Friday, December 31, 2010
Man Cave Report - New Year's Eve Edition
Check out my year end video of the Man Cave Report at You Tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS4jptnMEcA. 2010 was a very interesting year in many respects. Unfortunately, the actions of our
current political leaders were not very constructive during 2010. However, there may be some light at the
end of the political tunnel with a radically different House of Representatives starting its session next
week.
My video includes commentary on some of my favorite subjects including Ben Bernanke (Chairman
of the Federal Reserve), Nancy Pelosi (former Speaker of the House), the Tea Party, the price explosion of gold and silver,
ever increasing federal government deficits and debt, and failure of our politicians to provide true leadership.
Will a political leader step forward and truly lead the country out its financial abyss in 2011? Check out my video
and get my perspective on important "stuff" that happened in 2010.
I wish everyone a happy New Year and
good luck in 2011. We will all need it!
TPM
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Happy Holidays to the World Gone Crazy
I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season as we wind down 2010, a year full of twists,
turns and musings from me and others in the internet world. I am looking forward to the start of a new year next
week. None of us knows exactly what will happen in 2011, but we can be sure it will be full of surprises both positive
and not so positive.
I am listening to the new Doobie Brother's CD World Gone Crazy (thanks Laura), a great
mix of music from one of the world's greatest rock and roll bands. When I listened to the title song during live
concerts this spring and summer I could only smile. Songwriter Tom Johnston absolutely nailed World Gone Crazy.
Maybe we can help resolve some of the world's craziness in 2011. We will certainly give it a try.
Thanks
Tom for a great song. Thanks to Pat Simmons, John McFee, Mike Hossack and the Doobie Brothers band and road crew.
We will see you guys live again next year. In the mean time listening to your CDs will have to suffice.
Happy Holidays to the World Gone Crazy
TPM
1:48 pm
Friday, December 24, 2010
Cruising Around the World
Check out the new section of the web site, Cruising Around the World - One Culture at a
Time, http://www.thepurplemuse.com/id35.html. I am just getting started on developing this section of the site.
There is much, much more to come.
TPM
5:00 pm
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Updated Spin, Lies, Conspiracy and Truth
Check out my updated article Spin, Lies, Conspiracy and Truth. The article has been updated
to reflect my reading of Graham Hancock's 1995 book, "Fingerprints of the Gods". What our standard history
and religious books tell us is fact doesn't stand a logic test. There is a lot more to the story that we still
must learn.
TPM
10:30 pm
Friday, December 17, 2010
Turning A Corner?
Both the Senate and House of Representatives of the US Congress have approved the compromise
tax bill which is expected to be signed by President Obama latter today. The omnibus spending bill that Congressional
Democrats had planned to jam through the House and Senate was loaded up with thousands of earmarks. The omnibus spending
bill could not muster 60 votes in the Senate and will be replaced with a continuing resolution that will defer the big spending
decisions to the new Congress that will take office in January. It appears that the new Congress will take a more realistic
approach toward spending and start the process of reducing the deficits. I hope the 2010 election has created an environment
where the US government will be more responsible in its spending. It remains to be seen if the Congress and the Obama
administration will act responsibly in the new year. As we approach the end of 2010 we can, at least for a short
time, hope the US has turned the corner on fiscal responsibility.
TPM
11:31 am
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Education Reform Debate
We often hear our political leaders talk about improving the US eduction system or education
reform. We hear that the US is falling behind other nations when test scores are compared in critical subjects
such as math and science. The discussion is almost always in the context of spending more money on education.
I haven't heard any political type discuss the points that I believe are the true issues of this debate.
I
believe the number one issue today is the lack of desire by students, and their parents, to fully compete in the global market
by educating themselves in the most challenging curriculum such as engineering, mathematics and sciences. The numbers
of Americans attempting these difficult courses of study has declined in recent decades. I believe this trend reflects
the fact that most kids have had a relatively easy life and they don't have the personal motivation to compete at the
highest level. Students today aren't goal oriented in the same way as generations past. Many of those they do
enter into the most difficult courses of study are first and second generation immigrants that want to compete at the
highest level to move themselves up the economic ladder.
On a more basic level there is a lot of criticism
of the education system regarding the failure of students to meet standards in basic skills such as reading. My belief
is that this issue has nothing to do with the education system and is reflective of failed parenting. Any parent can
prepare a normal child for school and develop the child's reading skills simply by reading with their child beginning
when the child is a baby. This process begins with the parent reading simple books to a child.
The child and parent then read together. Then the child begins reading to the parent. Every parent that I know
that read with their children produced kids that were reading simple books before they ever went to kindergarten.
The education system didn't teach their children to read. The education system more fully developed skills that parents
had already developed in their children.
In addition, more and more parents are delegating parenting roles
to the education system. Parents are doing other things rather than taking full responsibility for supervising
and nurturing their children. We need to reverse this process and make the education system demand stronger efforts by
the parents. We simply can't afford to allow some parents to abdicate their parental responsibilities.
I
am sure there are some weak areas of the educational system but spending more money on reforms is not the primary issue.
We need fundamental changes in educational perspective on all levels particularly among students and parents.
TPM
10:06 am
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Philosophy of God
I just added my new article, The Philosophy of God, to the site.
This article was sparked after reading "There Is A God - How the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind"
by Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese. Let me know your views on this or any other subject.
TPM
10:59 pm
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
New Man Cave Report Video
Check out my new Man Cave Report video on YouTube,
http://www.youtube.com/user/JHMTPMVideo?feature=mhum. The video includes my commentary on the recent tax compromise between the Obama administration
and Congressional Republicans. Where is the financial discipline among our political leaders?
TPM
10:33 pm
Monday, December 6, 2010
Obama/Republicans "Compromise"
President Obama announced a few minutes ago that the White House and Congressional Republicans
reached a "compromise" deal where the Bush tax cuts will be extended for everyone for two years along with some
additional tax cuts passed during the Obama administration. It was also agreed that the unemployment benefits due to
expire this month will be extended for 13 months. It was also agreed that estate taxes will not revert to pre Bush
tax cut levels and that there will be a two percent cut in workers payroll tax for one year. Both Democrats and
Republicans got a piece of the pie in this deal.
However, there was no discussion about spending controls, deficit
reduction or management in the growth in the national debt. The reported estimated cost of the "compromise"
was about $1 Trillion in new debt over two years. The deficit will simply get worse than previously projected and
the debt will to expand out of control. There will be pressure on the Federal Reserve to print more fiat money
to allow this program to be financed.
Gold traded at an all time high this afternoon before pulling back a
couple of dollars. The gold market knows that neither Democrats or Republicans will control spending and more fiat money
will be printed to fund the "compromise". Yes it was a compromise. It compromised the integrity of the
dollar. The gold market predicted something like this would happen by moving higher during the past few days.
The Democrats are horribly bad on fiscal matters. The Republicans are simply bad on fiscal matters. The US government
has failed to effectively manage its financial affairs. US citizens are paying and will pay the price for all of
the debt that has been created through a reduction in the standard of living within the US when compared with the rest of
the world.
So we received a "compromise" today between the horribly bad and simply bad. Let's just
call it really bad.
TPM
7:19 pm
Friday, December 3, 2010
US Government Fails Again
The Debt Commission voted today on the proposal submitted by the co-chairs. It failed to get
the 14 votes needed for recommendation to the Congress for formal consideration. The vote was 11 For and 7 Against.
Both Democrats and Republicans voted against the proposal. Both of our major political parties failed to deliver anything
useful for the American people.
In the meantime the lame duck Democrats are attempting to force a showdown
on their proposal to increase income taxes on those making $250K or more per year while holding current tax rates for lower
income taxpayers. The Republicans are blocking the effort. Our Congress is proving itself to be a failed institution.
Neither side is offering to reconcile revenue with expenses. The deficit will continue to be very large and
the total debt continues to climb. Both sides are proving to all of us that they are clowns masquerading as Congressmen/women.
More proof that Congress is a failed institution.
Gold has climbed back over $1400 per ounce and appears ready
to move to new all time highs. See my article, The Case For Gold, for my views on gold.
The US needs a Tea
Party takeover, via the electoral process, so we can right the ship. Both the Democrats and Republicans are failed organizations
that are of little use to the USA.
TPM
10:29 pm
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Five Votes Against
Various sources have reported tonight that the Deficit Commission report will not be endorsed
by 14 of the 18 members since 5 members have already declared they will vote against the recommendation. This is
another failure of leadership by both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. There are no votes from both sides
of the isle. While I would agree that the recommendation is not optimum, I support it because it represents a reasonable
compromise today that can be improved upon in the future.
This event tells me that the Tea Party
needs to break off from the Republican party and work to take control of both houses of Congress in 2012. The citizens
of the US can't put their faith in either major party to get the US government financial restructuring task
that must be accomplished done. The current leadership on both sides appear to believe that politics
is more important than getting policy right or at least in range of right. All current politicians that have played
a role during the past ten years in creating the mess that exists today need to be removed from office through the electoral
process at the earliest opportunity.
The US political process has turned into a circus that features
a bunch of clowns with red and blue costumes.
TPM
10:43 pm
