Major Mike’s Musings

Obama Salutes

Congratulations, Mr. President. You’re the first President that I can remember who could render a proper military salute.

If you’re going to honor the fallen, you might as well do it right.

Way to go!

Found in The Villages Daily Sun:

Berlin — Reuters

A German man mooning at railway staff in a departing train got his trousers caught in a carriage door and ended up being dragged half naked along the platform, out of the station and onto the tracks.

Dangling by his trousers, the 22-year-old journalism student got pulled along for about 200 meters, all the while managing to keep his legs away from the wheels of the train.

The ordeal ended when a passenger pulled the emergency brake.

Rescue services were called in, causing rail services between Bremen and Hamburg to be suspended for over an hour, delaying 23 trains.

Moral of the story: When your mother told you, “Just keep your pants on,”  she wasn’t whistling Dixie.

So long, Senator Kennedy.

From the White House Blog:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Seems a little Orwellian to me. Beware: don’t post anything anti ObamaCare or your web site, ip address, or email might make it to the White House suspects list.

Oh, crap . . .

Formerly called health care reform, now called health insurance reform bill has been delayed until fall. Whew. That was close. I was afraid we’d get a reform bill that nobody in Congress or the administration will have read. Maybe there’s time now to get some things right. (Warning: this is Congress, however).

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t published anything substantial in quite some time. I’ve just not been very motivated to express my observations of the world lately. Maybe I’m just lazy.

Anyway, not to break the string of insubstantial posts, here’s a fun article I found in this morning’s The Daily Sun:

Wilmington News Journal, Delaware.

In an effort to have a little fun and reverse an age-old stuffy stereotype, teams of librarians across the country are gearing up to compete this weekend in the Book Cart Drill Team World Championship in Chicago at the American Library Association’s annual meeting.

Think a blend of synchronized swimming and Rockette-style dancing.

This will be the third year the Delaware Diamonds have competed. The first year, they came in third. Last year, they didn’t place. But this year, they’re going for the ultimate prize: a gold book cart.

I think this would be loads of fun to observe.

“Remember, the reason government is funded by taxes is because it produces almost nothing that people will pay for willingly.”  — Mark Hillman

Hey Folks, in case you’re interested in the government’s massive bailout, there’s a website available. Here’s a quote from Recovery.gov:

Recovery.gov is a website that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. There are going to be a few different ways to search for information. The money is being distributed by Federal agencies, and soon you’ll be able to see where it’s going — to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors. As soon as we are able to, we’ll display that information visually in maps, charts, and graphics.

There’s even a link to the actual bill that President Obama signed today.

Ok, time for some reading.

When oil prices are going down (around $34 a barrel Friday) how come gas prices keep going up ($.35 since Jan 1)? Turns out that the $34 per barrel is for West Texas crude and they’re not making much gas from it. Instead, we’re getting gas from inferior oil imported from Canada, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and others. That oil is much more expensive, about $7 more per barrel not counting transportation cast, than West Texas crude. Why are we using foreign oil instead of West Texas crude? We don’t have pipelines in place to transport the oil out of the Southwest.

Is there any money in the massive bailout bill to build pipelines?

Looks like the market today didn’t believe the hype about the bailout stimulating the economy. Or was it something else?