Money, Money, Money, Money.........Money!

Just an idea...

Today I thought about how much good $700 Billion could do for us regular folk (those of us making under $50,000 a year). On a hunch I looked up the latest Census Bureau numbers and found out that their are an estimated 227,719,424 U.S. Citizens, 18 or older. Now, take the $700 Billion that is most likely going to bailout large corporations & wealthy CEOs... if we divided that money equally to all of these U.S. Citizens 18 and older, we could each get $3,000 and still be saving the federal government over $16.8 Billion!!! I am not good with math, but I checked this several times with a calculator. I know that to those large corporations and their wealthy CEOs that $3,000 is nothing... probably a nice business meal. But to those of us not making a hell-of-a-lot it would be a fantastic bonus, or even a badly needed infusion of cash.

To take this further, if we all spent half of what we got ($1,500 each) that would mean $341,579,136,000.00 going directly into the hurting economy. I know that might not be a big deal to the proponents of 'Trickle-Down' economics, but it would be a start.

So how about we get most of it, the government can split the rest between all the companies vying for their attention (ahem, GM) as long as none of the companies send any more jobs overseas. Maybe this isn't the best idea, but I think we might want to try it.

Another Day in History!

Alexander Campbell (born in Dungloe, County Donegal, Ireland, died 21 June 1877 in Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, Pennsylvania) was a businessman who, along with three other alleged Molly Maguires members, was hanged for the murders of two mine operatives.
Campbell proclaimed his innocence to the end, and in doing so, slapped a muddy handprint on the wall of his prison cell, declaring that the mark would remain forever as a sign of his innocence. Legend has it that despite many attempts to remove it, including building a new wall, the mark still remains today.

Other Notes of Interest:
1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at Battle of Vinegar Hill
1898 - Guam becomes a U.S. territory.
1919 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg General Strike.
1940 - World War II: France surrenders to Germany.
1942 - World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the U.S. mainland.
1948 - Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
1964 - Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
1982 - John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
2002 - The World Health Organization declares Europe polio free.

Notable Births:
1002 - Pope Leo IX
1812 - Moses Hess, Jewish socialist and nationalist
1850 - Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America
1892 - Reinhold Niebuhr, Protestant theologian
1905 - Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer
1910 - Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Soviet poet
1925 - Maureen Stapleton, American actress
1947 - Michael Gross, American actor (dad from Family Ties)
1973 - Juliette Lewis, American actress
1982 - Prince William of Wales, British prince

Notable Deaths:
1377 - King Edward III of England (I fart in your general direction!)
1527 - Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and political author
1591 - Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint
1796 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier
1893 - Leland Stanford, American business tycoon and founder of Stanford University
1934 - Thorne Smith, American author (Turnabout, Dream's End, The Night Life of the Gods)
1979 - Angus Maclise, American mystic, shaman, musician, and composer
1987 - Madman Muntz, American entrepreneur, businessman, electrical engineer, TV commercial actor
1997 - Fidel Velázquez Sánchez, Mexican labour leader
2001 - John Lee Hooker, American musician (Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)
2007 - Bob Evans, American restaurateur

Living In a Me Centered World

Everyone is a victim these days… from simple peer pressure to the all too famous phrase, “the devil made me do it.” It seems no one is to blame for his or her own actions. Kids take weapons to school and violent video games & movies are to blame. People mess up their lives, and they blame their parents. A couple gets a divorce and they blame each other, but no one takes any responsibility.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are several atrocities in the world and what hardships a person goes through will always be with them at some level. But it is fascinating (in a horrible way) how we have become a society were people do not have to be held accountable, or even admit they were wrong. All they really have to do is pass the buck! In my line of work I see a lot of people who take advantage of the system. To me, when that many people are floating by doing nothing and living off my damn tax dollars… that means the system is broken! Just a thought…