Sunday, August 31, 2008
Our new home in Old Niskayuna
I have been reading up on slate roofs lately. I don’t know if buying a 65-year-old house in Old Niskayuna, NY with a slate roof with a 75-year-old life expectancy is going to be a very, very expensive can of worms. I kind of think it will be. We’ll see for sure after the first of November.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
President Bush is our Batman
Brian Popkin of Denville, NJ wrote a letter to the Daily Record editor that I found interesting. Here it is.
President Bush is our Batman - August 16, 2008
While I appreciate the public for making the great "Dark Knight" movie so successful, I feel many are missing the movie's point.
Batman's campaign had made the streets of Gotham safer at the night. This environment allowed for an aggressive district attorney like Harvey Dent to rise to power. Because of Batman, ordinary people like Dent were taking on dangerous crooks. He was a handsome, ambitious, young reformer. He was aided by a friendly press focused on his good side. They were not looking at skeletons in his closet. Dent reminds me of John Edwards and even Barack Obama.
People wanted to replace Batman with Dent. Batman's methods, which were allowed for years, were now considered beyond the pale. They wanted Batman locked up and prosecuted. The more the Joker's crime spree escalated, the more they wanted to acquiesce to him. The irony was that Batman was the only one who could stop the Joker.
This reminds me of our current situation. The whole world wants Obama for president. He will reverse Bush's "failed policies." These are the same policies that have created the success following the surge by U.S. troops in Iraq. These policies have foiled every terrorist attack on our soil since Sept. 11. The thinking is, now that the troop surge has made Iraq safer, we can leave. Now that people are concerned about Bennigan's [a local bankrupt restaurant] closing more than foreign policy, we can afford a president with no foreign policy experience. We can stop fighting terrorism and stop listening to terrorist phone calls. We can close Guantánamo and free the prisoners. Lock up the Batman.
The only problem is once you get rid of Batman; all you can do is hope the Joker doesn't return.
BRIAN POPKIN
Denville
President Bush is our Batman - August 16, 2008
While I appreciate the public for making the great "Dark Knight" movie so successful, I feel many are missing the movie's point.
Batman's campaign had made the streets of Gotham safer at the night. This environment allowed for an aggressive district attorney like Harvey Dent to rise to power. Because of Batman, ordinary people like Dent were taking on dangerous crooks. He was a handsome, ambitious, young reformer. He was aided by a friendly press focused on his good side. They were not looking at skeletons in his closet. Dent reminds me of John Edwards and even Barack Obama.
People wanted to replace Batman with Dent. Batman's methods, which were allowed for years, were now considered beyond the pale. They wanted Batman locked up and prosecuted. The more the Joker's crime spree escalated, the more they wanted to acquiesce to him. The irony was that Batman was the only one who could stop the Joker.
This reminds me of our current situation. The whole world wants Obama for president. He will reverse Bush's "failed policies." These are the same policies that have created the success following the surge by U.S. troops in Iraq. These policies have foiled every terrorist attack on our soil since Sept. 11. The thinking is, now that the troop surge has made Iraq safer, we can leave. Now that people are concerned about Bennigan's [a local bankrupt restaurant] closing more than foreign policy, we can afford a president with no foreign policy experience. We can stop fighting terrorism and stop listening to terrorist phone calls. We can close Guantánamo and free the prisoners. Lock up the Batman.
The only problem is once you get rid of Batman; all you can do is hope the Joker doesn't return.
BRIAN POPKIN
Denville
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Clueles Investing
I have started a blog on personal finance and investment matters. You may view it at http://simoncucle.blogspot.com/
The Democrat Party and the Republican Party
There are differences and a similarity between the Democrat Party and the Republican Party. First the similarity, both parties like to spend, and spend, and spend. That’s how their office holders get re-elected.
The differences are that the Democrats will tax you into oblivion in the here and now to support their spending. The Republicans will put your children and your children’s children into lock with their borrowing to support their spending.
At least the Democrats put their jobs on the line. If their taxing and spending get too out of hand they can be voted out of office. None of that for the Republicans, those cowards, they will be long gone and retired when their bills come due and your kids have to pay for their borrowing.
The differences are that the Democrats will tax you into oblivion in the here and now to support their spending. The Republicans will put your children and your children’s children into lock with their borrowing to support their spending.
At least the Democrats put their jobs on the line. If their taxing and spending get too out of hand they can be voted out of office. None of that for the Republicans, those cowards, they will be long gone and retired when their bills come due and your kids have to pay for their borrowing.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
John McCain's Military Service
Fred Kanter of Mountain Lakes wrote in our daily newspaper the fact that Senator John McCain served in the military does not necessarily qualify him to be President, and I agree. It is what he did not do that qualifies him to be President. While a P.O.W. and the son of a U.S. Navy admiral he had the opportunity to go home. He refused, because the Vietnamese would not include his fellow prisoners. That qualifies him to be President.
Letter to the Monterey, MA Volunteer Fire Dept.
Mountain Lakes, NJ 07046
July 3, 2008
Monterey Fire Department
P.O. Box 99
411 Main Road
Monterey, MA 01245
Dear Chief Ray Tryon,
Recently, I was vacationing with my family at Lake Garfield when I took sick at three in the morning. My wife called 9-11, and in a very short time, Captain Mark Makuc and a group of Monterey firefighters were at my side assisting me.
The people of Monterey are very fortunate to have citizens who get out of bed at 3:00 AM to help a stranger. I appreciate that they did that for me.
I am enclosing a check for $200 to add to the Department’s training and/or equipment fund, or to just have a beer on me.
Yours truly,
Joseph J. Hehir
July 3, 2008
Monterey Fire Department
P.O. Box 99
411 Main Road
Monterey, MA 01245
Dear Chief Ray Tryon,
Recently, I was vacationing with my family at Lake Garfield when I took sick at three in the morning. My wife called 9-11, and in a very short time, Captain Mark Makuc and a group of Monterey firefighters were at my side assisting me.
The people of Monterey are very fortunate to have citizens who get out of bed at 3:00 AM to help a stranger. I appreciate that they did that for me.
I am enclosing a check for $200 to add to the Department’s training and/or equipment fund, or to just have a beer on me.
Yours truly,
Joseph J. Hehir
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