Continuous Decline

A recent study has revealed that 39% of Americans believe that the economy is on a decline that will not be reversed. I have been through many declines and have always believed that a recovery would manifest itself in the future. Now, here is a study in which people do not believe it will recover.Of course, before there were some people that feared the end of our Country was near - but nowhere near 39%.

When I graduated from Wayne State University in 1962 some of my classmates were looking forward to recruiters that would come on campus and interview graduates for openings they had. In late 1961 we had an economic pullback and the recruiters cancelled all interviews much to the chagrin of the graduates. I had a secure job at Ford and did not suffer from that pullback. When I asked some of my classmates what they were going to do some said they would continue on and get a Masters Degree, no need to try for a job.

In 1968, the last year I was working on my MBA from the University of Miami the same thing happened, all recruiters cancelled their appointments. Once again I had a secure job this time with 3M Company. I recall the day everyone was informed that job openings were non-existent, the long faces were everywhere and some were most depressed. In neither case do I know when the recruiters returned to the campus but it could not have been too long because the economy always came back.

While I do not know for sure, there must be some depressed people in the graduate ranks of our universities. Very few companies are hiring in this economy, most are concerned with the uncertainty in the future and will marshall their resources. Perhaps Erika could comment on this post and let us know how things are going as she sees them.

The continuous decline seen by many comes from the knowledge that the Obama administration has done nothing to improve the private economy and create jobs. Three times, in the last two years, Obama has said he would focus on jobs like a lazer but has done nothing but create government jobs. He has gone out of his way to destroy industries like oil, coal, private airplanes, pleasure boats and others. (The recreational vehicle industry in northern Indiana has been greatly diminished. I used to call on them for business but many of the compaines I used to call on are no longer in business.) The business community does not know when this will all end. When I was with United Technologies I helped to make business plans for any possible upturn in demand, we wanted to have equipment and materials ready to order, space available and people already interviewed ready to go. I am not aware of any companies that are doing planning of this kind at this time.

Huntsman

Today, Mr. Huntsman announced his candidacy for President. The "Main Stream Media" are estatic with joy over this man. They have finally found a republican like Bob Dole or John McCain, RINO's all who are not able to win. He has started off like McCain who early announced that his campaign would not attack his opponent ... even refused to use that candidates middle name, Husein. McCain was saying he was above doing everything he could to get votes. His staff intentionally stifled Palin, controlling all that she said.

Huntsman never used the name of the person he was running against, only saying he was a good man and that he respected him. For me, I don't believe Obama is a good man and I don't respect him. He walked to the other side of the gorge when he announced: "We live in the greatest Country in the world and I want you to join me in fundamentally changing this Country". Why did he not tell everybody exactly what changes he was going to make? Even his hints; "Under my plan the price of electricity will necessarily skyrocket", "I want to redistribute everybody's wealth" were not clear. How strange that he should say these things when neither of these statements are powers given to the President in our Constitution.

Honor and Virtue

Our founding fathers stated in the Federalist Papers the we should elect honorable and virtuous men as our representatives. We are seeing examples of people we have elected that do not meet those standards. Even worse, some citizens openly support and defend representatives without honor or virtue because those representatives vote the way they like. The founding fathers knew that our system of government could not be sustained if weak men were put into positions of power. They were very suspicious of people that held onto power for it's own sake.

We have recently been treated, in the main stream media, to the actions of an immoral man. His actions were so odious that the unthinking population cannot get enough of this salacious story. Let us think about what it means if he is continued in office and is held as an example of how our system can be manipulated to accept almost anything, as was attempted with Bill Clinton. If Mr. Weiner does not resign he should be expelled from the House. His constituents should take a lesson and try to elect a better man.

Week 23 - 2011

Pat and I drove to the Sarasota Airport last Saturday to to pick-up Rita and drive her to her Timeshare on Longboat Key. We stayed the week with her and on the following Saturday dropped her off at the Airport for her return trip to Detroit. It was a most relaxing week visiting with the various families that make that trek every year. The accommodations have been upgraded with granite counter-tops, new pots and pans, large flat screen television in the living room, and new linnens and towels. Next year, we were told, the living room furniture will be replaced. Rita received the deed for Unit 201 on this trip and plans to bring Kelly on her next trip.

There were twenty of us playing on "Nickles Night" and, as many of you know, it was a fun evening. I won the first game and the nextt two games were a draw. Liz, Mitchel's new girlfriend, won the three ensuing pots. We used three tables to accommodate everybody, using only two sets of dice. Yes, sometimes a die would fall to the floor during a throw or transfer but it added to the hilarity. The kids become very serious when it is their time to throw and give themselves up to the excitement of the game. I claimed to have won because of a lucky nickle and the kids got really involved when that nickle started to travel toward them. Once, Sarah got it and it took some pleading to her fairness to get her to let it go. Eventually it was lost into the "pot" and could no longer be tracked much to the chagrin of the kids.

Doughnut-day brought us all together and we spent most of the morning over coffee and a doughnut. Of course, the doughnuts were all eaten and we did fall back to eating the large cakes that were provided. It was here that John brought us up to date on the plans for a ceremony in honor of Kim and Monica. It had been decided that a floral-wreath would be sent out into the Gulf waters late one evening. When that evening arrived: John, Krista, Mitchell and Colton swam out quite a ways, at high tide, to release the wreath. Everyone gathered on the beach to watch this ceremony.

On Monday, the first day the fishermen went out, they caught nothing. Doug had brought his boat and he wanted to go deep-sea fishing so that is what they did with disappointing results. Mitch had brought his boat and the next day they went to where Mitch knew they would catch fish, and he was right. Liz caught a large red fish which, according to Florida law, required it be thrown back. Mitch follows the fishing rules exactly and is not going to lose his boat for any kind of violation. On Wednesday, Liz requested she be dropped off on an island so that she could catch blue crab. She was there for two hours before Mitch came back to get her. She had netted a large amount of crabs which were used for bait and our annual fish dinner.

Thursday night was the fish dinner. Liz had cooked two large pots of fish gumbo and one large pot of chicken gumbo (for those who do not eat fish.) She had also made a large pot of stuffed crab using crab meat and shrimp. There were two kinds of hush-puppies: with onion and without. A large cauldron of oil was used to fry the fish, they fried all they had. The drink of the evening was "Beerballs", very tasty. All together, about forty-five were fed, having invited all around the pool to join us. Still there was some left over, but all the fish was eaten. There were various kinds of fish and I know I had different varieties but it made no difference, all of it was so fresh and it was all delicious.

Mike Koscianski

This morning I went to Mike's funeral at St. Luke's Catholic Church. Mike has been in my AOA class for about nine years. He recently contacted pancreatic cancer and within seven months he died. Seven months ago he weighed 260 pounds and he died at 165 pounds. He had been a smoker all his life and he was smoking at his last Bar-B-Q outing last year. He was a great host and had lots of drinks available along with the varied smoked meats. He was very competent with his huge outdoor smoker and liked to show it off.

Mike was the third male to die out of my class in two years. The other two merely fell over and died on the spot, not at the Y. Five females from the class have had cancer in the past two years and three are survivors. I have no information on how much smoking they did, I am not nosey.

Pat saw Harold chance at Church last Sunday and reported he looked to be very ill. Harold dropped out of my class about three years ago, he could not keep up. Bill McGrane is undergoing Chemo Therapy at this time and has recently returned to the classes on a limited basis.

All the above might lead you to believe we are all a sickly lot. You will have to take my word for it that the class participants lead active and contented lives. Se La Vie.

How Scared Are They?

From the day that Sarah Palin came on the scene the liberals have bent completely out of shape. They can't stand her success and want to bring her down. The day she became the Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate the democrats sent a bus load of lawyers and researchers to Alaska to ferret out any dirt they could find in order to smear her. That there was so little to exploit made them even madder. With teeth gnashing they made up stories and scenarios to portray her in a bad light to the American people. The democrats are very, very good at the politics of personal destruction and their sights are set on her. Because she is capable of raising a lot of money for the Republicans they do whatever they can to frustrate her appearances. She, on the other hand, merely continues on her merry way and lets they stew.

As Rush Limbaugh says: "The left will always tell you who they fear because it is the ones they attack."