On Wisconsin

Bensblurb #593 2/26/11
Second thoughts... In my last blurb, I forgot to mention a side effect of high-speed rail service if it ever gets underway. There surely will be uniformed (and unionized) TSA inspectors at every station poking at your person and luggage before allowing you to board such a valuable transit, especially if there are new relevant terror threats--a near certainty.
On Wisconsin! Supreme in NFL, second only to TCU in NCAA football...and where I first learned to lust after a corn-fed T-bone steak one evening in Sheboygan back in my Army days...Now it showcases great native political talent, in Washington (Rep. Paul Ryan) and in Madison (Gov. Walker). They’ll both go far, I hope. However, read on...

Wisconsin union backers defame Virginia“Virginia schools have better-than-average standardized test scores. Virginia obviously doesn’t rank an abysmal 44th in the nation on SATs and ACTs, as supporters of Wisconsin government-employee unions keep falsely claiming. They’re making that claim up because Virginia bans collective bargaining by government employees, and Wisconsin, which currently mandates collective bargaining in government agencies, is considering proposals by its newly-elected conservative governor to bar such bargaining in areas like pensions, which frequently result in government costs being passed on to future generations.The flacks for the Wisconsin government-employee unions are also claiming that Wisconsin’s budget crisis was manufactured and that it would be running a surplus if it were not for tax cuts backed by the state’s new governor.This claim was previously debunked by the liberal-leaning Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel...But it also defies basic math, since those tax cuts were so tiny...It’s also not true that “tea baggers” or “right-wing Republicans” are responsible for Virginia’s ban on collective bargaining in government agencies...Virginia’s ban is contained in a 1993 law signed into law by a Democratic governor (with bipartisan support).”--Washington Examiner
As our gasoline prices rise, remember this ...
...Even though President Obama is against offshore drilling for our country, he signed an executive order to loan $2 Billion of our taxpayer dollars (which we can't afford to loan since we're broke) to a Brazilian Oil Exploration Company (the 8th largest company in the entire world) to drill for oil off the coast of Brazil. The oil that comes from this operation is for the sole purpose and use of China... Now here's the real clincher. The Chinese government is under contract to purchase all the oil that this field will produce, which is hundreds of millions of barrels"... We have absolutely no gain from this transaction whatsoever ...Guess who is the largest individual stockholder of this Brazilian Oil Company and who would benefit most from this? It is American billionaire George Soros, who was President Obama's most generous financial supporter during his campaign...Not a word of this transaction was broadcast on any of the news networks (except Fox)... A Wall street Journal article confirms this information. Fox News."http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html"

--Ben Blankenship###############

These exciting times

Bensblurb #592 Feb. 22, 2011
　
　
March Madness, anyone? It must go double for Texans lately, with the Aggies at 21-5 and the UT Teasippers at 23-4.
Otherwise, not much happening. After all, this is still February. Government shutdown and Spring Break still to come.
Of course, politics reigns out in California, as usual. In San Francisco, “Civil Rights Advocates” Back Ballot Proposition to Ban Circumcision, reports Hot Air.

Back in the real world, a “...$3.6 billion budget shortfall in Wisconsin has led to union protesters taking to the streets of Madison and the halls of the capitol...with no end in sight. With Democrat state senators in self-imposed exile and an illegal wildcat strike by teachers, Wisconsin’s state government and its citizens have essentially been taken hostage by the public employee unions. Obama and his political arm at the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, have been intimately involved in orchestrating the protests...Americans are seeing the true face of the “party of change.” President Obama and his union cronies will stop at nothing to preserve the failed liberal status quo.Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is not calling for an end to pensions and health care for state workers, he is just calling for them to pay their fair share...singled out President Obama when he said, “We are focused on balancing our budget. It would be wise for the government and others in Washington to focus on balancing their budgets, which they are a long way off from doing.”...The showdown in Wisconsin foreshadows what will happen and is already beginning to happen in other states over the course of the next few months. States like California, New York, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and others are all facing their own fiscal crisis because they are beholden to public employee unions and their budget-breaking benefits packages.” --David Bossie, The Daily Caller

Meanwhile, will the trains ever run on time? I guess we once cared. And might again, if the big new push for passenger rail by President Obama succeeds, unlike much of his agenda nowadays.
As Thomas Sowell writes, “Nothing more clearly illustrates the utter irresponsibility of Barack Obama than his advocacy of "high-speed rail." The man is not stupid. He knows how to use words that will sound wonderful to people who do not bother to stop and think. High-speed rail may be feasible in parts of Europe or Asia where the population density is much higher than here. But, without enough people packed into a given space, there will never be enough riders to repay the high cost of building and maintaining a high-speed rail system.
Building a high-speed rail system between Los Angeles and San Francisco may sound great to people who don't give it any serious thought. But we are a more spread-out country than England, or Japan. The distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco is greater than the distance from London to Paris-- by more than 100 miles.
In Japan, the distance between Tokyo and Osaka is comparable to the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco. But the population of Osaka alone is larger than the combined populations of Los Angeles and San Francisco-- and Tokyo has millions more people than Osaka. That is why it can make sense to have a "bullet train" running between Osaka and Tokyo, but makes no sense to build one between Los Angeles and San Francisco....However little President Obama knows or cares about economics, he knows a lot about politics-- and especially political rhetoric. "High-speed rail" is simply another set of lofty words to justify continued expansion of government spending. So are words like "investment in education" or "investment" in any number of other things, which serves the same political purpose.”

Riots abroad...Everywhere?

Surely seems like it. Now, with Libya in play and its oil wells at risk, our gasoline prices are getting mighty nervous. And talk about nervous, the week has opened with the stock market a-plunging by some 200 points on the Dow at last glance. Oh my. We are clearly doomed to live in exciting times. And I haven’t even thought of the dicey fate of Obamacare...today. Later, we'll see, or something.
　
--Ben Blankenship
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55th Wedding Anniversary

Bensblurb #591 2/10/11

Another milepost on a long journey
　
We interrupt this commercial to bring you a personal bit of news: February 11 marks the 55th wedding anniversary for me and Carole Lee--my first and only wife.

But it’s really no big deal. All you have to do is sit there and put up with each other and occasionally share a smile, a memory and a fond glance...stuff like that.

The rest is in the stars, as they say. For the older you get the faster the time goes and the slower you get. The great-grandkids (soon to be four) smile tolerantly in our presence as we try to remember their birthdays and heck, even their full names anymore.

Granted, our fine herd, extending from Virginia to Colorado, also might possibly contain a laggard or two among the geniuses. So far none has really self-identified. But we’re watching two footloose grandsons for their haywire potential, although both are at that age, you know, when things most often start gelling for the better. Here’s hoping.

Last month I rounded up the local kin and headed us to a fancy meal at a place we had never been. It’s called Bavarian Chef, at the Fredericksburg railroad station (where Claiborne’s used to be). Really great eats.

And seeing the gusto there, let me tell you that it’s one thing my family can do with food. There were seven of us around a big table, and before settling in for the feast, we all joined hands, bowed heads, and returned thanks, then hugs. Later, after dessert, a waitress came over to our table and told us how nice she thought our blessings had been, and how novel in today’s world. I hadn’t noticed.

More to the point, just coming off another Redskin-less football playoff season, forgive me for being less than celebratory and, to put it mildly, more disgruntled.

Our game celebrations used to be something else. The greatest for me came when Washington played Denver in the Super Bowl. Back then, son Bud and I would have another drink each time the Redskins scored. Then super sub Doug Williams threw four touchdown passes in the second quarter to devastate Denver, and me.

I doubt there will be any surprises from the family regarding our 55th wedding anniversary, since the 50th was celebrated so long and loud. This time around, alas, both honorees have less gas in their tank, so to speak, with our aches and pains ruling out any more kicking up of the heels. Besides, we tried some of that on New Years Eve at Aquia Harbour’s Clubhouse Restaurant. It took a while to recover, after acting our age and then some.

You must be getting tired of this personal stuff. But just two more, if you will: One, I now am honored to be officially banned from further political commentary on the liberal Huffington Post website. Honestly.

Two, as I promised last summer to report here, while beginning my own weight-loss campaign, that’s how many pounds I have shed, on a good day. Pitiful, but lengthening retirement is a major hurdle. You’ll see.

Ben Blankenship is a career journalist and a long-time resident of Aquia Harbour. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com.