Chuck,

You are absolutely correct. The start of the end was when they stopped teaching civics in school. Kids (and a lot of adults )today have such a misunderstanding of how government is supposed to work that it is unbelievable. A couple of years ago my oldest son who was 11 at the time was given a pop quiz with a list of names. The object was to see how many of the students could correctly identify the pres. vice pres. our senators and local rep. and the supreme court justices. My son got 100% and was the only one who got over 50%. His teacher was amazed. I guess he has been listening to my conversations with wifey and in-laws. I was (almost as) equally amazed at how few kids in the class even knew the presidents name. When I was in 5th grade we learned about all our civil servants and wrote letters to them. By high school however (late seventies) I was told I did not have to take History because we were all going to be blown up in a nuclear war so live for today. A lot of the teachers of today are my age so I guess my school was not the only one teaching that nonsense.

I am teaching my kids that they must not surrender the WE THE PEOPLE part of our government. Funny thing is that I am considered a radical by most of my relatives and in-laws. How far we have slipped as a nation. There is such a disconnect from our government that I really think that if you were to go out onto the street and asked people if we are in charge of the government or if the government is in charge of us most people would respond with the later. Never mind that not only are we in charge of the government we ARE the government.

The time is ripe for a third political party. For it to be successful though it will have to stand for individual resposibilty, social justice, a ranking of rights of individual, community, state and then federal (you know how it used to be.) and personal responsibility to do what is right for the people of the country and then the world. Problem with that is there are precious people who could pull that all together and get people to follow them.

Didn't know you had basements out there on the islands. Better not jump out of one though you might get in trouble for traumetizing an earthworm.

The last house I owned, I installed solar hot water. Might do it again if I can scrounge up the money.

Solar generated electricity, only if I use it all. Selling it back to the power company is a farce. Last time I checked all you got was the fuel surcharge back. As the rates are readjusted, that drops back to 0 every now and then. (I wonder how that law came to be.)

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Tips Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Another engraver & I went to the NY giftware show today. We did not come up with 1 new product. We spoke to 3 suppliers that are used heavily by engravers. They have all dropped products that we who sell a lot of giftware use. They all gave the same reason. The off shore factories have always had large minimum orders but they were able to handle the large minimums because they knew they would sell, albeit, a little slower. Our suppliers business has dropped off to the point that they can not afford to tie up cash for that long of a period. They all felt show attendance for the first 2 weekend days was down about 20%. Neither Cross nor Colibri were exhibiting.

Did anyone attend the Vegas gift show this weekend?

We left shaking our heads and we will now brainstorm to find new product.

Dee

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Before a third party can be successful it has to have the financial backing of large political action groups. I don't believe it could compete otherwise. We would then be back to where we are now. Pretty sad isn't it!

Dee

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey,
The system I was referring to, is connected through the electric meter and when the power generated by the solar array is greater than what you are taking from the city grid, the meter actually turns backwards, thereby crediting your account with the electric company. Unless your utility has restrictions on the type of system you can put in place it should make sense.

That is too bad, and yet another example of how overly bureaucartic our country has become and it futher exemplifies how selfish special interests are...... sigh......

Move to hawaii....we can open a shop...and put solar on it.

Chuck,
Harv would do it in a heartbeat. I aon the other hand get very cranky anytime the temp outside gets over 72. I have been pushing for Alaska for years. He wants your neck of the woods.

Dee

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Now we need to get some of this forum into Congress and some idiots out of there.

Gonna have to start with the head idiot....oooppsss, sorry, he is on a 5 week vacation!

Doug

Ah, I knew there was a reason why I still liked you. (devil) 

Dave

Ed, sorry if I offended you....

If it makes your feel any better, I don't feel that we had any GOOD choices in the last go around.

And, yes, it is good to live in a country where one can speak his mind.

Doug

I agree James,

Its much better to be able to know where you stand in relationship to a person (either good or bad), than to try to guess where they really stand while they try to please everyone. IE Senator Clinton, or Kerry.

I find that it's easier to relate to someone that takes a position, even if it is against mine. At least they have principals that they stand for and believe in....Many of the current polititions are more busy keeping everyone happy, instead of defining what they stand for to solidify their support. You can say what you want about Governor Arnold,....He walked on both sides of the aisle with his viewpoints, but defined himself so people knew what he stood for, and will most likely get re-elected.

No one likes zebra's that change their stripes to suit the moment.

Brian G.

I can't say that I agree with you. And it has nothing to do with our present leader.

Do you really want a leader that can't admit when he is wrong?

Do you want a leader that does what he thinks is right, or someone that makes an informed decision based on what his constituents want?

Are the leader's decisions based on a moral compass or an ego the refuses to admit that his decision could be wrong?

History is full of leaders who marched to their own beat. Some of them became infamous for exterminating millions of their own people.

Back to the recession... Over the past for years, I have seen my costs go up on just about everything. Energy costs are through the roof, which affects everything shipped in and out of my business. Labor costs and health costs continue to rise. Local governments continue to raise taxes to cover their costs. I am making more money because I have been forced to become more aggressive in getting and keeping sales.

The tax cut that was mentioned in the thread has not done enough the trickle down to smaller businesses. I can’t even remember where mine went. Since I believe I pay a lot of taxes, you would think that I would notice if the government gave me some back.