douglaschick24's Blog

Are these misconceptions or myths:

#1. Fill your tank in the morning
#2. Change your air filter
#3. Use premium fuel
#4. Pump up your tires
#5. To A/C or not to A/C
#6. Bolt-ons and pour-ins

Check out the below article for myths or misconceptions

>>CHECK OUT THE CNNMONEY.COM ARTICLE

Blogging is short for web logging. Blogging is a forum where people post personal thoughts, web links, and opinion…but mostly opinion…a lot of opinion. If you are reading this, you are reading my blog. Once a blog is posted, it is up to its readers to qualify it as truth, lie, or opinion. There is generally a healthy exchanged of idea’s, sometimes followed by a somewhat heated debate of ideology, and in many cases it becomes personal.

Blog Stalkers, or blog bullies are bloggers that attack every post, fill the blog with page after page of almost incoherent ranting, (mostly angry rants regarding liberals or Bush/Cheney being Satan) and frightening away others from posting their opinions because they don’t want to be attacked, or worse…

Fox has 31 blogs in 31 cities. I have visited and read the posts of all 31. And in every city there is always one or two “Blog Stalkers” that control the mood of these websites, beat down its readers, and bully their opinions until their victims do not want to post anymore. Most blog stalkers or blog bullies use pictures of the flag, an eagle or a gun as their icon. I spoke with one Fox reporter who told me that they have ejected many blog stalkers, but only to see them return under yet another anyonomous name.

What has been your experiences with Blog Stalkers?

 With all of our dollars being sent away to other countries in our “Global Economy”, how do we purchase merchandise and keep the money here at home? Buy American! But buying American isn’t as easy as we might think, particularly when no one really knows which foreign entity, or emirates owns which corporation?

One way is to buy used. If you like a Japanese or German car, but do what your money to be sent back to Japan or Germany, you can buy a used car and keep the money in an local American economy. I just saw a 2 year old 56K Infiniti for 25 thousand dollars. 24 months old and it already lost more than half of its value. Buying a new car might help a foreign economy, but it is killing ours.

What about a good old fashion neighborhood garage sales? Ebay, Craigslist, and your local newspaper’s want ads is also a good way to keep your money locally.

Sending our hard earned money away to another country means never seeing it again.

Buying locally or purchasing used items locally means keeping your money local and giving you a better chance at getting it back one day.

Douglas Chick 

I have an Infiniti FX 35 that gets 18 miles a gal, and Land Rover that gets 13 miles a gal, and a Jeep Cherokee that get around 17. The Infiniti is the best of the 3 on gas, but at 18 miles a gallon, at near $4 a gallon, I may as well drive a Sherman tank.  

(This sounds like a country song, doesn’t it?)

The SUV trend that saved the American Car makers is quickly sending them to the grave. Because dealers are offering little for a SUV trade in, (because they can’t get rid of them) the remaining value leaves you upside down on your car loan. This balance is then placed on top of the already over priced fuel efficient cars loan, combined, you really don’t save any money.

Will the high price of gas put the final nail in the American car maker’s coffin, or force them to be more fuel efficient?

...not withstanding, why are all the hybrids so damn ugly?

Douglas Chick

 At the gas pumps in this morning, I stare at the swiftly spinning dials, and the cycle of anger begins. Oil Robber Barons strike at the pumps again. I check out at the grocery store, Oil Robber Barons impact the food I eat. I come home and watch the nightly news, Oil Robber Barons, Oil Robber Barons, something about Hilary and Obama, Oil Robber Barons.

It is true that we are a capitalistic society, and our country enjoys the luxury of a free market, but when our economy is driven by Oil Robber Barons, where is the line between a free market society and out of control greed?

The countries that regulate thier oil sales, have a stronger dollar then the U.S. (They are financially stronger than the United States.) Why, because they know their economy is based off the cost of fuel. Do we need the same regulations to protect our country, or do we allow Oil Robber Barons to drive down America until we are a weak, over inflated, hollow country, dependant on the generosity of other nations? 

After much thought, 1500 years, and waiting for a response from God, the Vatican has updated its Seven Deadly Sins.  

The original offences and their punishments

Pride: Broken on the wheel
Envy: Put in freezing water
Gluttony: Forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes
Lust: Smothered in fire and brimstone
Anger: Dismembered alive
Greed: Put in cauldrons of boiling oil
Sloth: Thrown in snake pits

  New Seven Deadly Sins

1.``Bioethical' violations such as birth control
2. ``Morally dubious'' experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty

Is this revision directed at President George W. Bush?
And do priest have there own list of Seven Deadly Sins, because I did not see “Child Molestation as a sin?

If we continue to vote for politicians that support the “Global Economy” as the business model of America, you and I will have no jobs! Being a liberals or conservative will mean nothing if the communist have all the jobs. The government leaders that bed with lobbyist are not looking after the interest of the American people; their greed has consumed them to such a scale that America is in danger of economic collapse. Economic terrorism is when you allow American jobs to be outsourced to countries.  Economic terrorism is when American tax dollars bail out foreign investors from the sub-prime crime. Economic terrorism is when the government gives you $600 hoping you spend it on Chinese made products. Economic terrorism is when gas prices are so high that it pushes a country in to a depression. And economic terrorism is when the government is too weak to stop it!

Voting for the same old politicians that caused this countries problems, will not fix them.

Four more years with the wrong president will only barcode the American Flag.  

Are you far to the right, or far to the left? After listening to your favorite radio talk show host, are you convinced that the world in doomed? Does your religious organization speak more about your participation in politicians than God? Do you or your friends often speak of how the radical media controls the world? Do these questions anger you?

If you answered yes, you might be an extremist… :-)

I read that the school system in Pakistan is collapsing and this is of great concern. Why, because uneducated people are easily converted into terrorist? Can this also be true in other countries? Can a lack of formal education, verses religious education, move people towards extremist violent acts? In the book The History of Violence, if there were such a book, I think it might read, “…most organized acts of violent are committed by the followers of organized religious.”  

I wonder, how many people I know in my daily life that feel the same passion to commit violence for their beliefs, as the terrorist do?

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com

We are a country of fat lazy Americans, even our pets are fat. Blaming the Mexican workers for unemployment and the economy is a tactic to divert blame from the real culprits. If we kick out all the Mexicans, Who will harvest our vegetables and shovel the earth, and toil the land?  Who will do all the hard work while others collect unemployment, in their government assisted homes with air conditioning? A Cuban may stay in America if he or she can reach and touch the soil. That is their only qualification, touch the land receive immediate government assistance. I’m not suggesting that Cubans do not contribute to this country, but it is pale in comparison to the labor of Mexicans. Mexican workers are an American resource.

I find it suspicious that high tech jobs, degreed, and manufactured jobs are allowed to be outsourced to China and India, but losing your ditch digging, and your fruit picking job, is an outrage. There is no greater opportunity in any other country in the world as there are in the United States. If your job is in jeopardy by a Mexican worker, then you did not take advantage to all the opportunities granted to you by being born in this great country.

Mexicans, Liberals, and Conservative are not the problem in this country. The problem is the lobbyist that convinces Washington to allow U.S jobs to be sent to China and India.

Ask your congressmen, “Where’s the Jobs!”

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com

Conspicuous Consumption Economics

Conspicuous consumption is the force that drives the U.S. economy. If the consumers are not consuming, then the economy is not moving. But it takes more then just spending to spur growth. If consumer goods are not manufactured locally, the proceeds from the sales are not retained locally. If the jobs that create these consumer goods are sent to another country, then it is that country’s economy that benefits from our conspicuous consumption. All we benefit from are a bunch of consumer goods that ultimately end up populating our land fills.

Now let's look at China's booming economy. Because so many jobs and manufacturing have been sent to China, this means that their economy is flooded with U.S. payroll dollars. Now the Chinese people have money for consumer goods. U.S. businesses may have larger bottom line profits because of overseas outsourcing and sending factors to China in the short term, but in the long term, it will be the Chinese people and their businesses that will cut them out of the middle.

A real stimulus plan for the U.S. should have long term benefits, not short term goals that borrow American money from China, and then loan it to Americans, that have to be paid back to China. For real long term growth, (This means economic growth after the elections) Factors and jobs have to come back to America. But before that can happen, healthcare has to be fixed. Healthcare costs are too much for a company to make a profit.

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com

Making the Rich Richer

On a construction site, during lunch, over 30 years ago; I sat beside my dad, on the ground, and listened while the other construction workers debated on how to disturb rich people's money. One said that he would take away all the wealth from all the rich and divide it among all the people. Another said that he would only take all the foreigners wealth and divide it because they were not American's, while even another said he would take all the money, cars, and expensive homes, sell them and then divide all the proceeds. My dad laughed out loud and said, "It wouldn't matter. You can take every penny they own, divide it equally among all the citizens in this country, giving everyone that exact same amount, and the rich would have it all back again within a year."

They all grunted and disagreed. He then continued;

"if you don't have the initiative to make the money, you certainly don't have the initiative to keep it. The first thing that everyone would do is go out and buy. You would fill you new homes with, new furniture, and new kitchen ware, and buy new cars for your new garages. You would buy all the stuff that you don't need, but always wanted, until every penny has been returned to its true owners. And after every penny is gone, you would have homes and cars that you could not afford, and then you would sell them at a much lower values until it was all gone. Then the rich would be even richer, and we would all be back here a year later, finishing this building."

So the government knows what they are talking about with this new stimulus package. 

With high tech, medical research jobs, and the vacuum created from the manufacturing sector leaving this country, the legs have been kicked out of our economy, and can not stand on its own with our manufactured products being produced in other countries. Trickle down economics is trickling down in China, India and Mexico. Our elected leaders are not serving those that elected them, they serve those that financed their election.

John McCann said it best in Michigan, “…lost jobs will not return to Michigan!”

 President Bush said it worst, “…oil prices are high because of supply and demand. The U.S. people cut back on purchasing gas, so the price went up.” Are high gas prices our fault?

You can not cut taxes without reducing government spending. You can not reduce government spending without losing support from special interest groups. Politicians can not lose support from special interest without losing needed dollars to become re-elected.

The proposed stimulus plan is not a boast for the people, they want to boast spending. Who benefits from spending? What will they do if we put that money in the bank and do not spend it? Will they issue another 150 billion dollars in government gift cards? Where are they going to get 150 billion dollars from?

http://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/

You can sign up on the site for FREE Amber Alerts sent to your mobile phone as a text message when one is issued. When you sign up, you specify which zip code(s) you would like to receive alerts for. The site explains that you do not have to enter in multiple zip codes for the same city because most Amber Alerts are issued state-wide. The website does not charge any sort of fee for this, and neither does your wireless carrier. (Except maybe standard text message rates, not sure about that. The website has some sort of partnership with most of the carriers in the US). I will most likely sign up in the near future, and I would encourage everyone else to do the same ASAP.

Insolvency

When an individual or organization can no longer meet its financial obligations with its lender or lenders as debts become due. Insolvency can lead to insolvency proceedings, in which legal action will be taken against the insolvent entity, and assets may be liquidated to pay off outstanding debts. 

What do we need to be a solvent nation again? I think we only need to follow the money trail to see the answer?