The Way I See ItBy cj pollickLargo Central Park – If you would like to drive your young children to enjoy Christmas lights and other splendid holiday displays, then visit Largo’s Central Park. Largo leaders have again supported a wonderful holiday display at their Central Park. Don't Forget Small Businesses During The Holiday - Although there are many holiday shoppers thinking that good sales are only found at Wal-Mart and other such stores, that is simply not true. There are good discounts this shopping season at most every local business. More importantly, local business owners are a part of our local community fabric beyond just selling goods. Try shopping at our local stores before looking at Wal-Mart and other such discount stores-- you might find that the prices are nearly the same. Small business owners have cut prices trying to compete for your business during this holiday season, let's not forget how important they are to our economy. Don’t forget our locally owned restaurants too!! We have some great locally owned and managed restaurants. Try them over the holidays! Deep Freeze In North - If you believe Al Gore, we are in a state of global warming. Of course, many noted scientists from MIT and other fine schools from around the world disagree with Al Gore, they believe global warming and cooling trends run in cycles -- and we have very little impact in controlling those cycles. For example, last year was a record-breaking snowfall year for Maine and other New England states. This year is another record-breaking snowfall year for upper Pennsylvania (over 60 inches of snow) and western New York (plus upper Great Lakes states.) Lots of snow in those places plus below freezing temperatures resulting in ice and electric problems to about a million households. Warming trend? Don't ask citizens in New England, upper mid-west states or Canada. Wall Street’s Biggest Ponzi Scheme? - No, it is not 70-year-old Bernard Madoff's investment pool for the super-rich. He only lost about $40-$50 billion of investor funds due to his pyramid scheme that lasted over four decades. How about adding The Big Three auto makers to the list of schemes? Then again, why not add AIG and a host of large financial institutions to the list of mismanaged and/or corrupt financial organizations that have lasted over four decades. Was Madoff alone in his plan to deceive investors? No, there were probably many others involved--just like Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, AIG, the auto makers, many banks, and a host of other large US businesses that traded stock on public exchanges with audited financial statements. Message from our US Congress? Those companies are too large to allow failure. Bail them out. Our National Economic Mess Gets Worse By The Day - President G. W. Bush says he will find funds to help bail-out Detroit auto makers. That move is so Bush-like. He rushes in to confront an issue that top economists say can't be solved by lending taxpayer’s money. President Bush will likely loose billions of taxpayer funds by his executive decision to help failing auto makers in Detroit. (And, they hate Bush.) There was a time, it seems like years ago, when the few remaining supporters of Bush thought he might not be regarded a worse President than former President Jimmy Carter. Not true, Bush will be remembered as worse than Carter. Obama? He is busy fighting-off implications of potential collaboration by some of his top advisors with Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. Yes, it appears that some of Obama's top advisors did have conversations with the Illinois Governor to help pick Sen. Obama's replacement to the US Senate. Some of the names of people seeking (or willing to pay for) the senate seat have been made public. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. allegedly #5 on the list of people discussing a pay-off to the Democrat Gov. of Illinois (or his wife.) In fact, news of this scandal has been kept rather quiet by major newspapers across the country in order to help protect Sen. Obama from any taint of impropriety with Gov. Blagojevich. Of course, many of Sen. Obama's old friends have been kept on the back-burner by media sources, but, sooner or later, history will record those names. Imagine the news if Ronald Reagan had gone to Rev. Wright's church for over 20 years and never objected to his radical anti-American, anti-white preaching. Imagine if Ronald Reagan had friends associated with radical Bill Ayers who bombed a US building injuring many innocent people. Imagine if Ronald Reagan had any association with a Governor trying to sell a senate seat? Right, he would have probably lost the election to Carter and America would have not of had one of its best Presidents . . . and we would still have a 50% tax rate. These Are Difficult Times – The national recession of 2008 is getting worse and 2009 could become the year when most every American feels the sting of what many Americans experienced in the early 1930’s. “No, not that bad,” say some folks who remember those terrible days when simply providing food and shelter was a monumental task for able workers. Those of us in our late 50’s and early 60’s heard talk about those days from our grandparents and parents. Horrible stories, we could barely understand. Perhaps we are getting a better picture of the 1930’s as we work through 2008 and 2009. USF VS Memphis On Saturday – For the many loyal USF fans, there are still tickets available for the St. Petersburg Bowl (USF vs. Memphis) on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Tropicana Field. GO BULLS. |