THE CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN!

THE CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN!

(Frazer Chronicle)

Nobody ever accused me of "over-dressing," I do own suits, dress shirts and 2 rather spiffy top coats, but why over-dress, I don't dress to impress, never have, never will. That said.....I do understand that some people just can't seem to get past the idea that some professions should be dressed for.

Priests, traffic cops, judges, doctors and I guess American politicians all seem to have some sort of uniform for their particular jobs. Thank God I was pretty much a lowly working stiff most of my life and seldom was required to wear any type of particular clothing.

Oh sure, there were a few times when I was required to wear a stuffy shirt, suit jacket, a tie and dress pants, but that was on rare occasions, and I always protested with some sort of unorthodox underclothing, like miss-matched socks, underwear turned inside out or shredded, and sometimes no underwear at all.

Let's be honest, most of us simply don't trust people with suits, they seem too crafty, or shifty.....you know.....sales people. I equate "suited" people like I do lawyers, car salesmen, or insurance people.....not to be trusted. It's always been that way, you can check the history books, and it’s almost a state law that sales people have to be "suited," as do lawyers. And how far are you going to trust your lawyer, or your car salesperson, "not very far."

Some of the world’s worst dictators in the 20^th century were also "suited," but in completely different regalia. These jokers wore military uniforms complete with what is called "breast lettuce," combat metals, good conduct badges and I'm sure some stuff that really doesn't mean a thing.

The list of 20^th century bad boys reads like rouges gallery, each with several undeniable traits linking them all together.....military uniforms. With few exceptions each man was ruthless and killed hundreds of thousands of his own people.

Now in keeping with my isolationism way of thinking, however many people these dictators killed doesn't really matter to me. Sure it's a tragedy and a waste of human resource and a blight on the human race.....but can a country really step in and mess around with another culture, nobody did that with the United States, even though the black and the red man have suffered terribly at the hand of the white man.

The list of these "boys" who wanted to play "dress-up" is long and is hideous and millions have died or suffered under their military weight. The list is formidable and blood-thirsty, sick in mind and with no heart:

Adolf Hitler

Joseph Stalin

Benito Mussolini

Saddam Hussein

Idi Amin

General Suharto

Pol Pot

Of course there are more, but in my opinion these were the worst.....I added Pol Pot just because I think the name is cool. Who in hell would have the cojones to go by the name "Pol Pot," my hat's off to the guy.....even though he was a crazy S.O.B.

The one thing each of these guys had in common was the fact that they wore military garb and seemed to worship military activity, action and planning. And in most cases, they were the absolute final voice in any military decisions.

Sure there are more of these 20^th century jokers, I mentioned as much, but the really bad ones seem to favor a military uniform. They are the easiest to spot, and therefore the hardest for, at least, "me" to understand. How could people not see right through them, and not pick up on who they are or how they were leading their people?

There they are.....right in front of us, easy to see, and rather easy to understand, yet, for most people, they neither saw, nor understood. Each grew out of political unrest, bad economies and a poor job market....."Uh oh," that's kind of where the United States is today; guess we'd better start watching for those "uniformed darlings" in the media.

So let's see, we either have uniformed, or "suited" people running the governments of the world and according to me neither can be trusted.....wow that isn't very good. Just once I would like to see a completely (casual) guy step up to the political plate and hit a home run.

Of course, as with everything else, after a few of these casual guys, they couldn't be trusted either, they'd fall into the power thing, the money thing, and the position thing.....and they'd start wearing a suit.....or a uniform. Sadly, I guess the clothes do make the man.

IT'S A GREAT GAME!

IT'S A GREAT GAME!

(Wall Street Journal/Frazer Chronicle)

It's a great game.....until you lose, and then it's quite a drag. C.E.O.'s actually have to answer questions, fess up to mistakes, and take personal hits on their decision making processes. It almost makes them glad that there is insider trading and secret tips.

To me, a regular guy.....an everyday Joe, I wonder how in the world these people can lose such huge amounts of money and continue to breathe the same air as I do. I'm sure that they turn their backs to the mirror when shaving in the morning so they don't have to "face themselves."

Of course we aren't talking about "regular guys" here, these people that can lose money at billions of dollar rates are the very paragons of investment institutions, the captains of Wall Street, the movers and shakers of the industry of making money.

About this time some of you might be wondering exactly what the hell I'm talking about.....well my sports page reading friends let me tell you.....J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, Jamie Dimon and at least a 2 billion dollar loss in wagers gone wrong.

The wager, betting on continued economic recovery, that's right.....continued recovery, to a degree, the attitude was based on "me and you" spending money at an increasing rate. Are they crazy, I live from payday to payday, when you factor in my health, my attitude, the speed of the wind and the temperature, even I don't know at what level I'll spend.

According to Dimon, the bank's strategy was "flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored." What struck me about Jamie's remarks was the one that addressed the "complexity" part of his answer. Did you ever notice how complex banking practices are today, or as I call it, "job security."

The minute a C.E.O. begins to talk about his companies business and uses the word complex, the word has several different meanings, and one word always comes to mind.....cover-up. You also could use the term(s) "butt cover, blame shifter, or get out of jail free card."

The best thing this time is that only stock holders were affected......and I say "this time," because next time you and I could be left holding the bag for some fool hardy lame brained effort to make buckets full of money on a shaky investment scam.

Like politicians and Wall Streeters, Bankers have a major "bolt" loose, they aren't (normal) like us; they have some sort of vision of grandeur, an almost untouchable attitude. As long as we rely on pathetically weak governmental agencies to police and patrol these jerk-offs.....we are in trouble.

Jamie Dimon called J.P. Morgan's mistakes "egregious, self-inflicted," and said, "We will admit it, we will fix it, and we will move on." Yeah right, until the next opportunity at making billions, no matter the chance they might have to take.

Banks need to return to what they used to do, make comfortable profits from lending money to us so that we can be saddled with house payments for the rest of our lives. That's the true American dream, buying a house for a hundred grand and over a 30 year period, paying over $450,000 for it. That was always the best investment, investing in America, the middle class and strapping our collective "asses" to the debt treadmill. Whatever happened to the good old days?

It is a great game until you lose, but most American's aren't interested in playing that game, the betting on some idea, a trend, an attitude, or a possibility. Most Americans want safe stuff, stable stuff, sure things in their lives, most of us simply don't have enough money to wager on “what if's”.

Actually Jamie, your "egregious," and you need to be fixed, probably with a broom in hand and a hallway to sweep up.



PLUTO DEMOCRACY?

PLUTO DEMOCRACY?

(Cliff Schecter/Frazer Chronicle)

Silly me, to think that Pluto could be a term for a form of government here in the United States, the term sent me searching my dictionary for the meaning of Pluto AND Plutocracy. I kinda figured I had a handle on what Pluto meant, "It is one of the 8 or 9 planets that travel around the sun in their separate orbits." Pluto however has been declared a dwarfplanet since sometime in 2006 and doesn't count as a full blown planet anymore.

When science keeps changing things it kind of makes it hard to keep track of what actually is going on in our world.....and sky. Now they’ve come up with a new term to explain how a countries’ government is being operated, and by who.

Pluto was discovered back in 1930, not so long ago in scientific terms, I'm not sure when the word Plutocracy came into use.....maybe it was discovered too, I don't know. One thing is sure, Pluto is definitely a planet, unless you count it as a dwarf, and then it's not quite a planet, but it's bigger then a bread basket.

A Plutocrat can also be small.....I suppose even a dwarf, but still can have the same political clout as a person 6'6" tall, it's funny what money can do in today's world. Plutocracy is a government run by the rich, the wealthy, the hoy-ploy, the elite, or Daddy Big Bucks. These people are a select and private group of people who somehow have come to the realization that they should run everything.

I'm not sure why these people (after all these people are some of the richest in the world) would even want to piddle around in politics. Not all rich people dabble in politics, some however do, "dabble" just for the fun of it.

I've seen these people (in pictures); they might be standing off to the side, or right at the podium making some sort of speech in a rather dis-jointed fashion that will however.....effect millions in the not too distant future.

When the rich, or the wealthy wield power at the top of our government only bad things happen to us, the working stiffs. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "the wealthy have absolutely nothing to gain by sharing their wealth."

EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING today is slanted towards the wealthy in America, don't even start to kid yourself. I'm not sure why the wealthy wanted to soil their hands with keeping us down, but they sure the hell have.

It's laughable today, many wealthy people figure that the have-nots in America want their wealth.....and it's just not true. Eight out of ten Americans want to earn their money; they don't want it given to them. Six or seven out of ten people want to earn their own benefits, like healthcare or other insurances. Through taxes, however, these same people feel that they are contributing their fair share to things like transportation and military spending.

The average taxpayer in the United States however does not feel that big business and the wealthy are paying their fair share, and as the divide continues, the feeling festers. Be advised you wealthy "got rocks", people on the lower end of the totem pole are getting tired of supporting you.

Whether it's Pluto or a Plutocracy type government, people will only take so much.....and then change the rules of the game. "You don't really think you’re in charge, do you?"

 

CORPORATIONS TAXES, CONFUSION AND REAL INFORMATION!

CORPORATIONS TAXES, CONFUSION AND REAL INFORMATION!

(Laura Tyson/Forbes.com/Frazer Chronicle)

In the aftermath of Mother's Day, I thought it might be interesting to write about a subject that should be "near and dear to our hearts," the corporate tax structure. That's right, the one subject that economists, professors, federal law-makers and lawyers have so much fun with. The one subject that everybody says is by far the most complicated issue on the planet.

How can someone as uneducated, not an economist.....and to boot, have very little money even have an opinion about an issue that is so completely convoluted, well let me tell you, "I kept it simple." That's right, when these M.I.T. graduates, when these Harvard lawyers were setting the ground rules for the issue and when corporate lobbyists were pushing the hell out of the question of taxes on Capitol Hill, little ole me simply kept it simple.

Here's how it works.....call it a guide to complete understanding, I guess I could be called something like the "Zen Master" of finance, or the "Grand Pooba" of tax law. First and foremost you have to come to grips with the truth about corporate America, corporate region, or corporate world. Every corporation, no matter the size, no matter the product.....the end result is always the same, cash.

Cash has been the bottom line for corporation since the idea's inception, corporations have always been a stealthy operation, hiding money, spreading involvement and deflecting blame. It, corporations, have never been about making more jobs, or re-investing in the business. "If I can make a dollar off somebody else’s labor and sweat, I'm damn well going to maintain the operation as is.....unless I can squeeze another nickel or two out of that worker without spending any money.

Corporations have been, and always will be in the game of business for them.....that's right, "the game." I worked for this family one time, they had a bunch of rental apartments and whenever the father and son talked about expansion, they both got glassy eyed expressions, talked about government subsidies, and how they could circumvent regulations and do things "on the cheap."

Nowhere in their conversation was there any talk about paying for the added work that staff would need to carry out, only about how much money these two jokers were going to make. I knew at that moment that there were two kinds of people, workers and bosses. Those people that were willing to ground up whoever and whatever was necessary to achieve a financial goal, and the rest of us. Needless to say, "It was an epiphany," and fodder to a cynic like me.

How it works.....how the corporate tax rates work is really simple, corporations, "which are people," the government says so, so it's gotta be true, has created for them, loop-holes, write-offs, off shore accounts and overseas offices to avoid taxes. It's perfect, they have their cake and eat it too, "whatever that means," I guess there cake is tax money they don't have to pay, and then they get to keep that money.....as well.

To put the question of tax payments in the proper prospective for people like us, let's say that I make $50,000 a year and my tax rate is 20%, I would pay $10,000 in income tax, which would leave me $40,000 to live on.

Now if old Mr. Got Rocks makes $1,000,000, and he pays 40%, "twice my rate," he still takes home $600,000 to live on, I wonder which life style is better, mine or his?

This question of taxation is not, I repeat.....NOT complicated, it's simple dollars and cents, the guy that makes a million "space bucks" needs to pay more, has a responsibility to pay more.....for the good of the country.

That's where Democrats and Republicans always part ways, whenever the question of what business is responsible for.....first and foremost.....always for themselves and their cursed bottom line. A simple solution.....move off shore, establish a corporate office overseas, bank your money in foreign accounts, "Stay the hell out of the United States." We don't want you, we don't need you, and you sure as hell can't sell your products here.

We are a strong people; we have the resources to get knocked down and get back up and reinvent ourselves. We always have, people always have.....throughout the world, it's time we remembered that fact, and really who's in charge. We can do anything when we set our minds to it.



DEBT CEILING AND A SEWER BACKUP, ONE IN THE SAME!

DEBT CEILING AND A SEWER BACKUP, ONE IN THE SAME!

(Washington Post/Lisa’s Used Cars/Frazer Chronicle)

A year ago and more the debt ceiling was at $14.3 trillion dollars here in the U.S., a figure that few Americans can comprehend, but it has to do with deficit spending, borrowed money, interest, and how the hell we as a nation will ever pay it back.

I do not pretend to be an economist, a book-keeper or one of those forensic accountants, of course maybe they are pretending, because absolutely nothing is getting done to fix the problem and later this year we are going to need another couple billion to keep things rolling in our government.

Deficit spending is nothing new, it's been around since 1917.....money needed to be borrowed for.....come on, take a guess.....ah, you know the answer.....it’s coming, and it’s on the tip of your tongue.....here it comes.....WAR.

The United States didn't have enough money to make war against Germany and her axis powers, so in 1917 the United States Congress approved borrowing, giving the country "flexibility" in the war effort. However the government did set a limit, called the established limit, "can't go over that established limit."

My point here is that a debt limit has been around American government for 97 years, it's not new; the debt ceiling has been raised on numerous occasions, for hundreds of reasons. The difference today is that the debt ceiling issue is being used like a basketball, bouncing back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.

The real problem is that the question of "when will the money be paid back" never is answered, and the country just keeps paying the interest, which by now is as big as some small countries annual operating budgets.

WHO IS OWED THE MONEY, AND HOW MUCH DO WE OWE?

Pension funds, mutual funds, American investors, hedge funds, foreign investors and foreign governments for the most part "own" American debt. China and Japan own upwards of a trillion dollars each in American debt.

Neither Japan nor China are worried about U.S. opinions with regards to how the two countries run their governments, or how oppressive they might "seem" to their people(s), we owe them too much. Of course another way to look at the situation is that the United States won't have to worry about going to war with either country as long as they stand to lose billions of dollars.

I owe about $45,000 dollars for my portion of the debt and my wife owes the same. But my daughter, with a husband and two kids owes in excess of $180,000, and they’re worse off than my wife and I, they have longer to live and pay on the debt, I guess there is some justice after all in the world.

No wonder American citizens are supposed to "pro-create" the government needs those extra wallets to help pay down the debt. I wonder if all of those people clamoring to become citizens of the United States from Mexico and South America know about the instant debt that they will inherit when they take the oath of citizenship.

The problems that we have, the debt that has been laid at our feet, and, of course, at 68 I helped create some of that debt. It seems almost insurmountable, and it may well be.....only time will tell and it won't be in my lifetime.

I do know that austerity programs, those suggested by the Republicans absolutely won't work. I also know that the Democrats are part of the problem and not the solution, and we the people also share in the problem that is our debt.

SEWAGE IN MY KITCHEN!

Ah simple things for simple people as in the E-mail I got from my brother-in-law the other day, picture it:

A guy comes home, discovers his neighborhood has a sewer backup problem, he opens the back door and is hit in the head with a load of crap, "That's right; the ground floor of his house has been inundated with feces."

"How could that be?” you ask. Well the E-mail did come from New Mexico and maybe their sewer systems are different then here in the Midwest. But that's not important, "how to get the crap out of his kitchen," that's the real problem.

Now this guy, with the kitchen full of poo decides that there is a message here about the debt ceiling and his kitchen. I don't get it.....but it's his story, and I'm sure he ain't changin' it. Anyways, the guy figures Democrats don't understand the debt ceiling, (some) Republicans don't understand the debt ceiling and some Liberals don't understand the debt ceiling.

All the while remembering that his kitchen is full of crap from the floor to the ceiling, he stands there, just outside his kitchen door, up to his knees in crap pondering what he should do, and I guess trying to equate his problem with that of the debt ceiling in the United States.

All of a sudden the solution comes to him either raise the ceiling or pump out the crap, "Your choice is coming next November, don't miss the opportunity to do the right thing."

I'm not sure I get it, unless he has a really small kitchen, exactly where does the guy intend to "pump the crap." Raising the ceiling, even for the short term would seem to be out of the question, but pumping a crap load of crap outside doesn't seem to be very wise either.

Gee maybe the Democrats, Republicans, the Tea Party, the Liberals and whoever else should sit down.....together.....and hammer out a solution.....now that is a novel idea.



RAPTOR, A DINOSAUR BY ANY OTHER COLOR!

RAPTOR, A DINOSAUR BY ANY OTHER COLOR!

(Global Security/Examiner/Frazer Chronicle)

Whenever I think of a Raptor, I think of the N.B.A.'s Toronto Raptor's basketball team, or the lizard-skinned, big clawed dinosaur that stood somewhere around 6' in height. In actuality, the real raptor is the size of a chicken, covered with feathers, and wasn't as smart as the Jurassic Park movie made them. They didn't hunt in packs, couldn't turn door-knobs to open doors, and weren't near as smart as the movie made them.

The raptor in today's United States Air-force referees to the stealthy combat jet plane actually called the F-22 Raptor. It's super stealthy, super fast and super expensive and seemingly, now has a super danger in the quality of oxygen fed to the pilots in the cockpits.

The vitals of this truly amassing plane are quite awesome, ceiling, more than 10 miles, speed, Mach2-plus, (more than 1300 miles per hour, 70,000 pounds of thrust from 2 Pratt & Whitney f119-PW-100 turbofans with afterburner and thrust - vectoring nozzles, "other than that there are two of these engines, I have no clue what I just wrote down," but the system(s) makes the plane fast as hell.

The armament for this flying "battle wagon," 20-mm cannon with 480 rounds, 2 sidewinder heat seeking missiles, 6 AMRAAM radar-guided missiles, or 2 1000 pound satellite - guided bombs and 2 AMRRAM missiles. Hey, I don't understand all the jargon, I just report it, and needless to say the raptor can knock the fleas of a gnats butt at 600 yards.

Until a year or two ago, a pilot's biggest fear was putting a scratch in the F-22 Raptor, "you can't use 'bondo' in a scratch on plane that costs $339 million dollars. That's right folks; this dinosaur bird is the most costly fighter of any airborne plane in the world. The B-2 bomber costs $2.2 billion, but it's a bomber, and not in the same class as the F-22.

There are "about" 183 F-22 Raptors either on the ground or in the air at any time during a 24 hour period in the United States today. What are they doing up there, well mostly having war games, or super fast surveillance.

Nobody in the world has a plane like the F-22 Raptor, nobody is even close. Did you ever play 1-1 basketball with a kid 10 years old when you were 18.....you won every time, the 10 year old was no competition. It's the same for the United State's Raptor and the rest of the world, America wins every time.

The F-22 Raptor is like Burger King (you can have it your way). The F-22 is virtually invisible to radar, super-computers designed the airframe with materials, angles, curves and surfaces that reflect or absorb radar signals, yet are strong enough to take plenty of punishment.

Engineers have developed a new kind of radar that allows the F-22 to track enemy aircraft and locate ground targets without revealing its own location. Computers operate the plane and the cockpit's 4 flat screen displays show the pilot where friendly jets and enemy fighters are located, available weapons and other information. Each pilot can “customize” the displays to his liking.

Obviously the F-22 Raptor does more than any other fighter plane in the air today, or any other plane in the history of air combat, unless you believe in the Starship Enterprise and Captain James T. Kirk, or the Klingon's "cloaking devise".

Lockheed-Martin is the lead contractor for the aircraft with Boeing handling about a 3^rd of the work. The Raptor is assembled in Marietta, Georgia, from sections built there, Texas and Washington state. There is a plant in Pinellas Park, Florida which assembles the planes canopy and about 1000 subcontractors in 42 states that supply parts for the jet.

The Air Force quotes the "flyaway costs", the price for only the airframe, engine, electronics and maintenance equipment, as $133 million, but that figure does not include research, development, and testing costs, which are also footed by the taxpayer.

Government auditors and taxpayer watchdog groups prefer to include all costs and come up with a hell-of-a lot different figure then either the Pentagon or the Air Force. The total cost for just one of these flying fighters, nick-named after an extinct chick sized bird, $339 to $361 million dollars.

And now, after all the research, after all the testing and more than 30 years of efforts on many people's parts, it seems as if the lack of oxygen has put the entire fleet of three hundred something million dollar fighter jet in peril.

Last year the entire fleet of F-22’s was grounded over the problem of clean, fresh, breathable air for the pilots while flying the super jet. From September 2011 until December 2011 the planes sat idle on the ground while tests were conducted to figure out what was going wrong.

A new charcoal filter was introduced into the air system and the planes were put back into the air, but all the filters did was cause the pilots to cough, the dizzy feelings, the disorientation was still felt.

Maybe like the chicken-sized raptor dinosaur, the F-22 is also a dinosaur.....but at a hell-of-a lot bigger price tag. Keep up the good work Pentagon.....your sure to break the bank sooner or later.

CAN SCOTTY COME OUT TO PLAY TODAY?

CAN SCOTTY COME OUT TO PLAY TODAY?

(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel/Charles Jylha/Frazer Chronicle)

Have you noticed that stairs are getting steeper, groceries are heavier and everything is further away? A task that used to be exercise free gets you to blowing air at an ever increasing pace. The walk to the corner thunderstruck me with the fact that our streets are getting longer, they have to be, how else could a walk that used to take five minutes now takes ten.

I'm sure that is how Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker is feeling these days as continued "heat" dogs the Walker camp down in Madison. To the governor's credit, I'm sure that he and his people feel that his "platform" is a just cause and in some twisted way, he really believes that by cutting well over 200,000 jobs from the public sector will bring prosperity to the state.

Of course, Walker is deep in the battle to keep his position in Wisconsin state government by fighting off recall efforts, which will be voted on in early June. No matter the money that has been raised on his behalf, no matter the backers, no matter the luminaries that trumpet his qualities, Scott Walker is in a fight for his political life.

The "dogs are at the door" four separate polls conducted by the Marquette Law School, one each for the first four months of 2012 show that Walker went from a 50/50% approval rating in January to a 47% approval rating at the end of April.

Is this a surprising result for Walker and his administration.....well if it is, then Scott truly is "sleeping" at the state switch. De-regulating the unions, in effect making them, unions, lose what little power that they did have, making union dues a personal decision, "state agencies no longer deduct dues from paychecks," cutting teaching positions and slashing department employees throughout the state tends to "piss" people off.

On June 4^th Walker will reap the benefits of his rather radical agenda, he will be recalled and there will be a mass return to the democratic ways, which I might add will make the state no better, just swung to the liberal point of view.

Walker will wake up on June 5^th 2012, the day after his re-call election feeling that people his own age look so much older, some friends won't even recognize him.

Scott Walker has made some bold moves during his 16 months in office; sadly all of his moves have been "slanted" towards business. The shock-wave that Walker sent across the state of Wisconsin truly "shook some things up." Austerity programs sometimes are necessary, but to target mostly one group of people is not only unfair, it's stupid.....you get recall events.

I believe that Scott Walker the governor will soon be a man with plenty of time on his hands.....and will have spear time to devote to games, games like softball, or touch football in the park and be able to take long walks on the beach.

We will never really know how the Walker plan would have worked out; Walker was way too brash and bold for his plans to work in Wisconsin. For Scotty's sake, I hope that he has cultivated some friendships, because he sure as hell is going to need friends to occupy his time after June 4^th. 

I GET THE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE FROM THIS!

I GET THE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE FROM THIS!

(Chicago Tribune/New York Times/Frazer Chronicle)

While I was driving around town the other day, I was listening to my favorite radio station, "N.P.R." The guest (I don't know his name, his position, or from which organization he came from) said something that almost drove me off the road and into a grove of trees.

The statement was so bizarre that it left me almost speechless, almost, but not quite, it did however set me to thinking and I guess that is a good thing. I wondered just how far off this guy was, or maybe how far off I was in my thinking, after all, I have been known to make the occasional boo-boo myself.

Well it turns out that this joker was so far off base that he is laughable and like I said, I don't know who this guy is, or where he comes from, but he'd better go back there. At last count there were more than 140 countries that "entertained" a contingent of American troops.

That's right, from Cuba to Afghanistan, from El Salvador to Canada to Luxembourg, if there's not a McDonald's opened, there soon will be, cause American soldiers love their Mickey D's. To be fair, many of these occupations are manned by small contingents of American military personnel, but they still are on foreign soil and the meaning is undeniable.....the world's police force is watching.

The simple answer to occupation is that in most cases the vast majority of personnel are embassy guards, students or instructors at military schools, trainers or liaison. Talk about your "foot-print" American not only has a foot-print, but the foot is wearing combat boots.

And this N.P.R. guest, this guy I don't know the name of, or who he represents made a bold and bald faced lie, in one statement he set back the truth by at least 4 decades. He said that "America does not occupy countries," he did quantify his statement by saying that "since the war on terror, the U.S. has occupied both Iraq and Afghanistan, but that was because of the attack on September 11, 2001.”

OBAMA TURNS PAGE:

President Obama traveled to Afghanistan, Tuesday to hammer out a defining moment in the war on terror, in our relationship with Afghanistan, to "herald in a new future between the two countries, one without war, a new chapter."

There is only one problem with the "agreement," it involves American troops, American tax dollars, American troop deaths and American soldiers being injured. "My fellow Americans," Obama addressed soldiers against a backdrop of armored military vehicles and an American flag, "we've traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war, yet here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon."

It is true that troops will be withdrawn in 2014; it is true that less activity will mean less chance for death or injury from hostile action. It is also true that fewer troops, less military activity will mean less tax payer dollars.....yet the door remains "ajar" from which to launch new military attacks.

Afghanistan has been a warring society for hundreds of years, a country of tribes, and a wandering people who seemingly come and go as the wind does. The Afghan people will not become brief case carrying stock brokers overnight, if ever, and that's okay, their lifestyle is different from the average American's.

America does not have a "victory just over the next sand dune" in the Middle East, what we have, pure and simple is an interest, an interest in oil, and we want it.....oil. It's apparent that America’s need for petroleum products has overburdened our thought process. Obama blames Al Qaeda for our presence in the Middle East, as George W. Bush used to say, Al Qaeda, "they hate us, they want to kill us."

What Al Qaeda wants is for American soldiers to get the hell out of their country, they want the senseless collateral killings to stop, and they want to be left alone.....just like most Americans. The U.S. military killed Osama bin Laden a bit more than a year ago.....big woopy, the killings go on, the horrific injuries to both military and civilians continue.

The United States is not, I repeat, "not" the policeman of the world, we can't afford it and anyways, maybe, just maybe the world doesn't want our police-type help. Maybe just to be left alone, to continue down whatever path their societies lead them....."Gee," much like the good old United States of America did.