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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

detour ahead











seeing these delightful young adults enjoying life yesterday lit up my day, but unfortunately, i woke early this morning(3am)up to the same old world.

the house democrats this week folded. they went along, as they had to, with the president. the bottom line is that this continuation f the bush tax cuts isnt good in the long run.
sure, our tax rates are going to stay the same, except for the estate tax(we need to discuss the estate tax in detail soon).
the national debt is going to continue to grow.
40 cents of every tax dollar in federal taxes goes, not to retire the debt, but to pay the interest on the debt.
think about that.
i don't think this is sustainable.
congress was going to be damned if they did, and damned if they didn't vote for the unemployment extension.
2 million people would have ceased to get their jobless benefits.
since congress voted to extend the bush tax cuts, this country will be another TRILLION dollars in debt in 2 years.
this is a really bad situation.
there is no answer, except, perhaps, the old marie antoinette expression, "after me, the deluge."



secondly, this troubling recent AP item about the mental and physical fitness of our would-be army recruits horrified me.
the physical and intellectual demands for the other services are more rigorous than those of the army.
to summarize the article, 70% of the applicants cant pass the army minimum physical exam.
of those who can, 25% cant pass the basic math, reading, and science questions(example question :"If 2 plus x equals 4, what is the value of x?").
does this concern you?
what does this say about our expensive school systems, and ultimately, america's future?

http://www.youtube.com/v/OOaPMMnKunY

1 comment:

Joerg said...

Not being very bright is a reason for many to try their luck in an army, isn't it?

About the debt, yes, no matter what developed country you look at today, it seems we're f-ed. If you add up all kinds of obligations, Germans have to pay 100,000 euros of debt per person already. How on earth is that an AAA rating?