Bear Lake in September

What a beautiful time of year. Right now I am looking out over the incredibly blue water at Bear Lake. It is incredibly peaceful, the leaves in the mountains around the lake are changing into the red and golds of autumn. The sky is fair and you can relax enough to slow your heart beat to almost nothing. We enjoyed a nice bike ride yesterday. I did have a small problem on a hill. We were stopping to look over the lake and I forgot to kick my heel out on my biking shoes and my foot did not detach from the pedal and I feel like a tree onto my shoulder. It has been pretty sore, enough to worry me that I may not be able to swing a golf club for a few days. As we head to the inexorable cold of winter here at the 41st parallel, one has to soak up these wonderful fall days.

It's Peach Time

This is a peach off one of my trees. I heard a guy say once that God coulda made a better fruit than a peach, but He didn't. Well, I love peaches. That's why September is so nice. My wife made a peach pie last week, actually two peach pies; and to let the pie languish and stimulate the gustatory senses was close, but not quite, to the explosion of the senses one has on their honeymoon night. Man it was good! She shared one with some of our neighbors down the street. She has heard three times from this woman how this pie has changed her, the woman's, life. Every time she runs into someone from the family they suggest it wouldn't be a bad idea to get another one sometime. Me too! My hopes are up. It is the weekend, that is when things happen. We'll see how it goes. If worse comes to worse though, I can peel some up with just the slightest little dusting of sugar and Voila! there you have it, pure peachy pleasure.

Craigslist Can Suck Donkeys

I have an acquaintance that tried to sell an item on Craigslist. An offer was received and accepted. A check was sent for about $1500 more than the asking price. The buyer wanted the seller to cash the check and send the balance back in a cashier's check minus the associated costs. The seller being a trusting soul did it and ended up losing about $1900. Lesson one is never cash a check and use that money until the check has had time to clear the other bank. The buyer exerted a lot of pressure and guilt on the seller. If there is ever pressure in a transaction, cancel the transaction and start over. It was a hard lesson to learn. There are a lot of nice people in the world but we have to assume everybody is a predator until a relationship is established.

All Kinds of Bubbles

We have had a housing bubble that has wreaked havoc on our lives. Who knows if we are going to have a gold bubble. It is up to $1300 an ounce and rising. I have not done a gold crown in a little while, so I asked my lab technician what the cost of gold would be on a crown. He said about $400 to 450. There are other bubbles we may need to worry about. One of them can be understood a little bit better right here. I try and cast my mind back to all my macro and micro economics, all my accounting classes, GAAP and FASB's and things like that. A lot of it left me when I went to dental school, but one thing is certain, the income is no where near meeting the outflow and the detritus must hit the fan sometime.

Evil Policies Don't Help People

I do not like to post entire articles that I have read on the web. I link to some from time to time but I would like to place this post via American Thinker. Every post by Lloyd Marcus that I have read has been enlightening and heartfelt.

September 12, 2010

Evil Democrat Paradigms

By Lloyd Marcus

Here are two paradigms which evil, divisive Democrats have shamefully promoted and exploited for years: one, white men are burning the midnight oil thinking of ways to keep blacks down; and two, all rich white people are selfish, evil, and deserving of punishment.

No Democrat president has sold the "you have too little because the rich have too much" message better than Barack Obama, which led to angry protesters picketing the homes of corporate executives. Democrats are masters at creating a hated "bad guy" to further their agenda.

As a black man, I wish to share a few of my life experiences which crush the paradigm that allwhites are committed to keeping blacks down.

When I was 15, I wanted to attend art college on weekends. I wrote a letter to my (white) senator. When I arrived home from school one day, my mom said our senator stopped by, saw the sign I was painting for our teen dance, and decided to give me a scholarship.

I wrote a letter to then-Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaeffer for a scholarship. Imagine this nervous 15-year-old black kid from the ghetto, dressed in my Sunday best and my artwork between two pieces of cardboard as a portfolio, sitting in the mayor's huge office. My artwork was spread over his massive carved oak desk. Schaeffer was kind and easy to talk to. He became annoyed by interruptions and instructed his secretary to hold his calls. We talked for an hour or so. A few weeks later, I received a scholarship to the Maryland Institute College of Art.

When I was a young man in the U.S. Army stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC, my pregnant wife and I were seeking a loan. The clerk said we needed a co-signer. A (white) captain, overhearing the conversation, said, "I'll co-sign for you!" I said, "But sir, you don't even know me." He replied, "You seem like a nice enough feller."

After college, I went job hunting for a position as a graphic designer. Upon viewing my portfolio, (white) businessman John Halechak did not offer me a job. Instantly, he gave me office space, a room in a high-rent office building, to start my own business.

So there you have it: a few personal anecdotes that are also antidotes to the Democrat narrative that white America tries to keep us blacks down and in our place.

As for the Democrats' relentless attacks and insistence that we hate the rich, had Mr. Halechak not been well-off, he would not have been in a position to help me. Still, Democrats want to, as Obama said, "spread the wealth around" -- which really means redistribution of other peoples' hard-earned money. Then we will all be equally just barely getting by.

U.S. unemployment has risen to a postwar historical high, and our economy is diving downward. The Obama administration could turn things around by simply creating a friendlier atmosphere towards business and not raising taxes. Economics 101 says that the higher you tax an activity, the less people will indulge in that activity. Reagan proved that lowering taxes generates more activity, which generates more revenue for the government.

Obama and company are locked in their paradigm that the rich are selfish SOBs deserving of punishment. Obama plans to end the Bush tax cuts, spinning that they benefit only the rich.

A tax cut across the board for all Americans would tremendously boost our economy. Unfortunately, the Democrats' insane hatred, demonization, and jealousy of the rich compels them to sink the entire ship of America rather than save one rich person.

These two evil Democrat-promoted paradigms -- white men oppose black success and the rich are SOBs -- are deeply ingrained in the psyche of many Americans.

However, I learned years ago, while serving in the U.S. Army, that good people and jerks come in all colors.

As for hating the rich, the Bible says, "Thou shall not covet." With the exception of a few Ted Kennedys and John Kerrys in this world, most of the rich worked hard to get to where they are. Rather than hating them, I want to learn from them.

Once, a dear friend was in danger of losing his home. I was not in a financial position to help. All of my sympathy and good intentions could not help him -- he needed cash. Wealth is a very good thing.

Lloyd Marcus
Spokesperson/Entertainer of Tea Party Movement & Tea Party Express.
The American Tea Party Anthem CD/album.
Confessions of a Black Conservative, foreword by Michelle Malkin.
President, NAACPC (National Association for the Advancement of Conservative People of ALL Colors).
Join Lloyd Marcus Facebook Page.

Baseball Card of the Week

On September 9, 1965 Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. It was his fourth no hitter in four years, one per year. He struck out the last six batters he faced the final out being Harvey Keuhn. As a young Little Leaguer Sandy Koufax was one of my heros. I never saw him much on TV but I did have a transistor radio. I could pick up Vin Scully announcing the Dodger games when it was night time here in Utah and listen to some of the game before I fell asleep. Most people cannot grasp in this era of baseball how incredibly dominating Koufax was from 1961-1966 when he retired at the age of 30. This page may give you some idea of how absolutely incredible that part of his career was. His degenerative arthritis in his elbow ended his career at the early age of 30. When you read about the pain and the treatment he went through to pitch every turn in his rotation you can see how much of a warrior he was on the mound. In 1965 he pitched 27 complete games. There are few pitchers in this era of baseball who pitch that many complete games in their career. Koufax admits that he damaged his elbow early in his career when he tried to throw too hard instead of controlling his pitches. There is only one Sandy Koufax and like Casey Stengel said, "The Best of the lot is probably that Jew from Brooklyn." The biography Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy is a dandy. It centers around the Perfect Game in 1965 and fills in the rest of his life between innings. It is one of the better baseball books I have read in a while. This week's card of the week goes to Sandy Koufax, a few days before Yom Kippur.

9 Years Hence

There are millions of people who are writing about their thoughts 9 years ago right now. I was getting up getting ready for work. My sister in law called and said a plane had collided with one of the towers of the World Trade Center. My first thought was it was probably a small private plane, maybe it was cloudy or something in New York and he was disoriented. I never thought it was a commercial airliner.

Turning on the TV it became immediately evident that this was not an accident. A few moments later another plane hit the other tower. I was shaken, dismayed and shocked. Watching for a few moments more I knew I needed to head to the office. Then I heard about the Pentagon. Later in the morning the news came of the collapse of the towers. Even this early in the event there were people saying that the collapse could never happen from just two airliners hitting the buildings, there must be something more to this. Then there was word of a plane crash in Pennsylvania.

This date is now known as Patriot Day I suppose. I cannot imagination the pain that goes on in the families of the dead. My father in law's cousin's wife and her daughter were on one of those planes that hit the WTC. Suddenly I knew that there would be very few people who would not be touched personally having lost a family member or a friend.

The nation was now plunged into a hunt for those responsible. We are still at it 9 years later, partly because of our tenacity and partly because of our rules of engagement in war. The sad part of all this is I don't know if anything will really come from all of it. I don't think democracies can stand for very long in Dar-al-Islam, the land of Islam. By it's very nature that ideology almost requires an authoritarian regime if not a totalitarian order. I wish it were not so but the tenets of the ideology almost demand it; plus the people are culturally accustomed to it. So we'll see how the sacrifice of all of our servicemen and servicewomen pans out. I am not optimistic, but I am hopeful that Americans will rise up to a degree to protect our unique way of life.

Card of the Week

The Summer of '67. Having been a Yankee fan most of my childhood this was kind of hard for me to do back in 1967. It was a busy summer. We were living in Baton Rouge and in mid-August we moved back to Centerville, UT. I started 7th grade at the junior high with very few acquaintances. But I had Yaz. This was the summer that the last batting Triple Crown was accomplished in major league baseball. Carl Yastrzemski led the American League in batting average, runs batted in and in home runs. To be fair he tied in home runs with the Minnesota Twin's player Harmon Killebrew. My son in law would never let me live it down if I didn't make that clear, he being a die hard Twins fan. It was something that September. I got up every morning just a bit early for school to read the paper and see what Yaz had done the day before. It was nip and tuck going into the last Series of the Season. Incredibly the Twins and Red Sox played the last series in Fenway Park. It was a kinetic atmosphere to see if Yaz could hang on and do it. The year before Frank Robinson won the Triple Crown for the Baltimore Orioles, so to have two people do it in successive years would be quite a thing. He did it and it hasn't been done since--43 years. The Sox went to the World Series against the Cards. It was a 7 game Series but even with Yaz and Cy Young winner Jim Lonborg on their side it was tough to overcome an incredible Bob Gibson and a pretty well rounded Cardinals team. Card of the week is Yaz and if you want to learn who else has done this and the pitching Triple Crown winners you can go here.