Rising fuel prices = slow economic recovery

And finally Gripe #12 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Rising fuel prices = slow economic recovery

And finally from the It's time to nationalize it file: Headline: "Good hiring news fuels jump in oil prices" Am I the only simpleton that sees this as a catch-22? The rising cost of oil equals: higher heating costs, higher transportation costs, higher grocery costs. Hmmm. Pretty much everything will go up in price. And when everything goes up in price (and wages are stagnant) people have less money to spend on non-essentials. Which means less money in the economy. Which means fewer jobs. Which means less spending. Which means...well you get the picture...a greater depression.

Caterpillar metmorphoses into greedy bastards

Gripe #11 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Caterpillar metamorphoses into greedy bastards 

Headline: "Caterpillar will close factory in Canada" Starting at the second paragraph, "Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail Services said the cost structure of the Electro-Motive plant was not sustainable and efforts to negotiate a new labor agreement failed. Electro-Motive had demanded pay cuts of up to 50 percent when it locked out 450 employees at the London, Ontario, plant on Jan. 1. The company said the collective bargaining agreement of the London plant was not "cost competitive in the global marketplace" and said the assembly of locomotives will be shifted to other plants in North and South America." Seventh paragraph, "The union noted Caterpillar recently announced $4.9 billion in annual profits, the highest in its 86-year history." Ummm. Can you say union busting greedy bastards? I can and just did. Hey, workers of the World, you awake yet?

Jobs creation bumps stock market

Gripe # 10 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Jobs creation bumps stock market

Business Section, Wall Street WiStJ: Headline: "Jobs data give stocks a boost" Its kind of funny isn't it. Not funny ha ha either. Wall Street just wants to make money. That is its job, right? Well, look at that. You give people jobs and the news of said jobs gives Wall Street a nice little bounce. Good. We got that covered. They just made more money off of us. Ok. Now those folks that... have those new jobs and money coming in what are they going to do with said money? If I had to wager I'd say they are more than likely to spend it. Ok. Good. The people have money to pay down their mortgages, their automobiles, buy clothing, groceries, gasoline, and utilities. Just about everything they need to continue to survive and eek out a living in these United States. Right. Check. All that money they earn will allow them to spend money to buy products which in turn makes profits for companies that can pay dividends which gives Wall Street a boner and gives stocks bump and makes them more rich. Its not very complicated when you cut through the bullshit. You want to make money? Put real money back into your company, give people jobs and maybe they can afford to buy crap and make you more money. Even Henry Ford knew this.

Health care for non-Catholic workers in the employ of Catholic organizations should be left in the hands of God

Gripe #9 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Health Care for non-Catholic workers in the employ of Catholic organizations should be left in the hands of God

From the "Your Views" Opinion Section (WiSt.J) A piece entitled, "New law threatens right to freedom of religion" by Dale Lawinger of Mineral Point. Here is his first paragraph from his excerpt: "Last Sunday Bishop Morlino had his priest read a letter to all who were at Mass about what the U.S. Department of Health recently announced: Catholic employers will be forced to offer their employees he...alth coverage that includes sterilization, abortion - inducing drugs and contraception". I'm sure there are plenty of little intricacies here that my simple mind has just ignored but, I'll give this a shot too. Yep, you're Catholic. You're a religion that likes to tell people what to do and force your will upon the world, and at the same time collect billions upon billions of dollars. I get it. You don't want someone telling you what to do. After all this is America and the government is supposed to keep its hands off my faith. Blah, Blah, Blah. That's about all I can take. I haven't read the government paperwork on this but I do have this to say. You, yourself, said the words, Mr Lawinger: "...employers will be forced to offer their employees health coverage...". "forced to offer", sure doesn't sound like you have to take them up on it. Sounds like they offer it to you and then like any good guilt ridden Catholic you decline the "sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception". How hard is to say no? Didn't they teach you that in Catholic school?

Moo

Gripe #8 from Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Moo

No dog in this fight. Raw milk. I go to a grocery store and buy pasteurized milk. I know it is pasteurized. Someone else goes to a cooperative and buys unpasteurized milk and gives it to their family. Is that not their decision? Is that not at their own personal risk? Mandatory labeling of non-pasteurized milk containers. Let them get their milk from where they will and let them assume the risk and I'll stick with my store bought pasteurized milk. Not sure why this is such a crisis.

How about jobs for all of us?

Gripe #7 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal

How about jobs for all of us?

Pertaining to WiStJ "Obama: Create more jobs for veterans" article. Things don't always appear crystal clear to me but most of the time I can see enough through some of the murkiness. I understand why Obama is on the veterans kick. Kiss up to them. Win their approval. Appear more nationalistic and patriotic and win the "hearts and minds" of soldiers/veterans to your side. Prove to them that ...you care about them, win them over, and then use them as a pawn in the future. I get it. I do. But, wouldn't it be nice if all Americans that wanted and needed a job had one and not just veterans returning from conflicts that never should have happened in the first place. I'm sure some of you won't agree with what I'm saying but, I'll say it none-the-less. We are not, at this time, drafting soldiers for the armed forces. The soldiers entered into a contract with the government of their own free will and were then sent to distant lands where they saw and did unspeakable things. But, in my mind, that doesn't entitle them to any more of a leg up to a job than any other American. Jobs for all Americans! Not just the ones that did the hard work for the rich and powerful.

Just Nuke It!

Gripe #6 from Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Just Nuke it!

Here's a new one that some of you may or may not have heard about. This comes from the "Briefly" section of the paper. I guess this is their idea of a follow up on something that should be a much bigger deal. But, people that have money and pollute don't want this sort of stuff in the papers for weeks on end. Here's the blurb in its entirety, " Nuclear Plant: Illinois Emergency Management Agen...cy officials say lab tests show no measurable increase in radiation after steam was released to cool a northern Illinois nuclear reactor. Officials said Friday the sampling was conducted this week after a reactor lost power and shut down Monday at Byron Nuclear Power Plant." That's it. Don't be alarmed folks. Nothing to see here. "No measurable increase in radiation"? Where? Right outside the plant? Steam is hot. It rises into the air. It gets caught up in air currents. I don't know the wind patterns for the day but I'm sure that steam went somewhere. Chicago, perhaps. Do they have sensors spread across the countryside that are taking in the normal amount of radiation in the atmosphere everyday? And then I suppose they monitored that days leaked radiation numbers and compared it with a normal days radiation numbers and found " no measurable increase", right? Let's be very vague and get this out of the news cycle as fast as we can, ok. Right!