Still More Stuff I've Learned (Part Drei).

This is Number Three in the essay on the stuff I've learned while spending more than seventy years trying to stay out of trouble and out of jail.  And believe me, there was some heavy bobbing and weaving in order to accomplish those objectives.  Mostly.  So far, so good.  

However, I sustained some bruises along the way, and learned a lesson or two that might prove helpful for all the other "Great Unwashed" among you.  So, buckle up, here goes...

-  I've learned that it's a heavy stain on our proud Country that there needs to be a "Wounded Warrior Project."  You've no doubt been hammered on by the unending TV commercials begging you to send off "just $19.00 a month" in order to put our heroes back together after having been sent off to war.  Plus, you'll get a blankie to show their appreciation.  Why, I ask, shouldn't the country that sent them off to die, or be forever maimed, take care of them after they return home?  And why should some outfit badger us incessantly for a bunch of dough to fix them up without us knowing just how that money's being spent?  Why, indeed?

-  I've learned that ex-Alaskan Governor and ex-Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has decided to endorse POTUS candidate Donald J. Trump.  Why, me wonders, is Sarah choosing Trump to endorse rather than Ted Cruz, the guy she supported heavily in 2012 for Texas Senator, and campaigned with him incessantly.  I think I may have a possible answer to that question.  What, one might ask, does Trump have that Cruz doesn't?  Ummm, $10 Billion Dollars perhaps?  I wouldn't be surprised if Sarah found an extra $500 Grand in her checking account in the next few days she didn't remember depositing.  And maybe an appointment as Secretary of the Interior should The Donald emerge victorious in his run for Prez?  But that's just me...

-  I've learned from a contact in the Riverside County Sheriff's Office that there were more than 1,000 calls to request appointments to interview for a CCW (Concealed Carry Weapon's) permit in the week following the shooting at the San Bernardino school.  And, my contact states, due to a scarcity of personnel to handle such matters, more than 300 of those calls had yet to be returned.  What's the fallout from all this? Unlike the vast majority of other states, where you simply walk in to the local sheriff's office, plunk down $25 or so, and walk out with a CCW permit, in Taxifornia you must first apply for an appointment to be interviewed.  If you are then judged as qualified to carry concealed, in their sole opinion, it will take many more months to find out if you're successful in obtaining your permit. According to my contact, appointments are now being made for March, 2018.    That's more than two years from now. Congratulate yourself if you live somewhere else besides the once-Golden State...

-  I've learned that more than 100 people were shot in Chicago in just the first ten days of 2016.  Now considering that Chi-town has the most restrictive gun control laws in the entire nation, effectively eliminating the 2nd Amendment within its city limits, you have a really good example here of what Barry Obama and his Sycophants have planned for you if you live anywhere else.  You can't buy a gun in Chicago, but you can die in Chicago.  Doesn't seem right, does it?

-  I've just learned that Solar City, the biggest solar panel installer in the Country, has just pulled the BK plug.  After installing more solar panels than any other company, it just discovered that its business model doesn't work.  Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and majority owner of Solar City (and Tesla cars and SpaceX), could no longer make this leasing- panels-to-people work.  That's because it did so by overcharging for the panels, and then billing the Feds (you and me) for the 30% Income Tax Credit our Gummint offers. They wouldn't sell them.  I know.  I tried to buy them from Solar City. They told me they would only lease.  And after the Gummint discovered it owed Solar City more than $500 Million in payments, it cried foul and ordered an investigation. And from that investigation it was learned that our collective pockets have been picked, and picked big time!  Solar City now leases.  Or at least it did, before it pulled the plug.

-  I've learned that six of the top ten very richest cities/counties in America in terms of median household income are located in and around the Washington, D.C. area. They are:

          #1:  Falls Church, VA - $125,635
          #2:  Loundoun County, VA - $122,641
          #3:  Fairfax County, VA - $110,507
          #6:  Arlington, VA - $107,143
          #7:  Howard County, MD - $106,871

Think of it, my friends.  It wasn't too long ago that the richest counties were located in or near Silicon Valley, or San Francisco, or Manhattan, or rural Connecticut, or toney Long Island's Hamptons area.  Now, with the out-of-control growth of government, the rich are now those who work for us.  The folks who make on average twice what we do.  And we, the people who pay them, are now poorer than ever before.  I want to puke...

-  I've learned that the portent of a super big blizzard bearing down on the Eastern seaboard is enough to cause the "powers that be" to shut down the Government.  Yes, my friends, on the weekend of January 22nd, 2016, the Feds pulled the plug on all matters Governmental and sent everybody home.  No bizz to be conducted.  None. Now, considering that we have 1,645,239 laws on the books, or maybe twice that many (I have no idea...I made that number up!), what I'm wondering is how we mere mortals can figure out how to bring on a whole bunch more blizzards.  If a little bit of snow can shut down the business of making laws, and I think we can all agree we sure as hell don't need any more laws, then how can we figure out how make much, much, much more snow?  I mean, hello America!  We had 2,600 pages in the Federal Register in 1936.  With all of the new regs added daily by the SEC, the FDA, the EPA and all the other 600+ Alphabet Federal agencies, we have more than 800,000 today!  When is enough, enough?  I don't know about you, but I'm soooo pissed at the Gummint for making new laws without cancelling the old ones.  Give us more snow and fewer new laws!  

And by the way, the 200,000 employees that were sent home were deemed "nonessential."  Is it just me, or do you also wonder why we have 200,000 people working for us, who make much more than we do, that are "nonessential?"  

-  I've learned the "living wage lefties," like Hil(liar)y Clinton, aged Socialist Bernie Sanders and Little Mikey O'Malley, are just dying to boost the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. Why? So they can attract the votes of the slackers who don't feel themselves responsible to gain the education and the experience to claw their way out of burger-flipping jobs and into the righteous middle class.  When, I ask rhetorically, did working at MickeyD's constitute the path to a full-time income for those beyond pimply-facedness?  When, I answer emphatically, we elected socialist Barry Obama.  Since that fateful day the real wages in America have gone down a full 4%, equaling about $5,000 per year for the average family, while the regulations imposed on our job creators have gone past the choking stage.  Min-wage is now about $8.00 an hour. Higher in commie lefty states, lower in smarter, less regulated ones.  

And why the campaign to rush headlong to $15/hour? Because the unions are losing membership at flank speed. And they give beau coup bucks to the Democrats.  And the Democrats get about 95% of the campaign donations from the unions.  So, if the unions can coerce the Dems to coerce the Gummint to coerce employers to boost wages, then the unions can step in and force these "newly-rich" employees to join up, and pay up!  Of course, once these dues are paid, and the taxes on their new windfall is paid, the bone-headed dufus min-wage workers will be right back where they started. But hey, the unions will be fat again, and that's how strong-arm union and go-along-to-get-along politics works.  

By the way, if $15 an hour of somebody else's money - which it is  - is good, why not $20?  Or $30?  Or $50?  As Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, "The only thing wrong with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people's money."  I guess those who advocate such self-destructive policies need to learn sooner rather than later that they're completely full of crap.


-  I've learned that there are places on your body that can hurt that you didn't even know existed.  And places that will still manage to hurt despite whatever number of pain pills you choose to ingest.  And that the "hurt" can be ammeliorated a tad by the judicious use of a really nice Cabernet Sauvignon, or other juicy, tannic, red wine of your choice, which can serve to potentiate pain pills of all stripe.  That means a bit of the latter can magnify somewhat the actions of the former.  
Exercise care during your experimentation, my friends.  
You're welcome.  

-  I've learned that a young African-American woman named Lateatia Halloway intentionally drove her weapon of miss-destruction (get it?) through throngs of pedestrians on Las Vegas' sidewalks, killing one and seriously wounding more than 30 others.  Yes, my friends, this young "lady" was reported to have slowly driven her car down a busy Vegas boulevard, eyes peeled for clusters of people walking along peacefully, and then gunned her motor, jumped the curb and mowed them down.  And then she repeated this action three more times before being stopped and arrested. And yet, one Mr. B. Hussein Obama chooses not to call for the Justice Department to open a hate crime investigation, or increased background checks and tougher acquisition laws prior to the awarding of drivers' licenses or the purchase of automobiles. Think maybe his priorities are a bit misplaced?

-  I've learned that you cannot keep your doctor, you cannot keep your health insurance policy, and you will not receive a $2,500 rebate check from the Gummint every year, even though Barry promised you that you would, on camera, 43 times!  Basically, you're scheizer  (German for you-know-what) out of luck.  Surprised?

-  I've learned that Liberals really love Syrian refugees and want them to emigrate to our lovely Country.  Fine, say I.  But where, I ask, is that same milk of human kindness for the homeless military vets and those who are languishing in the waiting rooms of V.A. hospitals, (im)patiently hoping for an appointment, and dying because they just can't seem to get one?

-  I've learned that the very cheapest Halloween costume one can possibly buy is one of those 40 gallon black plastic bags. Simply cut two holes it for eyes and then pull it over your head.  Voila!  You're now a carbon-copy of a Muslim woman! 

That's all for now, kiddies.  Too much of this hard reality might rot your brain.  But sit tight.  More to come, and soon! After all, I've learned a lot, but I keep on learning!

Some More of That Stuff I've Learned (Part Deux).

In follow-up to my most recent posting, same title, read by millions (well, not millions, but certainly tens), this is the second installment, which you've no doubt waited for with rapt anticipation.  And so, without further ado...

-  I've learned that Taxifornia issued 605,000 drivers' licenses to illegal aliens during calendar year 2015.  That constitutes nearly half of all licenses issued during that period.  Think of it, my friends, who live anywhere else; this dumbass state, run by commie pinko liberal weenies, has chosen to permit illegals to break in to our Country, and then legally apply for and receive legal drivers' licenses!  That's stunning, don't you think?  What sort of craziness is this?  What brain malfunction allows you to make an action by an illegal, legal?  I, for one, don't know.  But I find it perplexing, alarming, infuriating, embarrassing and just plain stupid.  You too?  In the meantime, if you live here in CA, and you need to go to the DMV (perish the thought!), and you have to wait in line behind dozens of illegals in order to get your license renewed, while you're paying the salaries of the dimbulbs behind the counter via your taxes, you just have to be steaming!  

-  I've learned that Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has 300 active duty policemen.  They are just like other Chi-Town cops, with one fairly major difference; they aren't allowed to carry weapons.  And so, when confronted with an "active shooter" scenario, they're instructed to "run and hide." Really?  I kid you not.  Cops being told to run and hide? What sort of Bizzarro World are we living in?

-  I've learned that honey is the only food that stays edible virtually forever.  Ancient earthenware jars have been found in 4,000 year old Middle Eastern shipwrecks on the bottom of the ocean that are absolutely pristine, and filled with completely edible, tasty honey.  That's pretty amazing stuff, right?

-  I've learned that Arch Coal, Inc., has just filed for bankruptcy.  Yes folks, Arch, America's second largest coal mining company, just pulled the plug due to $4.5 Billion in debt.  And why would they need the protection of going BK? Because of Barry and his Sycophants' War on Coal.  Half of America's coal mines are now shuttered, and more than 200,000 coal miners in 11 of our states are out of work, and most likely, permanently.  The remaining 150,000 are due to be furloughed when coal is finally declared dead.  Oh yeah, did you know that fully half of our electricity generating plants rely on coal for their power?  Do we have a replacement for coal to keep our lights on?  No, we don't. Oh, we have solar and wind, but they are much, much, much more costly than coal.  And far, far less predictable in terms of their availability and adequacy.  So, your electric bill is going way, way up!  You elected this bozo!  Pay up!

-  I've learned that when you hire a socialist, you get socialism.  Doubt me?  Just read the above and realize what we got when we elected Obama.

-  I've learned that gas prices nationally are now below $2.00 per gallon!  And I've learned you're happy about that.  But should you be?  I think not.  Why?  Because the only reason you can fill your tank so cheaply is because the thieves at OPEC have their spigots wide open in an effort to crush our fracking industry in its infancy.  It's now known that we have more oil hiding in the tar sands in our northwestern states and Canada than in all of the Middle East.  Stunning and welcome news!  

From a high of as much as $150 per barrel just a few years back, we're now down to below $35.00.  That means it's no longer economically feasible to make usable oil out of the tar sands in Canada or North Dakota and surrounding states. And that's caused those companies involved in fracking (hydraulic fracturing - look it up) to shut down and lay off their workers.  In my opinion those OPEC countries will soon squeeze down their production when our fracking boom has gone bust, and the companies who were involved in it no longer represent a threat.  Gas prices at the pump will then shoot back up faster than a hooker's skirt.  But will there then be a resurgence in tar sands fracking in the U.S.?  Me thinks not, my friends. And that's a very bad thing for America.  

Of course, here in the once-Golden State, gas prices are just below $3.00 per gallon! Why so high?  Because the weenies in Sacramento impose on us the very highest gas taxes in America.  Aren't you proud you live somewhere else?  

-  I've learned that the way Black moms choose names for their newborns is really quite inventive.  I have it on good authority that they bring a brown paper bag filled with consonants and vowels to the hospital with them. Once the baby pops out, and they discover whether it's a boy or a girl, they then shake up the bag and start taking out letters, one at a time, until they find a name that's acceptable.  That's how they get names like Quintonio and Cleanthony and Jaluma and Sequisha and Dealumoeba.   And, my own personal favorite, Dabrickashaw (actual first name of a pro football player, so don't think I made these names up!).  

-  I've learned that if a Conservative doesn't want a gun, he doesn't buy one.  But if a Liberal doesn't want a gun, he not only doesn't buy one, he tries to get laws passed so that nobody can have a gun, anywhere, ever!  And with more than 23,000 anti-gun laws on the books here in America already, God knows what we really need are some more of those stupid, repetitive, ineffectual, costly and ineffective laws.

-  I've learned that, only three days after our Lecturer-in-Chief told us during his (hopefully) last State of the Union address that the U.S. economy is strong, Wal-Mart, our largest private employer and the biggest corporation in the world, with more than 2.2 million workers, just announced its intent to close 269 stores and put 10,000 workers out of a job.  Hmmmm.

-  I've learned that B. Hussein Obama has traveled on our dime (many of them, in fact) to Hawaii over Christmas for the past eight years.  And I've learned the cost of operating that specially-modified airplane known as Air Force One is $206,355 per hour!  When you add in the cost of operating the duplicate 747 that flies along behind (got to have a spare, you know!), plus all the vehicles necessary to transport the POTUS and his fam, and his sycophants, numbering in the hundreds, plus all the hotel rooms and meals, each Hawaiian vacation has cost you and me, America's taxpayers, over $5,000,000 each!  Obama has taken 43 such vacations since being immaculated, short and long, costing us more than $70 Million Dollars!  The average American family spends just over $4,700 on Christmas, to include presents and meals and travel.  Think maybe the Obama's are a bit out of touch?  Or, maybe they just think they deserve it...

-  I've learned that "Taco Cat" spelled backwards is..."Taco Cat."

-  I've learned that Debbie Washerwoman-Schultz, the fembot commie Congressweenie from south Florida, who also serves as the Official House Madam for the DNC, failed once again in her efforts to completely hide the Democrat Debate from the American people this past Sunday.  Yes, my friends, even though it was held opposite an important football playoff game, on MLK holiday weekend, upwards of three hundred people actually stumbled upon it.  By accident, no doubt.  So, I have it on good authority that the next debate, featuring Hil(liar)y Clinton, Little Marty O'Malley and America's socialist grandpa Bernie Sanders, will be held in a Boys and Girls Club basement in Cincinnati, OH at 3:00 a.m. on an unannounced upcoming Tuesday, and televised on a closed-circuit camera, viewable only on pay-per-view.  There. That ought to prevent anyone from noticing that the Party of the People is represented by old, white, rich, dumb and mouthy people.

-  I've learned that Jada Pinkett-Smith, the wife of actor Will Smith, has just announced that she is soooo pissed that she will not attend the annual Oscar get-together.  She's mad, I guess, that Will wasn't nominated for his role in "Concussion."  Too bad.  Nor, I've learned, will Spike Lee. They're going to boycott because for the second year in a row, no Black actors have been nominated for the little statue. Hmmmmm.  Perhaps Black folks should start their own annual entertainment award show to compete with the "White" Oscars.  Oh wait!  They have!  It's called the BET Black Entertainment Awards Show!  Maybe the way to fix this whole kerfuffle is simply to stop hiring Blacks for roles in White-produced movies, kind of like the Blacks do for Black-produced movies. Then, there would be no need to boycott. Everyone would be happy.  "Happy, happy, happy," as Papa Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame would say.  

As for me, I'm outraged!  And so, in solidarity with my Black brothers and sisters everywhere, I also will not be attending the Oscars this year!  Nor will I be watching it on TV!  Nor retweeting any of the really important stuff (heh, heh) that comes out of it! You White folks just cannot expect to get away with continually disregarding all 'dem Black folk.  I am offended!  How 'bout you?  Remember, Black Lies Matter!

That's enough for now, kiddies.  Hang tough, though, more to come, and soon!

I'm Pleased to Announce I Now Know Everything. (Part One)

I'm here to announce, right now, to everyone, everywhere, throughout Internetland, and the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Universe, that I, your humble correspondent, The Chuckmeister, the guy who delves deep to uncover all the news that's prit to fint, now knows everything.

Yes, my friends, and you are my friends, I now know everything.  

I've lived Three Score and Ten...and some more.  And, with the help of several excellent teachers in grade school, and middle school, and high school, and over a period of nearly ten years of college (I was too busy shooting pool professionally, for money, to apply myself, like, full time, plus there was some U. S. Army in there), I've learned all there is to know.  Now, to tweak that a bit, not everything there really is to know, but everything I actually want to know.  And that's a whole boatload of stuff.

To be sure, I was a really terrible student throughout my entire formal educational career (formal?  Ha!   Career? Ha!). I did only enough to not get thrown out of school.  And that's not saying much.  As a fatter of mact, I've been forcibly ejected from four, count 'em, four institutions of higher learning.  Tossed out like last week's garbage.  I've said often to whomever would listen that I wouldn't have graduated from high school had a second cousin not been my typing teacher.  
But since then I've developed a profound love of learning. Anything I could read, or watch, or hear, and inculcate, I did. And I have a phenomenal memory, except for loved ones' birthdays and anniversaries, of course.  So over the past fifty years or so I've amassed a treasure-trove of data and opinions.  And God knows, I'm more than willing to share both.  To anyone.  At anytime.  And anywhere.  Usually whether they want me to or not.

However, just as I now know everything I ever wanted to know, I've discovered something else:  There's not a damn thing I can do with it, or about it.  I'm neutered by age, and my health, and my infirmity, and my rather scant pocketbook. But not by my meticulously-maintained hair, or my fastidious dress, including the careful matching of shirt colors to socks, and belt color to shoes.  Or my fantastical humor, or my unbelievable vocabulary, or my lovable teddy-bear personality.  

No, my friends, there's just not a whole hell of lot I can do with my amazing knowledge and intellect except to try my best to influence friends and associates into to seeing things my way, or maybe type a few paragraphs into this, my unassuming and under-appreciated little blog, hoping that someone, somewhere, will say: "Oh yeah, that Chuckmeister guy is spot on!"   

And so I've decided to share with you some of the wonderful things I've learned.  And some not so wonderful.  But all are absolutely factual.  If I believe them, then they're true, whether they're true or not.  But there's so many things I've learned, I have to present them to you in several parts. And so, without further ado, here goes Part Uno:

-  I've learned that hair now grows where you don't want it to, and has pretty much stopped growing where it's supposed to.

-  I've learned that the Murrieta-Temecula cities, located in Southwest Riverside County, Taxifornia, in which the Chuckmeister gratefully and happily lives, were once again ranked in the Top Ten of America's safest cities.  Number One was once again Irvine, California.  Irvine, as you may know, is populated only by Asians, and Asians don't commit crimes. Except for white collar crimes, which don't get reported much.  

But Number Two is Murrieta, and Number Eight is Temecula. Two in the Top Ten of all of America's cities is pretty impressive, don't you think?  And they're located smack up against each other.  I'm of the opinion it's because these cities are filled to the brim with extremely conservative, God-fearing, 2nd Amendment-believing, NRA-joining, red-blooded 'Muricans.  Everybody's armed and considered dangerous. Love to live here. Recommend it to all desirous of clean, well-managed cities with warm, friendly people. Oh, and there's 43 wineries here also.  What's not to like?

-  I've learned that the most dangerous place on this planet is between B. Hussein Obama and a TV camera.  And that's true especially just after one of his Muslim buddies shoots up a school or a mall somewhere.

-  I've learned that if Warren Buffett doesn't want the XL Keystone Pipeline built, it won't be built.  And why wouldn't he want it built?  Perhaps because his company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad.  And The BNSF has a contract to transport oil from the tar sands of Canada and our northern states south to the refineries in New Orleans.  And that contract pays him $30 per barrel, for every barrel carried by his little choo choo train.  Millions of them.  But were the XL Keystone Pipeline to be built, it would cost only $10 per barrel to ship the oil south, thus turning the BNSF deal upside down. Hmmm. Maybe this is how you get to be a billionaire. And maybe the profit motive trumps climate conscientiousness. Hmmmm, again...

-  I've learned that our Fearful Leader, B. Hussein Obama, only delivers speeches on days ending in "Y."  And then only two or three times on each of those "Y" days.

-  I've learned that our elected leaders, chief among them one Mr. B. Hussein Obama, have so decimated our military forces through funding gimmicks like Reconciliation (Google it), that we will be lucky to survive any threat.  Budget cuts have left us with the smallest Navy since the day before Pearl Harbor (328 ships now vs. a high of 845 during Reagan's term), and the smallest Army since before World War Part Deux (winding down to just over 470,000 in uniform, from a high of more than 800,000).  To that I say, "!" And we know from history that weakness invites aggression. Where is that "Peace Through Strength" thing that Reagan advocated?   Kinda makes you wonder why, doesn't it?

-  I've learned that flying commercial is a scary, messy, time-consuming, dangerous, insulting, wasteful, nasty, germ-laden and anger-producing exercise in futility. Whereas taking a commercial flight from point A to point B used to be pleasurable, relaxing and cost-effective, and populated by hot stewardess types, it has long ago lost that luster and is now just a lumbering Greyhound bus, filled with angry underpaid stiffs that works overtime to piss you off at 30,000 feet. 

-  I've learned that the value of a college education depends upon where it's been earned.  And that if it's one of those pansy Ivy League blowhard dumbass liberal commie places, where you believe you shouldn't have to be subjected to words or phrases that offend your tender sensibilities, and where you absolutely have to have a "safe space" in which to brood, chances are that post-graduation you'll be asking one question more than all others:  "Would you like fries with that?" 

-  I've learned that only 62.1% of our population over the age of 16 is working.  That means that 37.9%, isn't, the very worst performance since Jimmuh "Peanuts" Carter was doing his very best to screw up America back in the 1970's.  Drilling down on that number a bit means that 94,513,000 of us that should be working, aren't.  That's a 38 year low.  That also means a bit over one-third of our population is carrying the other two-thirds.  Bad, but not disastrous.  But when you subtract those under 16, and those who are retired, and those who are infirm, or non compis mentas (Google it if you don't understand Latin), and those who have stopped looking for work because our economy has been nearly destroyed by the socialist bozos who are running things into the ground back there in Foggy Bottom, we've now got one guy pulling the wagon and four guys riding in it.  And that guy is getting very, very tired of hauling the other guys' asses around.  And one day real soon he's going to stop pulling and get back there with the other dope-smoking, beer-swilling slackers and demand some of that "gimmie."  

Put another way, 100,000,000 Americans are drawing some sort of means-tested assistance from the Federal Government. That means you and me.  And then the only ones left working will be the Starbucks baristas and the sign twirlers. And that's true especially here in Taxifornia, where mental midgets are legislating and we adults are paying the price.

-  I've learned that Donald J. Trump was manufactured by the Republican Party's failure to do what its voters hired it to do via the 2010 takeover of the House, and the 2014 sweep of the Senate.  Republican candidates promised to go to D.C. and end Obamacare, defund the IRS, enforce immigration laws, gut the EPA, pump up the military and stop sending half a billion dollars every year to Planned Parenthood.  They did none of those things and conservatives are Major League Pissed!  Sooooo, Trump arrives on the scene, promising to finally do what should have been done years ago, and The People are all for it!  And now, the "establishment" is really, really worried.

-  I learned that no matter how hard you try, you'll never find the Statue of Limitations.

-  I've learned that if your corporate tax rate is too high, as is America's (38.9% - highest in the world!), then companies will do whatever they need to do to avoid paying that exorbitant rate of taxation.  Proof?  Sure.  Just recently Pfizer and Allergan, two pharmaceutical giants, agreed to merge. That merger would create a $160 Billion behemoth, the very largest drug corporation in the world.  And, wait for it...the new company would be domiciled in Ireland.  Yes, my friends, this "inversion," as it's called, would place the HQ of the new corp overseas so as to enjoy a new tax rate of between 17% and 18%, considerably lower than what they're paying today.  Pfizer is on record as saying the new company's lower rates would save it $2,000,000,000 (that's Two Billion, with a "B") in just the first two years of the combined joint venture.  

Think of it: You fail to lower the rate to a reasonable one, as Barry O'Blamo and his Dem buddies have done, and people and companies will take such steps as they see fit to avoid your unfair raid on their treasuries.  And that's what they must do - in fact are required by law to do - to protect the interests of their shareholders. Right now there's more than two trillion dollars languishing overseas because its corporate owners won't bring it home, because if they did they'd have to pay taxes on it, after having already paid local taxes on it in the countries where it was earned!  Wake up, Barry!  Change the tax rates, or there won't be any more companies left in America.  

By the way, go get a Whopper from your nearest Burger King. That (used-to-be) All-American Company is now domiciled in Canada...

-  I've learned that President George W. Bush never left the White House until the day after Christmas.  And President Barack Hussein Obama has never spent a Christmas in the White House.  You can put forth various rationales as to why, exactly, each celebrated - or chose not to celebrate - that Holy Day where we require them to live, but the facts are the facts.  

Well, my friends, that's enough for now.  Don't want to overwhelm you with any more of my "learnings."  By the way, did you know that to be overwhelmed you first have to be whelmed?  No?  Anyway, too much of that common sense stuff can cause your brain to melt.  So, I'll just sign off now until a few days down the pike when I'll send another batch of "learnings" your way.  And remember, it takes a heap of living to make a mouse a gnome...

Stay tuned.  Part Uno is in the can.  Part Deux will follow shortly... 

New Year's Resolutions (Sorry They're Late!).

Oh Jeeeez!

Somehow I forgot to write down my New Year's resolutions and share them with my tens and tens of rabid followers.

So, my friends, and you are my friends, I've given this many minutes of thought, and I'm now prepared to list for you my resolutions for the coming year.  So, here goes...

#1:  I resolve to gain 15 pounds.

#2:  I resolve to drink more.  And enjoy it more.

#3:  I resolve to resume smoking.

#4:  I resolve to buy lots more ammunition, believing as I do
       that I (we) will soon need it.

#5:  I resolve to drive even faster, so that the incessant 
       "beeping" from my radar detector is not in vain.  

#6:  I resolve to sneer and fume and fuss even more every 
       time our Fearful Leader shows his smirking, 
       condecending face on my TV set.  Which, as it turns 
       out, is only on days ending in "Y."

#7:  I resolve to enjoy jogging, weight lifting, yoga, barre and 
       trips to the gym, but only when undertaken by someone 
       else.  

And finally...

#8:  I resolve to stop feeling guilty about taking afternoon
       naps, and start trying my best to have them accepted as 
       an Olympic Sport!

From me and mine to you and yours, have a Very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Two Thousand Sixteen!