Huh?

Posted on by Standard 12
  • question1Why do Detroit parents allow their teachers to take instruction days off to protest union matters when only 4% of their students are proficient in math and 7% in language arts?
  • Why does my small Montana town have “Essential Air Service” taxpayer subsidies costing thousands of dollars per airline ticket when we average only one passenger per day? (Lewistown News Argus 12/8/2012)
  • Why doesn’t the number of administrative employees decrease in government offices, due to improved technology and communication, as it does in the private sector?
  • How can our nation afford all the countless grants our cities and counties are receiving every day for frivolous projects in light our staggering debt?
  • Why is military pay so pathetic?
  • How can we expect citizens to make good financial and voting decisions, and contribute to our national standard of living, when our K-12 schools provide no economic education?
  • Why aren’t airplanes boarded in order by window seat, middle seat, and then aisle seat?
  • Why do liberals think it is abusive to expect women to buy their own birth control, but are okay with genital mutilation, oppression, and murder of women by Muslims?
  • Why don’t senators let our military close and sell base properties that they don’t need or want?
  • Why does the Obama administration consider a couple who makes $250k per year “rich”, yet an individual is not rich until he or she earns $200k per year?  (Fewer couples are married now anyway – shouldn’t single “rich” be “$125k?  Or shouldn’t married “rich” be $400k?)
  • Why does the federal reserve think that keeping interest rates near zero is a good thing?  Should people be punished for saving money?
  • Why are we concerned about minor skirmishes in the Middle East but we ignore deaths by the thousands in neighboring Mexico?
  • Why do liberals have no problem with actors and athletes making millions of dollars, but are indignant when a business owner or executive does?
  • If liberal rich guys think they should pay more taxes, why don’t they just write a check?
  • After labeling the Bush tax cuts as “only for the rich” for all these years, why do liberals now insist on keeping the Bush tax cuts mostly in place?  Are they admitting that the evil tax cuts helped everybody?
  • What is the benefit to the United States of giving more F-16 fighter jets to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt?

Just askin’.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

I’d like to know,
Can you tell me — please don’t tell me
It really doesn’t matter anyhow

Questions 67 and 68 – Chicago

Shrinkage: Our Embarrassingly Tiny Attention Span

Posted on by Standard 4

Have you heard anything lately about the September 11 debacle in Benghazi?  Me either.

In the weeks before the election, Obama and Clinton told us repeatedly that they would have to complete an investigation before they could explain why they lied repeatedly about the attack and the American deaths. benghazi_attack_us_politics_2012_09_12

Did they ever complete the investigation?  Is there an investigation?  Would they reveal what was learned if there actually was an investigation?

Maybe citizens think that Obama won, so there’s no point investigating any further, or even discussing what has been uncovered.  Congressmen Issa and Chaffetz appeared to be very interested in getting to the bottom of the disaster.  What happened?

Certainly the mainstream media will not besmirch their anointed ones.   In the absence of any news, we Americans will either assume the matter has been satisfactorily resolved, or will forget it ever happened, our tiny attention spans distracted by the latest “crisis dujour”.   The story would be buried forever but for reporting by bulldog conservative blogs such as Brietbart.com.

Here is a great synopsis and reminder of the severity and importance of the Benghazi story, and the cold-blooded complicity of our administration:

Let’s not let this important story, or the memory of Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods, fall victim to attention span shrinkage.

Thanks to EG Pettis

Tom Balek – Rockin On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Ba de ya, say do you remember
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, never was a cloudy day

September – Earth Wind and Fire

We Were Takin’ Care of Business

Posted on by Standard Reply

beatrice_memorialI spent a good part of my early career working for one of America’s greatest businesses – Beatrice Companies.  For most of us in Montana and the western U.S., the face of Beatrice was Meadow Gold Dairies.   While the Meadow Gold brand still exists in some areas, Beatrice is long gone.

The Beatrice story is classic, from its birth in 1894 as a small creamery in Beatrice, Nebraska, to its zenith in the 1980s as a huge multinational corporation encompassing companies and brands such as Avis, Playtex, Culligan, Tropicana, Airstream, Peter Pan, and many other household names.  The company’s ultimate demise was rapid, and the cause has always been pretty much a secret.

A Beatrice manager with a stellar record became CEO in 1980.  According to my very reliable sources at the corporate office in Chicago, he became mentally unstable shortly after taking the reins, and the rock-solid management corp at the top crumbled rapidly.  His actions were erratic, his decisions bizarre – certainly not consistent with the buttoned-down, well-disciplined playbook that had worked so well for almost a century, or with his own management record.  The company’s consistent growth and profits began to wane, and in 1986 Beatrice was acquired in a hostile takeover.   In a leveraged buyout funded by the sale of “junk bonds”, it was split up and sold, and the over-funded defined benefit plans were plundered.  I left the company just as the final axe fell.

There are many life lessons to be learned from the Beatrice saga.  The Beatrice business methods and philosophy were “old school” and tremendously effective.   Every Beatrice manager learned:

  • Hire good people, and treat them well.   Allow them to share in the success.  They will be loyal, responsible, and productive.
  • Promote and move your managers between locations.  They will take the best attributes of their previous company and add them to the strengths of their new company.
  • There are no short cuts.   The details of the business are where the money is made.
  • Accounting and controls are vital.  Count everything.  Never allow an opportunity for someone to get in trouble.
  • Quality is never sacrificed, but the path to profitability is to be the low-cost producer.
  • Competition is a good thing – it allows those who work the hardest to succeed.  And profit is the result of planning and hard work, not luck.

Using these guiding principles, the company grew and thrived.  We were always challenged to improve performance, and were rewarded when we did.  The lessons I learned from Beatrice served me well for the rest of my business career.

In today’s dismal economic environment, when we all question whether our nation’s best days are behind us, I take comfort in my memories of Beatrice Companies.  Profit is not evil, it is the life blood of our economy, and the source of wealth.  The “old school” business formula worked – for employees, for employers, and for the nation.  It will still work, if we don’t screw it up by throwing roadblocks in the way.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
And we’ve been takin’ care of business, every day!
Takin’ care of business, every way.
We’ve been takin’ care of business – it’s all mine!
Takin’ care of business, workin’ overtime.

Takin’ Care of Business – Bachman Turner Overdrive

Profit! What a Concept!

Posted on by Standard 3

GoodJobI recently visited with a high school “job coach”.  This instructor works with local businesses who provide part-time jobs for students to give them an introduction to the working world.  Many years ago as a high school business teacher I had a similar program – back then it was called “distributive education.”  I found it to be a great learning experience for my students, and some moved right into good jobs with their sponsor employers upon graduation.

I asked the job coach what kind of preparation the student receives before embarking on the job.  It was not a trick question, but the teacher was caught by surprise, and really didn’t have an answer.   I admitted that my recent experience with school jobs programs as an employer had not been very enjoyable.  The student-workers I was assigned were arrogant, lazy, and not really interested in learning anything.  It may have just been the luck of the draw.  I did my best to get them on track.

At the end of our visit, I offered a suggestion to the instructor.  Having been on both ends of the equation – as an employer and a job coach – I think the most important wisdom one can impart to a student, or any job seeker, is an understanding of why a business exists.   Most students (and adults for that matter) when asked “why is that grocery store there?” will answer “because we need food.”

And there lies the problem. 

I gave my new job coach friend the correct answer:  that grocery store exists to make a profit for its owner or investors, who seek to feed their families and improve their standards of living.

It’s a subtle, but important distinction.  Yes, we need food.  But that doesn’t mean someone else is required to give it to us.  Free markets only work when each of us offers something of value to someone else.  We must all be producers of wealth or added value.  Those who succeed understand this concept clearly.  Want to make $5 million a year throwing a baseball?  You had better be good enough that people will fork over big bucks to watch you.  Do you want to own a business?  You’ll do great as long as you offer what a customer wants to buy, at the right price.

Do you want to have a job?  Then you had better understand that the only reason someone else will pay you is if you help them make a profit.

And that was my suggestion to the job coach.  “Make sure your student goes to the job with the knowledge that his or her purpose is to make money for the employer.  And that employers share their profit with their employees – the more you contribute to profit, the more you will be rewarded.  The employer owes you nothing, but he is always looking for somebody who will help him make money.  When you both are making more money, and spending it, the economy grows and everybody does well.”

A light bulb lit above the job coach’s head.  “Why, I never thought of that!  What a great idea!”

Yes, it’s a great idea.  It used to be what made the world go around.  Some may think it’s “old school”, but I’ll put my money on free enterprise, supply and demand any day of the week.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
Big Time, I’m on my way, I’m making it,
Big Time, I’ve got to make it show yeah!
Big Time, so much larger than life,
Big Time, I’m gonna watch it growing!
Big Time, my car is getting bigger!
Big Time, my house is getting bigger!

Big Time – Peter Gabriel

One of the quirkiest, and most popular, videos ever!

American Patriotism – born 7/4/1776, died 11/6/2012

Posted on by Standard 3

graveyardAmerican Patriotism died on November 6, 2012, after a long battle with complications of liberalism.

Born in 1776, in the thirteen colonies of the United States of America, Patriotism was a major contributor to the rapid growth and success of the nation.  Because of Patriotism, citizens sacrificed for their country, and took great pride in their joint accomplishments.  The United States became a beacon for democracy, personal freedom, and opportunity and led the world in economic and technological advances.   Over the course of his life, American Patriotism caused millions of proud US men and women to join the fight to save other nations from tyranny.

In Patriotism’s declining years, the concept of “fairness”, where all citizens shared in the work and cost of running a nation, as well as the rewards, was replaced by a culture in which a shrinking group of workers was expected to take full responsibility for the welfare of everyone else.

On December 5, Detroit city councilwoman and former mayor JoAnn Watson presented the eulogy at Patriotism’s funeral.  She spoke eloquently on behalf of the liberals of the United States, extolling their leader, President Obama, to take money from those who have earned it, and give it to those who have not, merely because they voted for him.

“Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president and there ought to be a quid pro quo and you ought to exercise leadership on that . . .  After the election of Jimmy Carter, the honorable Coleman Alexander Young, he went to Washington, D.C. He came home with some bacon,” said Watson. “That’s what you do.”

Patriotism is survived by Shameless Greed, Selfish Laziness, and Blissful Ignorance.  He was preceded in death by Personal Dignity, Christian Values and Responsible Media.

The monument reads,

American Patriotism
1776 – 2012
“Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You
Ask What You Can Do For Your Country” – JFK

Aside from a group of veterans, the funeral was sparsely attended, and prayer was not allowed.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all gone to look for America

America – Simon and Garfunkle

Canada and Mexico: Hey, Remember Us?

Posted on by Standard Reply

north-america-mapHere is today’s current events quiz:

  1. Who is the political leader of the largest exporter of oil to the United States?
  2. Who is the political leader of the second largest exporter of oil to the United States?
  3. Which nations are the top two importers of U.S. goods?

Answers:

  1. Yesterday Enrique Pena Nieto was inaugurated as president of Mexico.  He promises to create jobs and fight poverty in a nation that suffered 60,000 violent deaths and crushing corruption during the six year term of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon.  Some say he is just another insider and not much will change.  Have you heard anything about our southern neighbor in our mainstream media or from any of our own political leaders?
  2. Stephen Harper was elected prime minister of Canada in 2006 and is now serving his second term.  An advocate of individual freedoms and government accountability, Harper’s administration enjoyed considerable fiscal success early in his presidency, but lately Canada has been held back by the slowdown in the U.S. and world economies.  How many times has President Obama met with the leader of our northern neighbor and largest import customer?  I can’t find reference to more than one meeting between the two.
  3. See numbers one and two above.

Few Americans know the answers to these questions because WE GET NO REAL NEWS.  And because WE HAVE NO REAL POLITICAL LEADERSHIP.

I am embarrassed every time I visit Canada and find that my friends from the Great White North know infinitely more about what’s going on in our country than we do about theirs.  Actually, they seem to know more about our government and events than most Americans do.

Recently a friend from Australia lamented to me that he and his wife drove around the United States for ten weeks this summer and never heard a single word about his home country in the news.

If this is how we treat our best friends, is it any wonder we have so few of them?  And that those we have are lukewarm, at best?

Earlier this week I railed about our critically injured sense of priorities. What should the top priorities of our President be?  He seems to spend most of his time campaigning, either for election or in support of his “tax the rich” non-solution to our economic woes. He engages in small social issues that affect very few Americans and don’t address the thundering herd of elephants in the room – unemployment, debt, and runaway government spending.  His priorities are climate change, fairness, and social engineering.

A true leader would be learning about, supporting, and working hand-in-hand with our North American friends and neighbors.  We should forge a regional alliance to take advantage of our human and natural resources to compete economically with China and Europe.  We should stand side-by-side before the world in support of human rights.  And for God’s sake, why aren’t we helping Mexico become the thriving democracy it should be – not only for our own economic well-being and security, but because it’s the right thing to do for a neighbor and friend?

I’m afraid our friends have, rightfully, lost confidence in us.  It’s time for all Americans to demand that our political leaders reset their priorities.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
As you walk on by, will you call my name?
As you walk on by, will you call my name?
Or will you walk away?  Will you walk on by?
Come on – call my name. Will you call my name?

Don’t You Forget About Me – Simple Minds

There Is No “Candy Man”

Posted on by Standard 3

prioritiesThese days we often seem to bounce around in life’s pin-ball machine, feeling that much around us is out of control.   We are distracted by a barrage of information as the media pulls us this way and that.  Generally, whichever news story has the hottest video footage or the most startling sound byte is pumped up to become the “important” story of the day, or the week.  Example: Sandra Fluke and her birth control.

I’m as guilty as anybody else.  I get upset and pumped up over things that are insignificant, both on a personal scale and in the bigger scheme of things.  When I find myself getting a little over-wound, I find it helpful to do a personal priority check.  What are the most important things to me, and in what order?

My top priorities always pertain to my family.  Are we healthy?  Are we safe from physical harm?  Are we financially okay?  Are we generally happy and fulfilled?  Are we preparing for our future?

Our brilliant founding fathers established a government that is “of” the people, and that carries responsibility.  It is our duty as citizens to prioritize the makeup and the work of our government.  Maybe it’s time we do a government priority check.  What are the most important things that our government should do, and in what order?

I look at government the same way I do insurance. I see government as a way that I can spend a portion of my personal resources to do the things I can’t do by myself.  Individually I can’t defend the borders of my neighborhood, much less my state or nation.  But I am willing to join other citizens to give some of my time or money for that purpose, because it is a priority for my family.  I can’t build a highway.  I can’t put out a big fire.  I can’t do brain surgery.  You get the picture.

Of course I can only spend a portion of my time and money on these shared priorities, because I have my own personal priorities to attend to.  So my government priority list is fairly short.   Our brilliant founding fathers had a short list too; it’s called the Constitution.

Lately I find that many of my government’s top priorities are way down my family priority list, or not on my list at all.   Our leaders operate like the “Candy Man”.  They believe they can keep adding benefits to those already in place, without limit, and without having to prioritize.  Irresponsible voters endorse that fantasy, but realists know it can’t go on.

It’s time for a good, hard look at priorities.  Our own personal priorities come first, of course, and our government priorities are an extension of that.  As we consider each government activity at our schools, our city and county commissions, our state and federal governments – as we consider the “Fiscal Cliff” – we must compare our government’s priorities with our own family priority lists.  If they don’t match up, we owe it to our families to do something about it.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
The government takes everything we make
To pay for all of their solutions
Health care, climate change, pollution,
Throw away the Constitution!
The Government Can – Tim Hawkins

EPA Puts Bicyclists On Endangered Species List

Posted on by Standard 5

I pulled out of the Costco parking lot in Helena and stopped at the stoplight.

“Geez,” I exclaimed to my wife.  “Look at all the painted lines through this intersection.”  Cars whizzed by left and right as we waited out the light, blinking and screeching and zooming through at the last second, or even a little late.   It was barely-organized chaos.  I looked to my left, and there was a narrow lane with a bicycle icon – RUNNING RIGHT THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF A SIX-BY-SIX LANE BUSY INTERSECTION.

I was startled.  I tried to picture riding a bike through that mess.  Heck, driving a car through there is practically suicidal.  What kind of moron would take that chance on a bike?  For that matter, what kind of moron designed the bike lane?  And how many days of the year can you ride a bike in Helena, anyway?

Welcome to the crazy world of AGENDA 21, under the innocuous title “Complete Streets”.  It has taken root in most cities in Montana and across the country.

While you were asleep, or watching football, or shopping, your city leaders were feverishly studying the Agenda 21 and ICLEI guidelines set out by the United Nations and a worldwide network of socialists.   They don’t really know why they are doing this, but they have to keep the promises they made in exchange for a couple thousand bucks from George Soros.

Agenda 21 is a very ambitious and complicated plan.  Think “We Can Change the World”.  The main goal is “social justice”, where rich nations give their money to poor nations:

All states and all people shall cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living and better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world. – (Agenda 21 – Principle 5)

In order to make more of our wealth available to transfer to the poor nations, we rich nations need to cut back on extravagances, like driving around in cars. That’s where “Complete Streets” comes in. If we ride bikes instead of driving cars, then we will have left-over money to send to the Congo so they can drive cars. Plus, we will create less pollution, so that all the new cars in China won’t need expensive smog controls.

As a Montanan, it’s hard for me to understand the merits of these crazy bike lanes.  So I put on my Socialist Cap and tried thinking “globally.”

I considered that if more bike riders are killed, it reduces the pressure humans are putting on Mother Earth.  Yeah, that’s it!  That’s why we need bike lanes!

But wait, that would reduce the number of Democrat voters.  Hmmm.

I’ll have to think about this some more.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

There’s too many ahead of me
They’re all tryin’ to get in front of me
I thought I could find a clear road ahead
But I found stoplights instead

Expressway To Your Heart – the Soul Survivors

Looking For Benefits?

Posted on by Standard 1

For some time now, President Obama and his PR department (the mainstream media) have contended that our nation’s biggest problem is inequality.  Not unemployment, not lack of GDP growth, not the national debt and deficit, not the growing number of people on food stamps and other government assistance.  The most important problem, according to them, is the gap between the rich and the poor.

Defining rich and poor is subjective and difficult.  Most often lately, “rich” has been defined as a couple who earns more than $250,000 per year.   Presumably the threshold is lower for singles.

“Poor” is almost never really quantified.   Some of us are old enough to remember the television ads showing skinny Appalachian kids leaning on stick-built porches, wearing rags and sad faces.  I’m not saying those were the good old days, but times have sure changed.  Kids on food stamps today are, as often as not, obese.   Recipients of federal disability payments has increased by 50% in the last ten years.  Since January 2009, the number of individuals on food stamps has skyrocketed from 31.9 million to the current record high 47.1 million. By comparison, in 1969 just 2.8 million Americans received food stamps.

If you are reading this, I’m pretty sure you have never seen the federal government’s “Benefits” website (see graphic above).   The banner headline is:  “Looking For Benefits?”  Apparently plenty of people are – 70% of federal spending in 2010 went to “dependence-creating” programs, compared to 28% in 1962.  Our Secretary of “Labor” (see Hilda Solis’ statement above) now promotes benefits, not labor.

According to the 2012 Index of Dependence on Government:

The great and calamitous fiscal trends of our time—dependence on government by an increasing portion of the American population, and soaring debt that threatens the financial integrity of the economy—worsened yet again in 2010 and 2011. The United States has long reached the point at which it must reverse the direction of both trends or face economic and social collapse.

Programs considered “dependency-creating” are federally paid housing, health care and welfare, retirement, federal payments for higher education, and agricultural subsidies.  One could argue that retirement is not a benefit, because it is supposedly self-funded.  Or that agricultural subsidies are not a benefit – but much of that budget is food stamps, and the rest is mainly farm subsidies to large corporations, both of which cause dependency.  I can think of other spending that creates dependency too, like corporate bailouts and other government investments in chosen industries. In any event, we are looking at the same spending categories from 1962 to 2010 – and they jumped from 28% of the budget to 70%.

We can argue until the subsidized cows come home about what is fair, or whether taking property from one American to give it to another is even constitutional.

But anyone who thinks we can continue our current spending habits, or continue to encourage the use of government benefits – regardless of how much tax is paid by the “rich” –  is dangerously ignorant.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow
And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow
This place is cruel no where could be much colder
If we don’t change the world will soon be over
Living just enough, just enough for the city.

Living For the City – Stevie Wonder

Those Wacky Guys at Pravda

Posted on by Standard Reply

Today’s headlines:

USA still tries to destroy Russia from within, through NGOs

“Obama Phenomenon – Hope and Disappointment”

“Israel’s Terrorism Internationally Condemned”

“Russia to Return to Afghanistan After US Occupation”

“Japan Gets Into Cat Fight With Every Neighbor”

You may have already guessed that these headlines are from Pravda, the Russian news source.  I have been quick to criticize our US news media, blaming the demise of our fourth estate for many of America’s ills.  We no longer have an informed populace.  Much of our nation gets its news from the Comedy Channel, and it’s probably just as well.  Yes, the state of our news industry is grim.

But it could be worse.

Every once in a while, just for grins, I pop over to Pravda’s English-version website.  I can’t quite figure out what the Russian writers are up to.   Their “news” stories are all editorials, without any pretense of impartiality or need to present facts.  I’ll bet the journalism classes at Moscow University are a hoot.

This exerpt from a typical Pravda hard-news story is an example of the unbiased and fact-driven reporting Russians enjoy with their morning coffee:

How can the disaster of a genocidal war in Gaza be prevented? In last 4 days they (Israel) have bombed non-military targets in Gaza killing 41 Palestinians, among them 28 civilians including eight children and a pregnant woman, had been killed in Gaza since Israel began operations. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday. The world will have to make a choice. One way to put Israel into its place might be the decision of the UN to support the demand for an independent Palestinian state. This would give the Palestinians security and a standing in the world to speak for themselves. It definitely would contribute to peace in the region and the World.

The funny thing is, Pravda also includes an “Opinion” section.

You know, maybe we should check the college transcripts of the staff over at MSNBC – any U of M (Moscow) grads, do you think?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I’m living a life of constant change
Every day means the turn of a page
Yesterdays papers are such bad news
Same thing applies to me and you

Yesterday’s Papers – the Rolling Stones