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The Amazing Moe (One Minute to Read)

2/11/2014

Moe was a catcher who played in the major leagues for 14 years and also coached at the end of his career. He wasn’t a stellar player and often ended up being a back-up but he was good enough for teams to keep around. Unlike your typical professional athlete (with the exception of Steve Young), he was highly educated getting his undergrad from Princeton then graduated law school at Columbia University. He could speak
several languages and was known to read up to ten newspapers a day. Fellow ball
players always kidded around about him being the smartest and strangest player
in the majors.

Some of our baseball teams would travel to Asia and Europe playing expedition games in a variety of countries. Several Asian countries, including China, now have great baseball players. What no one knew except for a few people in the CIA was that Moe was a spy for the United States. Because they were often given a variety of tours during their stay in the different countries, Moe would conduct reconnaissance taking pictures everywhere he was allowed and also not allowed as he got on the roofs of many buildings to get shots of the layout in different cities. He’d ask questions of
unknowing cab drivers and tour directors to gain information for him to take back. This is why he could speak so many languages (I believe 11), so he could more effectively do his job.

Moe was great at what he did as no one knew what he was doing until well after he left the majors and his CIA operations were no longer classified. After all he did for our country the CIA retired him and Moe spent the last twenty years of his life pretty much poor and living with siblings. Not a great way for an amazing man to go out.

Job Lock (Three Minutes to Read)

2/11/2014

I hadn’t heard this term before the Obama Administration and several democrats brought it up; I understood the concept I just didn’t know there was a name for it. The premise is that Americans are working too hard and are stuck (Job Lock), in their current jobs and that democrats through Obama Care will help liberate us.

Job Lock has been around for thousands of years and in every country across the globe. People have always been in situations (I sure have), where they’re tied to their job for various reasons such as not having any other job opportunities because of the job market, not being able to take the financial hit to start over at a new company, and not wanting to leave the security of Job Lock. It’s rare that someone hates their job
so much that he or she is able and/or willing to take risks with their livelihoods. The fact is most people don’t have a high risk tolerance and there are millions of people who wish they had a job to be locked up in.

This all came up when the CBO stated that Obama Care will lead to at least 2.3 million jobs lost. The Obama Administration immediately got into a crisis mode and spun the supposed loss of jobs into a good thing. Keep in mind they always seem to question the CBO’s numbers when the story isn’t good for them but quote them when the news is what they want everyone to hear; in my world this shows a lack of integrity.

Their overall story is since people won’t have to worry about the costs of medical insurance they’ll be able to work less than 40 hours a week. They brought some emotion into it by saying parents can spend more time at home with their children and they’ll have more time to pursue their dreams. Just my opinion but most people still wouldn’t chase their dreams with the extra hours they’d get because typically their dreams wouldn’t put food on the table. The greatest part of dreams is the dreams themselves.

I hope most taxpayers won’t buy into this because it would mean the dumbing down of America has been a huge success; their only real accomplishment. Here are some reasons what they’re saying is so ridiculous:

People can’t automatically decide one day to work 35 hours a week. Why would their employer accept someone dropping down to those hours when their current job requires 40+ hours a week? I spent most of my career in salaried positions and I promise you I’d have to resign because my employers would never have allowed me to
reduce my hours. So the biggest selling point they have at this point is the
flexibility to get out of the 40+ workweek when it isn’t true…only a politician
who knows little to nothing about the private sector could come up with
something this crazy.

They said instead of jobs being lost there would be job gains because if people do leave their current positions it will create a void for other people to come in and fill. I beg of you to read this sentence again because understanding what they’re saying is critical. There won’t be some mass exodus of employees pursuing their dreams so what they’re saying isn’t true but more importantly is this: it wouldn’t create more jobs people would just shift around from one job to another; it’s kind of a redistribution of jobs. Jobs are created by the private sector so unless they come up with a spot for someone out of work, there are no new jobs just a bunch of people hopping around thinking
the grass is greener somewhere else.

I can certainly come up with more but these are some major reasons why what the democrats are saying are completely off base. Sometimes I think they’re playing a shell game with us where they know they’ll make money because more times than not someone won’t guess the right shell. Of course most republicans can point it out every time.

Do you remember the 1982 film “Best Little  Whorehouse in Texas” with Dolly Parton? For those of you who don’t know it, it’s not a real racy film it’s just a great comedy. The governor (Charles Durning), in the film is just like a lot of politicians today; a conniving man taking bribes and misleading people. Side note…a lot of people don’t know this but
Durning was a war hero who helped invade Normandy and get the German’s out.
Anyhow, he sang a great song in the movie that should be the theme for Congress
and that is: “I just take a little side step, now you see me now you don’t.” Both parties use smoke and mirrors it’s just that democrats are at a point where you can’t even see your hand in front of your face because of how thick the smoke is.

There are some very important questions we should be asking the democrats. First of all I’d like to know if one of the reasons Obama Care is so extraordinary is that it can unlock people from being stuck in their current jobs then why wasn’t this mentioned on their last two campaign trails? If this is such a good thing why not shoot for five million jobs lost? It’s so amazing how ignorant they think people are; if I were a
registered democrat I’d be livid at how little they respected my intelligence.

Then there’s the issue of the CBO’s report. They have the right to have them re-run the data and ask them to evaluate their claims and release a report legitimatizing what the Obama Administration has been saying but they haven’t done this. They know the numbers wouldn’t help their cause. If I were the republicans I’d have the CBO investigate the claims democrats are making and expose them for their deceit. Why not, this would be so easy to do.

Only the government is crazy enough to think it’s a great idea to reduce productivity. One of the democrat pundits on Meet the Press said employees in the United States work harder than any other industrialized nation and it’s not right. First of all he’s wrong, take China and India for example. Regardless, yes we’ve been productive and yes we’ve been the most prosperous country in the world and it would take an idiot not to understand these two are intertwined.

One of the economic indicators that helps determine the health of our nation which in turn directs our borrowing rate, is our nation’s productivity. If our GDP is going up that is a good thing but if the amount of people in the workforce goes up along with it our productivity can end up flat. They want to see each of our employees become more
valuable…producing more goods and services. You know how it is in the private
sector companies are trying to do more with less (an increase in employee
productivity E.P.), because they become more attractive to the stock market
and/or potential buyers.

The bottom line is that “Job Lock” is one of the most ridiculous stories I’ve heard
democrats try to sell. I hope the masses realize this. Maybe independents and
more middle of the road democrat voters will see it for what it is and base their next polling opportunity on this. Both parties have their levels of spin but the democrats have taken it to record breaking heights. And think about it, what is spin but a tale which is also known as a lie. Doesn’t it bother you that our representatives lie to us pretty much on a daily basis…with the exception of Friday afternoons and weekends? Sad.

The Amazing Moe (One Minute to Read)

Job Lock (Three Minutes to Read)

Author: John Mann

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