between currency and money supply. They are not the same thing. Currency, those pieces of coin or paper bills, make up about fifteen per cent of our country's money supply. The rest of our money supply is in the form of line entries in ledger, so to speak. An example of this type of money is your bank checking account balance or your savings account. For each new dollar, five dollar, ten dollar, fifty, one hundred or one thousand dollar bill which is printed, a deduction is made on a line entry in a ledger. A thousand dollar new bill is printed and $1000 is deducted from the ledger. The amount of money remains the same.

How is new money produced? Up until about forty years or so ago, there was only one way the money supply could be increased. A bank depositor deposits, say, $1,000 in his bank account. The Federal Reserve Board allows that bank to loan 85% or approximately $850 of that deposit to a borrower. Hence, $850 in new money is created. But it doesn't end there. That borrower deposits the $850 from his new loan into his checking account. His bank can now loan out 85 % or $722.50 to a new borrower. That borrower deposits his $722.50 into his checking account and now his banker can loan 85% or $614.125 to a new borrower. That can continue on down until every cent possible has been loaded out. Theoretically, in a pure situation, five thousand dollars in new money can be created from that original $1000 deposit. In actuality only about $3000 in new money will be created from this particular example.

I used 85% in my example and the per cent which the Federal Reserve Board allows banks to loan from new deposits is generally around that per centage but, The Federal Reserve Board can tighten up the money supply by decreasing the per centage which can be loaned just as it can increase the money supply by increasing that per centage. In other words, The Federal Reseverve Board controls the amount of money in circulation. By the way, the Federal Reserve Board is non-political and is NOT a part of the Administation. Neither a president nor anyone in his administration has any say in whether or not the money supply is increased or decreased. The Federal Reserve Board keeps a constant finger on the pulse of our economy and they alone determine if more money is needed in circulation.

I said up until about forty years ago this was the only way additional money could be created in the United States. About that time, Congress changed all that by making it possible for the Federal Reservie Board its self to increase the money supply. I've never understood just how they are able to do this, but it has to do with the amount of money the Federal Reserve Bank its self loans to the country's banking system. So now the country has two ways to increase the money supply, both controlled by the Federal Reserve Board.

As you can see, the printing presses have nothing to do with increasing the money supply. They can only increase the amount of money in circulation in the form of currency.
#####################################
I have developed a new website which I have just published. It still needs some additional editing but, in essence, the meat of the website is there.

The purpose of this website is to offer many additional ways of making money on the internet from your home through affilation programs. Rather than my trying to explain just what I mean by 'affiliation programs, why not go to my new site and see for yourself?
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Tme to add another home opportunity

I had said I was not going to enroll in any more home opportunities but one came to my attention which I just could not resist. It is called Plugin-Income. This is a plug in and profit system, hands free once you have it setup. You need never touch it again. Just wait for the checks to come every month.
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This method is 99.9% automated and the first time you will be applying it, it will take abut 15 minutes. You will soon get the hang of it and it will only take you about 5 minutes to reapply it, each time you want to increase your income.
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Time for another posting

Hello again. As I start this, I have no idea what I am going to write about. I feel certain as I start typing, something will come to mind.
Today, the 9th day of February started out as quite a nasty day but now, at 9:30 in the morning it is turning out to be quite nice, although cold. It was 2 above the last time I looked, about an hour ago.

See, I told you I didn't have anything in mind when I started writing and I still don't. Maybe I've wasted enough of both yours and my time so will close this. Merle

Exciting new program

I decided not to wait a full week for my next posting as I just ran into an exciting new internet business. It is called: AutomaticBuilder. You get the amazing Sublingual B-12 which would normally cost you $12.95 plus $2.95 shipping, as well as the most effective Automated Business Building System ever created. You will also get free membership in Nutronix International which includes Free Customer website and Free Business website; a special bonus 'Internet Marketing Secrets Revealed', and personal coaching. What will all this cost you? For the first 30 days there is a one time cost of $2.95 for shipping and handling. Why not go to my website at: http://automaticbuilder.com/merleshelbourn and see what Sublingual B-12 will do for you and how you can make a very good income by joining our AutomaticBuilder business? This company offers many other nutritional supplements in addition to Sublingual B-12.

Another week has rolled by

When you reach my age, 77, the weeks began to seem like two days. My wife Annie and I have certin routines through each week. We do one of them and then, suddenly, it is time to do them again. It is a little frightening to have one's life go by so fast.

One of our weekly activities is, each Saturday night, we drive to Rapid City to the Canyon Lake Senior Citizen Center and attend their weekly dance. Last evening the band which was playing was Alan Sacks and his wife Coleen ( I may have mispelled her name). For a two piece band, my wife and I think they are wonderful. She has a voice very much like Patsy Kline, but in some ways hers is much better. She plays the guiter and sings many of Patsy Kline's songs but her voice is much purer and sweeter. Alan mostly plays the keyboard and sings. He has a very good voice and their arrangements of old time favorites and older country and western music is really great.

We usually sit with the same group of people around a fairly large, round table. Last evening there were five couples at our table. They, and the other three couples who usually sit with us, are the some of the best friends Annie and I have every had. Each week we look forward to seeing them again. When Annie and I are at these dances we dance the two step, the fox trot, jitterbug, walz and polkda. We also ocasionally do the one step. We danced the cha cha for years but have gotten out of the habit of dancing that type of step.

There are five bands who usually rotate from week to week but there is no particular pattern as to which band will be playing on a certain Saturday. Alan Sacks and his wife, and Easy Sounds with Tom and Diane Kennedy are favorites of many of our dancers and so they are booked more often than the others. Both play a very wide variety of dance music of the type most older dancers love to dance to. That does not mean all the dancers who come to these dances are senior citizens. There are quite a few younger couples, some in their early twenties who are regulars. They seem to enjoy the dances and the music as much as we older dancers.

Thoughts About Passwords

I have a suggestion about how to remember your lost loved ones on a regular, even daily, basis. I use some part of the name of my deceased relatives and friends as passwords in the many email accounts and internet programs I access on a regular basis. I usually use some part of an important date to add distinction to the password and also add to the memory.

As I am typing in the password, an image of that particular person pops into my mind, even if only on a momentary basis. Since I use many of these same password many times each week, some even on a daily or several times a day basis, I am remembering those people many times each week, along with my feelings of love for them. I can't think of any easier way of rememberance on a regular, if not daily, basis.
Why not try it? It works for me.

A COLD DREARY JANUARY 29, 2008

These are photos of our newest great grand daughter Olivia Jane and our other grandaughter Aspen.

It has been too many days since my last posting so will see if I can write something which makes sense.

First, I want to let you know I am getting involved in a second blog site. It is located at:

www.homeopportunity.myinternetresources.com/blog

I had not had any intent to get involved a second blog but a couple of days ago I received an invitation by one of the top people in the internet business to be a beta tester for a new program he and his partner had spent months developing. I am to try the program and look for ways it can be improved. I have already run into one problem which I am going to offer a suggetion for improvement. Anyway, part of their program includes developing and daily posting of a blog. So that is how I became involved in a second blog of my own.

At Christmas time I was able to meet and hold my new great grand daughter, Olivia Jane, born on December 3, 2008. Even though she was only three weeks old she was already a delightful little person. Nine days ago we learned our other great granddaughter, Aspen, is going to have a baby brother or sister sometime early next fall. I know Aspen will be absolutely delighted. I am going to place a photo of Olivia Jane somewhere in this posting. It was taken when she was six weeks old. (Note: the photo showed up at the top of this posting. I would rather have placed it down here beneath this text but there was not way of doing that. One of the faults of this particilar blog program, I guess.) While I am at it, I have just decided to include a photo of Aspen who turned five years old the end of November.

A dreary day in January

Before I write a daily post

I want to urge you to

scroll down to near the

bottom of this page and

click on my first posting.

Many of my daily postings

are in sequence and won't

make much sense unless

they are read in the order

they were written. Click

on and read the first one I

wrote on September 30th, 2007 then the next and

the next.

Today I want to write a cautionary note about

email scams out of Africa. No doubt many, if

not all of you, have received emails from someone

with an English sounding name, promising you

a large sum of money with no input on your part

other than agreeing to receive a large sum of

money from their source and put it into your

bank account.

From here the scam varies. In some instances

they want you to keep anywhere from 10%,

25 or 30%, even in some cases 50% and then

return the remainder to them in the form of

a money order. This person supposedly

represents a good sized firm in England and

sell products in the United States and Canada.

The problem is, the customer supposedly has

trouble getting payments to the seller. So

you are to act as a collector for them. When

you receive a check from a customer, in an

amount large enough to make the effort on

their part worth while. It may be in the form

of a cashier's check or a business check.

Either way, it will look completely genuine.

You deposit the check and then buy a money

order for the seller in the percentage you are

to return to them, keeping the remainder for

yourself. Sounds like a great deal, doesn't it?

The problem is, the check is no good. A few

weeks later you get a notice from your bank

the check has bounced for one reason or

another and you owe the bank the full amount

of the check.

Another favorite again has certain variations.

You are promised a quite large amount of

money, anywhere from $850,000 to 1 1/2 to

2 or 3 million dollars for some effort you made

for that person in the past. They have come

into a large amount of money and want to use

part of it to repay people who have helped them

in the past. The money is to be paid to you in'

any of several different ways. One way is, you

get a notice a courier is on his way to the United

States with a package holding the money

promised to you. Or a courier service is being

lined up but the person making the arrangements

finds out he needs an additional $750, $2000,

$4 or 5 thousand dollars to pay the courier.

Otherwise the payment cannot be delivered to

you. Of course, if you have been hooked strongly

enough to be convinced you are going to lose all

that money unless you come through with the

money requested from you, you just might fall for

the scam. The problem is, once you have sent the

money, you will never hear from the benevolent

person again.

Another twist is, you suddenly get a phone call

from an individual who can barely speak English,

telling you he is a courier from some courier company

in Africa. He is carrying a sealed package he was to

deliver to you. He has been stopped and is being

held by the Home Security people in, say, Texas.

He needs $7500 to get himself and the package free

from the Home Security people. He is desperate

and wants to get his package delivered to you but

the only way he can find out that he can do that is

to come up with $7500.00 and to please rush that

amount to him. You are puzzled by the fact that,

as he is talking to you on the phone, there is the same

amount of delay in the conversation as there was

with the person who called from Africa to prepare

you for the wonderful gift of money.

A slightly different twist to the approach is to ask

you to help get his money out of some country in

the country he is living in as his government is

making plans to confiscate the entire amount,

usually anywhere from 10 million to 25 million

dollars. He wants to transfer the entire amount

into your bank account, then he wants you to

keep half for yourself and be his investor for the

other half. Sounds reasonable, huh? A great

deal for you. Not much work or effort on your

part for perhaps 5, 10 or more million dollars?

Everything is going very smoothly and you are

only a few days from the money being electronically

deposited in your checking account. The time is

getting closer and closer and he tells you there is

no hitch. Just as you are getting your hopes and

dreams up, he sadly sends you a message saying

there has been a last minute hitch. The bank

officials in his bank are requiring a payment of

$5000, $7500 or some other quite large figure

in order to complete the transaction. If they are

not paid with a very short period of time, they

have the authority to confiscate the entire amount.

Your beneficiary has included all his available

moneys in the effort and is unable to raise the

money himself. He desperately needs your help

and so please send him the entire amount needed

within 24 or 48 hours. Otherwise you both are

going to lose it all. If you are enough of a sucker

to send it to him, that will be the last you will ever

hear from him.

There are several other variations to these schemes.

They have several things in common. Although you

are supposed to believe, at the beginning, you are

dealing with a completely honest, christian person

usually an Englishman living in Africa. Actually almost of these schemes are coming out of Nigeria.

Nigeria is known among law enforcement people as

the scam capital of the world.

The second common theme is, you will be able to

get a large amount of money with no risk and very

little effort on your part.

The third most common thing is, at some point, you

will be asked to send a significant amount of money

to them to overcome some obstacle which is preventing

both of you from reaping the rewards for your small

effort.

In each case you will be hounded with desperate

phone calls and emails pleading with you to send the

money to save the project.

How do I know all this. Out of curiosity I responded

to a couple of these offers of wealth. I saw a pattern

between the two, and so decided to respond to others

to see just how far they would progress before there

was any mention of sending money to them. I perhaps

responded to six or eight with the results I mentioned

above. I even (with tongue in cheek, agreed to be a

go between between English, Chinese, Japanese, etc

companies and customers in the United States and

Canada. I even received a large check from two

different customers for two companies. In one

case, it was a beautiful cashier's check. In another

a bank check. In each case, just to make certain they

were not legitimate, I typed in the bank name shown

on the checks into the Google search engine. I was

able to obtain a telephone number in each case.

I made a call to them and learned, as I strongly

suspected, both checks were frauds.

I tentively agreed to participate in a number of other

of these type of offers, just to see what would develop.

At first I was thinking about gathering information

on these schemes to expose the various methods to

the public. Then I just decided to write about them

in my blog. I have gotten by luckily so far but then

I realized I could be setting myself up with a problem

with Federal, State or foreign laws and so have decided

I have gathered enough materials and do not intend

to test any more of them. One thing, the various offers

do tend to sound very much a like and could very well

be written and organzed by the same people.

I would not advise anyone else to test these offers. You can

and probably will be pestered to no end for your efforts.

Posting Update

A suggestion on how to read
my daily postings. Many of
my dail postings are sequencial.
That is, there are a number of
subjects I wrote about, which
need to be read in the sequence
I wrote them to be able to
understand them. I suggest
you scroll down to the
'Blog Archives and start by
reading the first posting on
September 30, 2007 and each
succeeding posting.

I have not posted for a number
of days as I have been very busy.

My wife and I spent several days
with our daughter and her family
in south central Minnesota, USA.

We were able to get reacquainted
with our five year old great grand-
daughter and meet our new (21 day
old) great grand daughter for the
first time. We were also able to
spend quality time with our three
children, our son-in-law and our
four great grand children.

We attended an absolutely marvelous
New Year's Eve party and dance at
a near by senior citizen center. Wonderful music, great fellow dancers; (no, they were not all elderly
people. There were dancers there fromtheir early twenties to, yes, quite a lotof very active senior citizens.) Much
good food was also served.


I will not be writing a daily posting but
will try to write one at least once a week,
on no particular day, just when I have
time.

If you are interested in making money at
home I have numerous programs and
products listed throughout this blog which
will help you do just that. Feel free to take
advantage of any of them.