Meiszus's Musings

OK, Amanda was at book club last night, and my kid was in bed, so I decided to watch a little TV. Of course nothing was on Food Network (or at least Alton wasn't on) so I was resigned to flip through the stations, trying to find something interesting to watch. Because of all the cable news channels, and because of all of the big networks broadcasting it, I was bombarded with Obama's speech to Congress. As I will later explain, I found myself so frustrated that I turned to the Wii and played a little World at War (which only heightened my frustration).

My frustration wasn't with Obama, but with the rest of the crowd there. Why is it that politicians can't give a speech in which most of the time involved is not used up by applause? I've gotta say, if I were President I would start my speeches by saying, "please hold your applause until the very end of my speech." Think about the time wasted by the constant pauses required to allow the annoying people to stand up and clap for 30 seconds every 15 seconds. Think how much more quickly they could get back to regularly scheduled programming if they weren't wasting all that time applauding. Think about how much more coherent the speeches would be without breaking up the speech constantly.

Oh and on a side note, how annoying were Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden last night? Pelosi was the instigator of so much of the annoying applause, and did you guys see Joe Biden do the wink and point. What was that all about? Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Maybe next time I will discuss my grievances with video games that trap you on a level and there is nothing you can do, no one to kill (you can't even kill your own guys) and nowhere to go.

Servus.

I know, I have received numerous complaints, some in person, and at least one on the blog. I promise this post has nothing to do with football, or about how much better the U is than the Y.

Ok, news flash... the economy is in the crapper. The Bush administration kind of screwed us over with the so-called stimulus. It didn't do anything except bail out companies that should not have been bailed out. Darwin was right in at least one respect. Businesses that can't survive should not survive. Let a new, smaller, more efficient company take over and start anew. Don't even get me started on the auto industry, oh, too late.

The American auto industry is just about worthless, so why did we just give them billions of dollars? To delay the inevitable collapse, of course. The first thing that needs to happen with the auto industry is move them from Michigan. Either move them to a non-union state or change Michigan into a non-union state. The UAW (along with most other unions) is the devil. All unions do is create job security for workers who no longer have motivation to do a good job. Wait haven't we seen this before, oh yeah, in the USSR, it is called communism and it failed. No surprise the auto industry, hampered by the UAW, is failing. See the Chinese form of communism seems to be working somewhat because those workers still have motivation. It isn't that if you do a good job you will be promoted and earn a good living, it is that if you don't do a good job you will be thrown into a prison for the rest of your life and be tortured. That can be great motivation.

The big three auto companies should be merged into one. Get rid of the bad apples and start with a new, more efficient company called American Motors. Think of the advertising dollars that could be saved just on the trucks alone. No other company truly competes with the big three on trucks (for about a year Honda tried to, but that appears to be over, and Toyota has a nitch in the market, but the vast majority of the market is tied up in Dodge, Ford and GM). If the new company took all of the good things from each of the trucks and created a new model, without any of the bad issues, there would be multi-millions saved each year in advertising costs alone. I know, there is the slight issue of a monopoly, but we can work around that. And the issue of jobs lost by those who now work for the big three? Give them a few months to prove they deserve a job. If they don't, fire them! That's the way it works in any non-union industry, and it is the American way, isnt it?

New topic. Any company that has received any amount of bailout should be unable to give anyone in the company a bonus for at least 5 years, or until the company pays the bailout back. Also, all executives should be limited in salary to no more than $1 Million annually. Since when does anyone deserve $700 Million in salary and bonuses. I don't care who you are or what you do, that is absolutely unreasonable, especially if you are then turning to the government and requesting money so you can buy a few new jets and take everyone to Vegas for a "retreat."

Hope??? I consider myself a conservative. I'll tell ya, I even voted for McCain. (On a side note, I didn't like either of the candidates.) But I came in to this administration with hope, isn't that what we are supposed to have with Obama in the White House. So why is it that the Democrats, now that they are securely in power, are doing the exact thing they accused Republicans of doing, fearmongering? Why is it that Obama insisted on passing this new stimulus bill that almost no economist, outside the administration, believes will be effective. Isn't that just adding debt to an already bad situation? Oh yeah, if it doesn't pass now, a catastrophe will occur. Isn't that exactly the type of language Democrats hated Republicans for using? I know they are all politicians and will say what they need to, but you didn't even wait one month into the new administration to start the fearmongering, the exact thing you despised in the late administration.

Now, for anyone still reading, we are all in a bad situation. The economy sucks. Jobs are scarce. Get over yourself thinking that everyone should pity you. Everyone's situation sucks right now, so quit being so selfish and assuming that your situation is so much worse than everyone else's.

For anyone still reading (i know I used that in the last bit, but I am using it again). This has been a stream of conscience post. Sorry for any ill-thought out ideas. Sorry for any grammatical errors. Sorry for wasting your time. These are just a few thoughts I had.

Servus